(Mostly OT) Re: perl and apache2 on ubuntu 17.04

[hippo]

i am fairly certain i have perl installed (although i have no clue how to check).

Run perl -v and you'll find out.

oh yes - i wish to not have to "sudo" into the conf files all the time ...

Run sudo -i. Don't forget to exit when you are done. This is not secure but it'll do what you ask. Better to amend sudoers to increase the timeout - but that's more advanced and for another day.

i had little to no problem just uncommenting "LoadModule cgi_module modules/mod_cgi.so" in the httpd.conf file...but, none of these lines exist in the apache2.conf file

Ubuntu has its own unique way of laying out apache. If you stick with that, then use a2enable to enable modules rather than editing the conf files. You will also need SetHandler in there somewhere, maybe ubuntu does that for you too, so grep the whole conf tree to find it.

Most of this has very little to do with perl. You can just as easily write a demo CGI in bash (say) and you'll have the same problems. If you need ubuntu-specific help you will have better luck asking on an ubuntu forum such as askubuntu. Good luck.