apache 2 and cgi not working

[Eric Cheney <cheney@soc.umass.edu>]

Hi People.  I'm trying to migrate from Apache 1.3 to Apache 2.  I
cannot get any of my perl-dbi cgi scripts to work.  For example, I
have a file called test.cgi, which is kind of like a "hello world"
thing.  That script and many others run fine on another deb-box
running Apache 1.3 but I can't get it to work on my Apache 2
configuration.

The Apache 2 box I have processes html files fine, so I know that
Apache is basically working, I just can't get cgi with perl to work.
I can get the perl files to execute from the shell or console; just
not with Apache 2.

I've searched the web and done all I can to get it to work, could
someone help?

I'm on a Sid box.

I am using the apache2.conf file in /etc/apache2 that comes with
apt-get procedure.   I have uncommented a line that reads 

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi

found in apache2.conf.  

I read the README in /etc/apache2/ and see that I can include
additional directives by putting script files in /etc/apache2/conf.d
.  Which is what I've done.

Here is the contents of my script file living in /etc/apache2/conf.d
with the extra directives I believe I need to get cgi working.

****BEGIN SCRIPT FILE*****

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"

<Directory "/">
    Options FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
	AllowOverride None
</Directory>


<Directory "/var/www/">
Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks +ExecCGI
AllowOverride None
Allow from All
Order allow,deny
</Directory>

******END SCRIPT FILE*******

I know the above script is indeed being read because I've
intentionally broken it to test this idea and sure enough Apache
won't start with it broken.  

In the directory /etc/apache2/mods-enabled I have the following
links to /etc/apache2/mods-available....

cgi.load   cgid.load  perl.load     userdir.load
cgid.conf  perl.conf  userdir.conf

It's not a permission problem; the permissons on the cgi files are
0755.  

I get this error message posted to html from Apache:

"Forbidden 
You don't have permission to access /test.cgi on this server."

And then from /var/log/apache2/error.log I get:

"....Options ExecCGI is off in this directory: /var/www/test.cgi"

So what don't I understand?  
-- 
<Eric Cheney>   cheney@soc.umass.edu        http://sociostat.org/~eric/