To begin, let's grab the latest version of modpython. We will need to get the SVN version of modpython as the last previous versioned release has a problem compiling on RHEL5-based systems. Since cPanel servers do not come with Subversion installed by default, we'll need to satisfy that pre-requisite first. Due to cPanel building Perl modules from source, we will be unable to install Subversion via Yum and must do so from source.

yum -y install neon neon-devel
cd /usr/src/
wget http://subversion.tigris.org/downloads/subversion-1.5.9.tar.bz2
tar xjvf subversion-1.5.9.tar.bz2
cd subversion-1.5.9 && ./configure --with-apr=/usr/local/apache/bin/ --with-apr-util=/usr/local/apache/bin/ --with-ssl --disable-mod-activation
make && make install

Now we can proceed with getting mod_python.

cd /usr/src/
svn co https://svn.apache.org/repos/asf/quetzalcoatl/mod_python/trunk mod_python
cd mod_python/

Now it is time to configure and build modpython. Normally we just need to tell modpython the location of the Apache apxs binary, but if you have additional build requirements, be sure to specify them on the configure line.

./configure --with-apxs=/usr/local/apache/bin/apxs
make && make install

make install will place the compiled DSO in the appropriate modules/ directory under Apache. All that is left to do is to tell Apache to load it as a DSO module. Edit /usr/local/apache/conf/includes/pre_main_global.conf and add the following:

# Mod_python (from SVN) support
LoadModule python_module modules/mod_python.so

Finally, restart Apache (/scripts/restartsrv_apache) and then double-check the module is loading OK:

root@server1 [~]# /usr/local/apache/bin/httpd -t -D DUMP_MODULES|grep python
Syntax OK
 python_module (shared)