In the Apache HTTP Server API, the handler is a specific kind of hook responsible for generating the response. Examples of modules that include a handler are mod_proxy , mod_cgi , and mod_status .

mod_lua always looks to invoke a Lua function for the handler, rather than just evaluating a script body CGI style. A handler function looks something like this:

example.lua

-- example handler
require "string"
--[[
 This is the default method name for Lua handlers, see the optional
 function-name in the LuaMapHandler directive to choose a different
 entry point.
--]]
function handle(r)
 r.content_type = "text/plain"
 if r.method == 'GET' then
 r:puts("Hello Lua World!\n")
 for k, v in pairs( r:parseargs() ) do
 r:puts( string.format("%s: %s\n", k, v) )
 end
 elseif r.method == 'POST' then
 r:puts("Hello Lua World!\n")
 for k, v in pairs( r:parsebody() ) do
 r:puts( string.format("%s: %s\n", k, v) )
 end
 elseif r.method == 'PUT' then
-- use our own Error contents
 r:puts("Unsupported HTTP method " .. r.method)
 r.status = 405
 return apache2.OK
 else
-- use the ErrorDocument
 return 501
 end
 return apache2.OK
end

This handler function just prints out the uri or form encoded arguments to a plaintext page.

This means (and in fact encourages) that you can have multiple handlers (or hooks, or filters) in the same script.