Oh yeah:
To make your scripts output more sensible information to the screen/error
logs you can put the following "use" statement at the top of the CGI:
#!perl -w
use strict;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
CGI::Carp will make sure that actual Perl errors go to your browser and
error log. Also, try running your scripts from the command line as such
"perl -c script.cgi" before trying to actually run them. The -c option tells
Perl to compile without actually running. It can save you alot of time.
If you've downloaded the scripts from some online Perl-CGI repository than
"use strict;" will most-likely break the script, and "-w" will most likely
fill your logs with crap you're not looking to find.
But they can help out alot if you're looking to write clean scripts.
Basically if you're sure that you're sending the appropriate headers
("Content-type: text/html\n\n") before you print to STDOUT, then your script
is probably dying prematurely without spitting out any content at all.
Hopefully "perl -c script.cgi" will tell you why. If not then you may want
to resort to putting * print STDERR "Reached line: ",__LINE__,"\n"; * at
strategic areas in your script so you know how far it's getting in execution
before it's untimely demise.
-- Ryan
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ryan Parr" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Ivica Bukvic" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 3:18 AM
Subject: Re: Configuration problem -- HTML embeded cgi script calls not
working [using default MDK/Linux 8.1 (Apache 1.3)]
>
http://httpd.apache.org/docs/howto/ssi.html#configuringyourservertopermitssi
> for more information than I'm writing out...
>
> You need to have (somewhere in the main configuration section) the
> following:
>
> #
> # To use server-parsed HTML files
> #
> AddType text/html .shtml
> AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
>
> Then make the suffix of your files .shtml. You can do:
>
> AddType text/html .shtml
> AddHandler server-parsed .shtml .html .htm
>
> to make all of your files be server-parsed. This can be a huge slowdown if
> your site gets many hits.
>
> You can take out the <Location /index.shtml> altogether. Also, in your
> /cgi-bin alias, don't do "Options ExecCGI" even though that probably works
> fine. You might be better off with the following:
>
> #
> # ScriptAlias: This controls which directories contain server scripts.
> # ScriptAliases are essentially the same as Aliases, except that
> # documents in the realname directory are treated as applications and
> # run by the server when requested rather than as documents sent to
the
> client.
> # The same rules about trailing "/" apply to ScriptAlias directives as
> to
> # Alias.
> #
> ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"
> <Directory "/var/www/cgi-bin">
> AllowOverride None
> Options None
> Order allow,deny
> Allow from all
> </Directory>
>
> One of the bad things about having a regular <Directory> setting without
the
> ScriptAlias, and just turning on Options ExecCGI is that the directory
will
> be browseable by default.
> Meaning that I could just go to http://yourserver/cgi-bin and view all
the
> CGI's in your directory, and maybe (too tired to test) view their
contents.
> Make sure you put always put an ending "/" on your script alias
definition.
>
>
> -- Ryan
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ivica Bukvic" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 1:46 AM
> Subject: Configuration problem -- HTML embeded cgi script calls not
working
> [using default MDK/Linux 8.1 (Apache 1.3)]
>
>
> > Hi all,
> >
> > I am a self-taught Linux admin, working hard on patching my knowledge
> > potholes. One of them is Apache/cgi/perl configuration.
> >
> > I am using Mandrake 8.1 on an Intel machine, that comes pre-installed
> > with Apache 1.3.
> >
> > Default configuration file (/etc/httpd/conf/commonhttpd.conf) looks as
> > follows (only the last part that pertains to this issue, I hope :-) ):
> >
> >
> >
> > # This should be changed to whatever you set DocumentRoot to.
> > #
> > <Directory /var/www/html>
> >
> > #
> > # This may also be "None", "All", or any combination of "Indexes",
> > # "Includes", "FollowSymLinks", "ExecCGI", or "MultiViews".
> > #
> > # Note that "MultiViews" must be named *explicitly* --- "Options All"
> > # doesn't give it to you.
> > #
> > Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
> >
> > #
> > # This controls which options the .htaccess files in directories can
> > # override. Can also be "All", or any combination of "Options",
> > "FileInfo",
> > # "AuthConfig", and "Limit"
> > #
> > AllowOverride All
> >
> > #
> > # Controls who can get stuff from this server.
> > #
> > Order allow,deny
> > Allow from all
> > </Directory>
> >
> > <Directory /var/www/perl>
> > AllowOverride All
> > # Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews ExecCGI
> > Options FollowSymLinks MultiViews ExecCGI
> > Order allow,deny
> > Allow from all
> > </Directory>
> >
> > <Directory /var/www/cgi-bin>
> > AllowOverride All
> > Options Includes ExecCGI
> > </Directory>
> >
> > <Directory /var/www/protected-cgi-bin>
> > AllowOverride None
> > Options ExecCGI
> > Order deny,allow
> > Deny from all
> > Allow from 127.0.0.1
> > #allow from .your_domain.com
> > </Directory>
> >
> > #
> > # Control access to UserDir directories. The following is an example
> > # for a site where these directories are restricted to read-only.
> > #
> > #<Directory /home/*/public_html>
> > # AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit
> > # Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
> > # <Limit GET POST OPTIONS PROPFIND>
> > # Order allow,deny
> > # Allow from all
> > # </Limit>
> > # <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS PROPFIND>
> > # Order deny,allow
> > # Deny from all
> > # </LimitExcept>
> > #</Directory>
> >
> > # These settings are pretty flexible, and allow for Frontpage and XSSI
> > <Directory /Users/*/public_html>
> > AllowOverride All
> > Options MultiViews Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks
> > Order allow,deny
> > Allow from all
> > </Directory>
> >
> > #<Directory /Users/*/public_html/cgi-bin>
> > # AllowOverride All
> > # Options ExecCGI
> > # SetHandler cgi-script
> > #</Directory>
> >
> >
> > <IfModule mod_perl.c>
> > <Directory /Users/*/public_html/cgi-bin>
> > SetHandler perl-script
> > PerlHandler Apache::PerlRun
> > Options -Indexes ExecCGI
> > PerlSendHeader On
> > </Directory>
> > </IfModule>
> >
> > <Directory /var/www/icons>
> > Options Indexes MultiViews
> > AllowOverride None
> > Order allow,deny
> > Allow from all
> > </Directory>
> >
> > <Directory /usr/share/doc>
> > Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
> > Order deny,allow
> > Deny from all
> > Allow from 127.0.0.1
> > #allow from .your_domain.com
> > </Directory>
> >
> > <Location /index.shtml>
> > Options +Includes
> > </Location>
> >
> > <IfModule mod_perl.c>
> > PerlModule Apache::Registry
> >
> > #set Apache::Registry Mode for /perl Alias
> > <Location /perl/*.pl>
> > SetHandler perl-script
> > PerlHandler Apache::Registry
> > Options -Indexes ExecCGI
> > PerlSendHeader On
> > </Location>
> >
> > #set Apache::PerlRun Mode for /cgi-perl Alias
> > <Location /cgi-perl/*.pl>
> > SetHandler perl-script
> > PerlHandler Apache::PerlRun
> > Options -Indexes ExecCGI
> > PerlSendHeader On
> > </Location>
> > </IfModule>
> >
> >
> >
> > Now, there are several issues that I am trying to figure out:
> >
> > My Cgi dirs (both the system one in /var/www/cgi-bin/ and individual
> > user ones in /home/~username/public_html/cgi-bin/ ) do work if I call a
> > cgi script directly from an url (i.e. http://foo.com/cgi-bin/bar.cgi).
> >
> > The problem is when I want to use a cgi script within an html file, no
> > matter where I store the html file (obviously default preference being
> > in my user's public_html folder), the <--#exec ... --> calls, or any
> > other call of such type contained within an Html file, is simply
> > ignored.
> >
> > I tried fiddling with configuration, but am lacking in-depth knowledge
> > of all the different settings (I do understand that I do need to have
> > Options and Includes in the folders where I need to be able to have html
> > files with embeded cgi calls -- please correct me if I am wrong). Also,
> > I am not quite sure what is the difference between, for instance
> > +Includes -Includes, and just simply Includes (my understanding from all
> > of the doc searching is that the first two add/subtract from the default
> > settings possibly stored in the folder's .htaccess, while the third one
> > explicitly adds this functionality?).
> >
> > Searching over the net for the solution has resulted in a frustratingly
> > wasted weekend. So, I am hoping that someone would be kind enough to
> > help me figure this issue out.
> >
> > Even the calls like:
> >
> > <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL" -->
> > (not sure if this still falls into the mod_perl category tho)
> >
> > and
> >
> > <!--#exec cmd="/usr/ucb/finger $REMOTE_USER@$REMOTE_HOST"-->
> > (yet another copy/paste thing that I put into my html file to see if the
> > whole thing works at all)
> >
> > do not work whatsoever.
> >
> > The other issue I would greatly appreciate to have clarified is the
> > whole question as to how to retrieve more info regarding the dreaded 500
> > error when executing cgi scripts, when apache's error_log is too skimpy
> > with info to give anything valuable (it simply says 500 premature end of
> > script, which can be a ton of things), and when the script executes just
> > fine at the command-line (i.e. #\perl file.cgi)?
> >
> > I would greatly appreciate any help I can get. Thank you very much!
> > Sincerely,
> >
> > Ico
> >
> >
>
