Looks like mod_perl scripts execute the line that changes $ENV{PATH},
but when a qx() back-tick command is executed, that command is executed
under the value of the original path.The docs seem to suggest that that changes to %ENV should work fine: http://perl.apache.org/docs/2.0/user/coding/coding.html >mod_perl passes (exports) the following shell environment variables (if they are set) : > * PATH - Executables search path. > * TZ - Time Zone. >Any of these environment variables can be accessed via %ENV Maybe the docs need to be changed to say that while mod_perl passes these values to the script, it does not pass them on to any qx() executions. Would be best if mod_perl code can be fixed to allow this, though. Related threads in mod_perl mailing list: How to change $ENV{PATH} for a specific script? http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/perl-modperl/200801.mbox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] mod_perl, ENV{'TZ'}, and localtime http://mail-archives.apache.org/mod_mbox/perl-modperl/200712.mbox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] --- Here's a simple test on Fedora FC7 system (more version info at end): #!/usr/bin/perl -Tw print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n"; my $command = "basename"; foreach ( "/bin:", "/invalid/dir:" ) { $ENV{PATH} = $_; print "------ Testing command '$command', path $ENV{PATH}\n"; my $string = `$command testing` || ''; print " failed to execute '$command', \$? is $?/" . ($? >> 8) . " : $!\n" if ($? != 0); print " output \$string is: $string\n"; } exit(0); ------------------------------------------------ When run from the command line, I get the correct output: Content-type: text/plain ------ Testing command 'basename', path /bin: output $string is: testing ------ Testing command 'basename', path /invalid/dir: [Wed Jan 16 17:13:39 2008] script.pl: Can't exec "basename": No such file or directory at /home/cgi/script.pl line 12. failed to execute 'basename', $? is -1/16777215 : No such file or directory output $string is: ------------------------------------------------------- But when I run this under Apache and mod_perl, I get this output - /bin is still in the PATH even after removal: ------ Testing command 'basename', path /bin: output $string is: testing ------ Testing command 'basename', path /invalid/dir: output $string is: testing ------------------------------------------------------- /perl-status output snippet: Embedded Perl version v5.8.8 for Apache/2.2.6 Under the "perl-script" handler, the environment is: MOD_PERL = mod_perl/2.0.3 MOD_PERL_API_VERSION = 2 PATH = /sbin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin
