Why can I not acess files outside cgi-bin directory?

[perlfeng]

Hi, there, I am new to cgi and may ask a stupid question. I am working on a problem of downloading a file to client through browser. My cgi script is supposed to process the user requests and download the file in the server to the client machine. A popup window will let user to select where the file will be saved. If the target file is in cgi-bin directory where my cgi script is running (e.g. test1.txt). But I can not acess the file outside this directory (e.g. text2.txt).

$filename1 = "test1.txt";

$filename2 = "C:\\Program Files\\Apache Group\\Apache2\\htdocs\\projects\\Generate_Conc_xls\\test2.txt";

Any advices?

Thanks a lot.