I can see my perl code - script isn't executing

[Anonymous Monk]

Am I missing something?

I've been programming perl for *years*. Maybe I'm just tired or something, but I am not able to get my program to execute. I thought that maybe the first line in the program was wrong but I tried both #!/usr/bin/perl and #!/user/local/bin/perl. in both cases when I enter the path to the script in the browser, I can see my perl code and not the execution.

Any suggestions? Here is the (very simple code):

#!/usr/bin/perl

#testing

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

print "Welcome!";

[ikegami]

I can see my perl code and not the execution.

That's a server configuration issue. It needs to know that files in a certain directory or with a certain extension are to be treated as CGI scripts. Consult your web service's documentation, their tech support, or your server's configuration documentation if you run your own server.

[Joost]

As stated above, you need to have your webserver configured so that it executes your file as a CGI script. Assuming you're using apache, see this page.

In short: make sure your script is executable by the webserver (usually chmod 755 scriptname and the same for the path it's in), and that either ExecCGI option is enabled for the path and that the script's extension has a cgi-script handler or that the directory the script is in has a ScriptAlias directive.

[psini]

I had a similar problem once or twice and took me ages to find out that if you edit a file on (most) windows editor and then try to run it on linux, the extra <LF> at end of line prevents the correct interpretation of #!/usr/bin/perl

[Bloodnok]

... but this not unexpectedly, normally results in a 'not found' error being returned by the shell.

[cLive ;-)]

Run your script using ./scriptname.pl (rather than "perl scriptname.pl") - if it fails, check shebang line and permissions.

Otherwise, tail your apache logs and see what they say. Check ExecCGI is enabled for the directory, Also check conf files (including any .htaccess files in the path to script).

[Anonymous Monk]

Psini, Thanks so much for your response, but I didn't paste this from a windows document. I just used vi and typed up the script.

I went back and deleted the first line and then typed it in again just to make sure. I am still getting the same problem.

[psini]

Did you try to exec it from command line?

If it works, the problem probably is in apache configuration

Two suggestions: (1) if the file is the wrong dir apache may be not allowed to execute it. (2) I know it is stupid but are you sure that file has eXecute permission for apache user?

[Bloodnok]

Further to the above suggestions, does the perl binary have at least 755 permissions - altho' the script may be readable by everyone, the compiler/interpreter may not.

Just a thought ...

[Anonymous Monk]

If that were the case he'd get some kind of permission denied error, not a dump

[Bloodnok]

He doesn't say he's getting a dump.