is it the host or is it me?

External Since: Jan 31, 2006 Posts: 61

Hello all.

I started an account with godaddy that includes CGI support. The scripts
must reside within the /cgi folder they created. The shebang line they
require is /usr/bin/perl.

I cannot get anything to work. I am new to this, having only used perl
before in a classroom. When my new code failed at godaddy, I tried putting
some of the old classroom code up there for troubleshooting. Very simple
stuff, passing some pairs to the script to be output in an htm file.

Is there any reason that this code:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#spanish.cgi - creates a dynamic Web page
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

use CGI qw(:standard);
use strict;

#create Web page
print "<HTML>\n";
print "<HEAD><TITLE>Jackson Elementary School</TITLE><BASEFONT
SIZE=5></HEAD>\n"; print "<BODY>\n";

print param('trans'),"\n";

print "</BODY>\n";
print "</HTML>\n";

would not execute correctly from this page:

<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Jackson Elementary School</TITLE><BASEFONT SIZE=5></HEAD>
<BODY>
Click an English word to display its Spanish equivalent <A
HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Hola">Hello</A> <A
HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Adios">Good-bye</A> <A
HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Amor">Love</A> <A
HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Gato">Cat</A> <A
HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Perro">Dog</A> </BODY>
</HTML>

This is the simplest example I could find. All it produces from godaddy
is:
"Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was
unable to complete your request." And so on. Nothing helpful.

I appreciate any help.

--
"Because all you of Earth are idiots!"
¯`·.¸¸.·´¯`·-> freemont© <-·´¯`·.¸¸.·´¯

External Since: Jul 08, 2005 Posts: 17

freemont wrote:
> Hello all.
>
> I started an account with godaddy that includes CGI support. The scripts
> must reside within the /cgi folder they created. The shebang line they
> require is /usr/bin/perl.
>
> I cannot get anything to work. I am new to this, having only used perl
> before in a classroom. When my new code failed at godaddy, I tried putting
> some of the old classroom code up there for troubleshooting. Very simple
> stuff, passing some pairs to the script to be output in an htm file.
>
> Is there any reason that this code:
>
> #!/usr/bin/perl
> #spanish.cgi - creates a dynamic Web page
> print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
>
> use CGI qw(:standard);
> use strict;
>
> #create Web page
> print "<HTML>\n";
> print "<HEAD><TITLE>Jackson Elementary School</TITLE><BASEFONT
> SIZE=5></HEAD>\n"; print "<BODY>\n";
>
> print param('trans'),"\n";
>
> print "</BODY>\n";
> print "</HTML>\n";
>
> would not execute correctly from this page:
>
> <HTML>
> <HEAD><TITLE>Jackson Elementary School</TITLE><BASEFONT SIZE=5></HEAD>
> <BODY>
> Click an English word to display its Spanish equivalent <A
> HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Hola">Hello</A> <A
> HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Adios">Good-bye</A> <A
> HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Amor">Love</A> <A
> HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Gato">Cat</A> <A
> HREF="cgi/spanish.cgi?trans=Perro">Dog</A> </BODY>
> </HTML>
>
> This is the simplest example I could find. All it produces from godaddy
> is:
> "Internal Server Error
> The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was
> unable to complete your request." And so on. Nothing helpful.
>
> I appreciate any help.
>

Perl can be a bit tricky to debug through CGI. Someone else can
probably point you to documentation on how to enable debugging through
the web page. What I used to do is look at my error log and see what
that would have.

As far as troubleshooting the code itself, start with the simplest page
you can, and work your way up. In this case, I would say try removing
the print param line. If that doesn't work, try a simple hello world
script, and see if that works.

It's been awhile since I did Perl, so I can't be much more of a help,
sorry. Smile

-Arccos