Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol?

ehdonhon has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Greetings monks. After several hours, this one really has me baffled. That is to say, I'll find the answer about three minutes after posting the question. :)

My issue is that I've got a piece of code that behaves differently depending on wether I'm running it from a script on the command line, or wether I'm running it from a cgi on a mod_perl server. My problem is getting LWP::UserAgent to talk to a particular site. I've traced the issue down in the code as far as this particular line:

my $ua = LWP::Protocol::https::Socket->new( 
                      PeerAddr => 'somewhere.example.com',
                      PeerPort => 443,
                      Proto    => 'tcp',
                      Timeout  => 180,
                      KeepAlive => '',
                      SendTE   => 1 );
[download]

Whenever I run this from a CGI, I find that $ua contains undef. I also find that $! contains 'No such file or directory'.

However, whenever I run this from a script off the command line (running as the webserver user, so it isn't a permissions issue), it works fine!

My first question is: does anybody know of any weird interactions with perhaps either Net::HTTP or IO::Socket::INET that might make it behave differently depending on which modules are already loaded, or depending on the presence of mod_perl?

My second question: how can I trace exactly where that 'No such file or directory' is coming from? I have a feeling if I can drill down to wherever that error is being generated, I'll find my problem. However, there just doesn't seem to be a real good way to trace it!

Comment on Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol? Download Code

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Re: Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol? by dws (Chancellor) on Aug 28, 2003 at 05:50 UTC
Whenever I run this from a CGI, I find that $ua contains undef. I also find that $! contains 'No such file or directory'. Take a look at $@. It might be getting set from Net::HTTPS while trying to find an SSL implementation. There might be a protection issue on one of the files.	[reply]
Re: Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol? by mattriff (Chaplain) on Aug 28, 2003 at 12:23 UTC
One possibility: the module Net::HTTPS, used by LWP::Protocol::https::Socket, uses one of IO::Socket::SSL or Net::SSL. It chooses by looking to see if $IO::Socket::SSL::VERSION is defined (ie the module's already loaded) and uses that if so. If not, it first tries Net::SSL, then IO::Socket::SSL only if that can't be loaded. Outside of mod_perl, you'll get Net::SSL. Inside of mod_perl, if you are using IO::Socket::SSL elsewhere (and I know we are, since I know the code in question ;), you'll get it instead. This happened to me once before, but at the time I didn't have the ambition to find out _why_ it didn't work when IO::Socket::SSL was used by the module. I just hacked around it (set $IO::Socket::SSL::VERSION to undef just long enough to fool it into using Net::SSL) and went on my way. - Matt Riffle Sr. Systems Programmer, pair Networks, Inc. (although, I speak only for myself; code is untested unless otherwise stated)	[reply]
Re: Re: Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol? by ehdonhon (Curate) on Aug 28, 2003 at 17:46 UTC
One possibility: the module Net::HTTPS, used by LWP::Protocol::https::Socket, uses one of IO::Socket::SSL or Net::SSL Yes, that was exactly it, thanks! (set $IO::Socket::SSL::VERSION to undef just long enough to fool it into using Net::SSL) .. And that solution worked for me here as well. :) It would be nice to know why Net::SSL works but IO::Socket::SSL doesn't. But that is a problem for another day.	[reply]
Re: Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol? by Zaxo (Archbishop) on Aug 28, 2003 at 04:48 UTC
Check to see if the server is looking for `/usr/bin/perl^M`. That happens when scripts written on winders are uploaded as binaries. After Compline, Zaxo	[reply]
Re: Odd effects of mod_perl on IO::Socket or LWP::Protocol? by perrin (Chancellor) on Aug 28, 2003 at 04:53 UTC
Is it running under CGI or under mod_perl? The simplest way to trace errors is to comment things out until they stop happening. A possibly better way is to use the debugger, which you can do under mod_perl. Check the docs for information on how to do it.	[reply]

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