#!/usr/bin/perl -w
use CGI qw(:all);
use strict;

open(TESTFILE, ">thetestfile") || die "Cannot open $!";

close(TESTFILE);

print header;
print "DONE";
[download]

Your program couldn't open the file and died before it printed the header. I'm sure if you look in the error log you'll see the message.

If you print the header before you try to open the file, you won't see the 500 error.

It didn't die. When I run the .cgi program from the command prompt, it works just fine. It outputs the html headers before printing DONE. Somehow, the html header isn't being sent to the browser.

Would you have more suggestions for me?

Thanks.

Gorby