my $outbuf;
    my $interp = new HTML::Mason::Interp (comp_root=>'<component root>',
                                      data_dir=>'<data directory>',
                                          out_method=>\$outbuf);
    my $retval = $interp->exec('<component path>', <args>...);
    open(F,">mason.out");
    print F $outbuf;
    close(F);
    print "return value of component was: $retval\n";