cgi, library of subroutines, use with require?

eileen0 has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a library of subroutines. I can use this library with .pl perl programs, by using a fully qualified require statement.

However, when I try to use the same library, with the same require statement, in a .cgi script, I get this error:

Can't locate /opt/webhost/ims/reports/efk/Lib1/HtmlLib.pl in @INC

I have tried adding a use statement. I get the same error, but now when it tells me what is in @INC, it does show the directory I need. I tried with both the directory, and the filename (with full path)

#!/usr/bin/perl
#-------
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

use lib "/opt/webhost/ims/reports/efk/Lib1";
#use lib "/opt/webhost/ims/reports/efk/Lib1/HtmlLib.pl";
require "/opt/webhost/ims/reports/efk/Lib1/HtmlLib.pl";

$htmlstr= "Content-type: text/html

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC '-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN' 'http:/
+/www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd'>
<html>
<head>
<title>TEST HTML LIB</title>

</head>
<body>
THIS IS A TEST :-); Have a nice Day.
<br>";

$htmlstr .= "</body>
</htm>";

print $htmlstr;
[download]

Software error: Can't locate /opt/webhost/ims/reports/efk/Lib1/HtmlLib.pl in @INC (@INC contains: /opt/webhost/ims/reports/efk/Lib1 /usr/lib64/perl5/site_perl/5.8.8/x86_64-linux-thread-multi

The code works if I remove the require, since I have not yet added any calls to the subroutines in the file I am requiring. First I want to get past this error.

The require file works in a non cgi perl program, using just the require statement (without a use statement). In the non cgi version of the code (run at the linux prompt), I am able to call the subroutines in the require file, without error.

Comment on cgi, library of subroutines, use with require? Download Code

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Re: cgi, library of subroutines, use with require? by aaron_baugher (Curate) on Oct 09, 2013 at 03:07 UTC
When something works on the command line but doesn't work as a CGI, it's almost always a path or permissions difference. Since you're using a full path here, it shouldn't be that, so I'd suspect permissions. Are you sure the user your CGI runs as can access that file? Depending on how the web server is configured, a CGI might be running as the web server user (www, apache, or something like that), or it could be running as the owner of the CGI using something like suexec. Aaron B. Available for small or large Perl jobs; see my home node.	[reply]
Re^2: cgi, library of subroutines, use with require? by eileen0 (Initiate) on Oct 09, 2013 at 03:15 UTC
Yes, It was a permission problem. I also figured out that . is in @INC, so I don't need the use statement. But I did need to set the file permission to read all. Thank you	[reply]
Re^3: cgi, library of subroutines, use with require? by Anonymous Monk on Oct 09, 2013 at 06:47 UTC
I also figured out that . is in @INC, so I don't need the use statement. But . is a relative path, and cwd can change :) See File::FindLib,FindBin And bookmark these checklists :) brian's Guide to Solving Any Perl Problem, CGI Help Guide , Troubleshooting Perl CGI scripts	[reply]