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

Hi Monks, I have a stunning problem with scripts ( about 25 ) that used to run smoothly for years. All of a sudden they are downloaded instead of executed. My provider doesn't react. Anybody any ideas how to fix that ? Kind regards

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Re: download instead of execution
by Your Mother (Archbishop) on Apr 02, 2018 at 01:52 UTC

    If this is not your own server that you've updated or something; some hosting providers let you configure the webserver yourself locally. For example .htaccess files in apache. If that's not the case, you should refer to your host's user documentation or submit a(nother?) help ticket and escalate or complain to the BBB or try whatever customer advocacy recourse is available to you.

[reply]
      Hi , thanks for all the suggestions , I guess changing the provider would probably be the best solution in the long run. So far however editing the .htaccess file might a help.
      What should it look like to operate my scripts ?
      In answer to the other suggestions / questions, no I didn't move the scripts or changed anything of the server ... I am afraid they might indeed not support perl anymore ... much appreciated and kind regards to all
[reply]

        I've had a budget host break my scripts at least three times, in fact I started getting errors from them last week from a fairly complicated and CPAN dependent cron job that had been running flawlessly for, wow, maybe 13 years. My scripts/CGIs/FCGIs were broken by changes in the system Perl and its libs. This predated local::lib so I was relying on things in fragile ways.

        Anyway, even if the libraries have moved or perl has been removed, you can probably sort it out yourself if you have a shell account on the host and the diskspace; and the desire to sink a fair bit of time. :| Good news is, it's pretty unlikely they removed perl so probably it's just permissions to execute it from web locations have been tightened. The .htaccess link I gave points to some possible solutions and you can goolge for tons more. Check out local::lib if it turns out perl is there but the host pulled or broke modules on which you rely.

[reply]

        In my vhost.conf file i have the following to execute cgi 

                ScriptAlias /external-bin/ /home/huck/cvs/cgi-bins/external-bi
+n/
        <Directory "/home/huck/cvs/cgi-bins/external-bin">
                AllowOverride None
                Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
                Order allow,deny
                Allow from all
                Require all granted
        </Directory>

        [download]

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[d/l]
Re: download instead of execution
by harangzsolt33 (Deacon) on Apr 02, 2018 at 00:53 UTC
    This can happen if your web server is not set up to execute perl scripts. Talk to the admin to review the settings and make changes. This happened to me too, and when I mentioned it, they said they no longer support perl scripting, so I had to find a different web host. :(
[reply]
Re: download instead of execution
by rizzo (Curate) on Apr 02, 2018 at 05:16 UTC
    Anybody any ideas how to fix that ?

    Did you ...
    - make changes to the server config(eventually while upgrading the server software)?
    - move the scripts from one dir to another?
    - change the file extensions?

[reply]
Re: download instead of execution
by hippo (Archbishop) on Apr 02, 2018 at 11:45 UTC
    My provider doesn't react. Anybody any ideas how to fix that ?

    Change provider. Seriously.

[reply]

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