Is that LWP::Simple ?

Try one of these:

• Copy LWP::Simple to a directory where you can create files. (Your application directory?)
• Prepend the directory to your @INC BEGIN{unshift(@INC,'directory');}
• or
• use lib 'directory';
• Include the code of LWP::Simple.pm in your own script, some tweeking to make it a package in your own application and try it.
• Use wget (Biker ducks and runs after having proposed a non-Perl solution ;-)

But it will fetch web pages using only the base installation of Perl.

use IO::Socket;
use strict;
use warnings;

my $sock=new IO::Socket::INET( PeerAddr => 'www.foo.org',
                PeerPort => 80,
                Proto => 'tcp',
                Type   => SOCK_STREAM);
die "No socket" unless $sock;
print $sock "GET http://www.foo.org 1.0\n\n";
my $answer=join('', <$sock>);
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You can install additional modules in your home directory without writing anything to the perl directory.

Create a "perllib" directory in your home, grab and unpack the .tar.gz source of LWP and build it with:

perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=$HOME/perllib LIB=$HOME/perllib
make
make install
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perl -MCPAN -e 'install LWP'
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export PERL5LIB=$PERL5LIB:$HOME/perllib
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#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use lib './LWP';
use LWP::Simple;
$myDocument = get "http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/";
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n", 
$myDocument;
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Jacek

Update: added <code> tags, minor HTML adjustements. larsen

What should I do ?

Check your error_log(s) to see what went wrong. Your error_log usually gives you an accurate reading of what went wrong, or a preety good idea of where to start looking.

It is most probably an error relating to the LWP module you just installed. Try Sweeper's suggestion and see where that leads you.

- wil

Copy Simple.pm to the /cust-bin/LWP directory. (Create if necessary.)

use lib '/cust-bin';
use LWP::Simple;
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---

Everything went worng, just as foreseen.

Should you write use lib './LWP'; or use lib '.'; ? The first one will seek ./LWP/LWP/Simple.pm, which may not be what you intended.
On the other hand, you can write both lines, it won't hurt.
On the gripping hand I have not tested it, I may be wholly wrong.

#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use lib '.';
use LWP::Simple;
$myDocument = get "http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/";
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n", 
$myDocument;
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I received

Useless use of a variable in void context at /docs/cust-bin/test.cgi
line 6. Content-type: text/html
Jacek

Did you cut-and-paste that script when you posted it above? When I run it, it works fine. It is a 5 line script, with the last statement beginning on line 5, and continued onto line 6; errors in the part of the statement on line 6 would be reported as line 5. If you mis-keyed the last line with a semi-colon in place of the comma, then you would get the exact error you described.

# Bad semi-colon here..............*
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
$myDocument;
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#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
use lib '.';
use LWP::Simple;
$myDocument = get "http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/";

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

$myDocument;
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Useless use of a variable in void context at /docs/cust-bin/test.cgi l
+ine 8. Content-type: text/html
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Jacek

Correct! I was asserting that you had tested this:

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
$myDocument;
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but posted this:

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n",
$myDocument;
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A comma would mean that $myDocument is the second argument to the print statement, and should work. A semi-colon would mean that $myDocument was a statement in itself, which is nonsensical, and will give you the error message you posted.

I think that you actually tested using a semi-colon twice, and happened to mis-key the semi-colon when you posted the first time, changing it into a comma and fixing your own problem! (Or maybe larsen fixed your error, and you cut-and-pasted his correction ?)

Can you test your program again, making sure you have only a comma between "Content-type: text/html\n\n" and $myDocument ?

Use of uninitialized value at /docs/cust-bin/test.cgi line 6. Content-
+type: text/html
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print "Content-type: text/html\n\n",
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If you get the error Use of uninitialized value at ..., this always means that you tried to print (or otherwise use) something which had no value assigned to it (or the value undef). This has nothing to do with modules.

My guess is, that your get "http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/"; fails for some reason (we won't find the reason as LWP::Simple is also simple in its error handling). So you could either double-check your url, or add a conditional to your code like the following :

my $myDocument = get "http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/";
my $result;

if ($myDocument) {
  # we got a response
  $result = $myDocument;
} else {
  # Something went wrong
  $result = "<tt>There was a problem somewhere and I didn't get an ans
+wer.</tt>";
};

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print $result;
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perl -MHTTP::Daemon -MHTTP::Response -MLWP::Simple -e ' ;    # The  
$d = new HTTP::Daemon and fork and getprint $d->url and exit;#spider
($c = $d->accept())->get_request(); $c->send_response( new   #in the
HTTP::Response(200,$_,$_,qq(Just another Perl hacker\n))); ' #  web
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#!/usr/local/bin/perl -w
my $myDocument;
my $result;
use lib '.';
use LWP::Simple;

$myDocument = get "http://www.ecst.csuchico.edu/";

if ($myDocument) {
  # we got a response
  $result = $myDocument;
} else {
  # Something went wrong
  $result = "<tt>There was a problem somewhere and I didn't get an ans
+wer.</tt>";
};

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print $result;
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There was a problem somewhere and I didn't get an answer.
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Since your code works correctly for us, but not for you, you will have to do the debugging. You may need to tell LWP to use a proxy; check your web-browser to see whether it has a proxy configured. Here are some documents on LWP proxy use and debugging:

• LWP cookbook
• LWP::Debug
• Q&A -Why cant I connect through a proxy using perl?
• In Case You Need to Use a Proxy with LWP
• LWP and proxies
Also, from your "Content-type: text/html\n\n" statement, I take it that you are testing this program as a CGI script on a web server. Can you test it from the command line instead? If so, you will be able to see error output that would have been hidden by the web server. Get as much working from the command line as you can, and only then turn it into a CGI; much aching of the head will be avoided.