The first output of a CGI script should be a header, such as: 

Content-type: text/html

[download]
The first blank line output signifies the end of the header. If the script never output a blank line, for whatever reason, you get that error.

Look up the CGI::Carp docs for some tips on diagnosing CGI scripts. Make sure your script doesn't use DOS line endings on a Unix server, especially at the end of the first shebang line. Make sure you have set the permissions for any uid on the server to execute the script. Check your server's logfiles.

--
[ e d @ h a l l e y . c c ]

In reply to Re: Premature... by halley
in thread Premature end of script headers ? by Gorby

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.