Upload this script and run via CGI:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use Cwd;
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
print "<p>Perl says CWD is: ", cwd();
print "<p>System PWD says: ", `pwd`;
[download]

Apparently they're both returning nothing. I get:

Perl says CWD is: 

System PWD says:
[download]

As output.

Charles Thomas
Madison, WI

Your server must be running some sort of 'broken' virualisation environment. There are too many posibilities. I would suggest finding a host that will let you have SSH access. See perlmonk.org for a good option if you just want to play about.

cheers

tachyon

How do I find the "real path"? This is on a paid service's webserver (i.e., commercial hosting site).

Some ways:

• use Cwd; to get the current directory. Hopefully, that is the path the script is in — usually that is the case. Other people have showed you here how to use it.
• Same effect, somewhat simpler: use File::Spec::Functions 'rel2abs'; which can be used to convert a file path to an absolute path:

  use File::SPec::Functions 'rel2abs';
  my $abspath = rel2abs("produce_items.txt");
  [download]

So, you're better off hardcoding the absolute path to your data file.

If that isn't a most favourable option, you can still try to find the position of the script using FindBin, and locate the data file from there:

use FindBin;
my $abspath = "$FindBin::Bin/produce_items.txt";
[download]

Still, I believe you're best off moving your data out of your web space, to an absolute location, with a prereably a simple path, and hardcode it into your script.