Malformed Header Error

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

I recently have had to move some scripts to a new server and have run into a problem. Scripts that worked perfectly on the old server are returning a 500 error (Malformed Header).

A (Hello world!) test script which fails with the above error is:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI qw(:standard);
use strict;

sub printpage();

printpage();


exit;

sub printpage(){
print << "EOF";
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/T
+R/html4/loose.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<title>Thanks for your request </title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Thanks for submitting your information. We will get back to you sho
+rtly</p><br>
</body>
</html>
EOF
}
[download]

This works as expected running locally but generates the error on the server.

Server config:
Operating system ... Linux
Kernel version ... 2.4.26
Apache version ... 1.3.31 (Unix)
PERL version ... 5.8.1
Path to PERL ... /usr/bin/perl

Has anybody experienced this before?
I think it must be something to do with the Apache/suExec config - but as I am still a Perl novice would like to have a sanity check (while I await a response from my hosting co).

Comment on Malformed Header Error Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: Malformed Header Error by borisz (Canon) on Jul 19, 2004 at 16:31 UTC
You need to print out some headers before the page content. `print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";` [download] or even better `print header(-type => 'text/html');` [download] Boris	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Malformed Header Error by macPerl (Beadle) on Jul 19, 2004 at 17:09 UTC
Thanks for responding - but, having tested, that is not the solution. I was (am?) under the impression that the Document Type Declaration `<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML .01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd">` superseded the header `Content-type: text/html`. No ? Note, I generally use the "Strict DTD" but left in "loose" in this test in order to rule out that possibility.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Malformed Header Error by borisz (Canon) on Jul 19, 2004 at 18:37 UTC
No, you need a content-type header. the header need to send out, before the content. `#!/usr/bin/perl use CGI qw(:standard); use strict; sub printpage(); print header( -type => 'text/html'); printpage(); exit;` [download] Boris	[reply] [d/l]
Re^4: Malformed Header Error by macPerl (Beadle) on Jul 20, 2004 at 10:27 UTC
Re^3: Malformed Header Error by Joost (Canon) on Jul 19, 2004 at 17:33 UTC
No.DOCTYPE declarations are ADDITIONAL to the content-type. If you set content-type to "text/plain" for instance, the browser should ignore any markup in the file and just show it as plain text with funny tags in it. You need a valid content-type header. Sometimes this is automatically provided by the webserver, but most of the time, it isn't. Also, you might have uploaded your perl script as binary with different line-endings than the line-endings on the target machine, or your script is not executable by the webserver user (do chmod 755 filename). "What should it profit a man, if he should win a flame war, yet lose his cool?"	[reply]
Re^4: Malformed Header Error by macPerl (Beadle) on Jul 19, 2004 at 17:59 UTC
Re: Malformed Header Error by ccn (Vicar) on Jul 19, 2004 at 16:28 UTC
It can be DOS newlines have been appeared on file transfer from one place to another. They looks like '^M' characters at end of lines in vi or emacs editors Upd: I missed that your script doesn't print http header. Please insert `print header();` before any print	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: Malformed Header Error by macPerl (Beadle) on Jul 19, 2004 at 16:55 UTC
I am arranging telnet access to check on the server. As part of my troubleshooting I tested when sent both as Binary and Text (just in case). Also, would this not also affect .htm files uploaded? I have experienced no problem there.	[reply]