Can't set cookie with CGI.pm

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

Hi all, I'm probably doing something super obviously wrong, but I can't see it. The script:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
use CGI;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use strict;
my $query = new CGI;
my $cookie = $query->cookie(
    -name    => 'test',
    -value   => 'banana'
);

print $query->header(-type => "text/html", -cookie => $cookie ) ||
    die "Cannot set cookie $!";

print "Hello";
[download]

If I run from the Unix command line:

Set-Cookie: test=banana; path=/
Date: Wed, 22 Sep 2004 03:43:55 GMT
Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1

Hello
[download]

However, when running via a webserver, the script dies when it tries setting the cookie. (If I remove the "die" statement, it prints "hello". What have I missed? Cheers

Comment on Can't set cookie with CGI.pm Select or Download Code

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Re: Can't set cookie by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 22, 2004 at 04:33 UTC
(As an aside, the CGI module doesn't set $!, so it's useless to print its value. And more specifically, `CGI::header()` doesn't ever return an error.) Are you running under mod_perl? `CGI::header()` always returns '' (which is false) when running under mod_perl. The headers are sent by calling `$r->send_cgi_header($header);`, where $header is the string normally returned to be printed. The statement will always die in mod_perl.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: Can't set cookie by Anonymous Monk on Sep 22, 2004 at 05:15 UTC
Hmm, it is a CGI script running under mod_perl via Apache::Registry (which I did not know at the time). It runs fine from a standrd CGI directory. Because I'm not using a mod_perl handler in the code, I guess I can't call "$r->send_cgi_header($header);" Is this correct? My understanding - and it may be incorrect - is that the CGI.pm $query->header should send the header (according to this doc anyway) I've tried setting PerlSendHeader On and Off, but to no avail	[reply]
Re^3: Can't set cookie by ikegami (Patriarch) on Sep 22, 2004 at 05:18 UTC
It does send the header, before header() even returns. Your code should be: `#!/usr/local/bin/perl use CGI; use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); use strict; my $query = new CGI; my $cookie = $query->cookie( -name => 'test', -value => 'banana' ); print $query->header(-type => "text/html", -cookie => $cookie ); print "Hello";` [download] under mod_perl (and if not an NPH script), that's the same as: `#!/usr/local/bin/perl use CGI; use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); use strict; my $query = new CGI; my $cookie = $query->cookie( -name => 'test', -value => 'banana' ); $query->header(-type => "text/html", -cookie => $cookie ); print "Hello";` [download] which DOES send the header. Look at the source of CGI.pm	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: Can't set cookie by Errto (Vicar) on Sep 22, 2004 at 03:52 UTC
the script dies when it tries setting the cookie. Please elaborate. In what way does it die? I tried it here and it works fine. Update: ikegami's suggestion below is correct if you are under mod_perl. I had a different problem when I tried to run the script from my personal home directory which turned out to be an Apache suexec error due to file permissions. `chmod g-w filename.pl` fixed it in that particular situation. Update 2: sorry I didn't read the part where it was working without the die. See below.	[reply] [d/l]