testing cgi scripts

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

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(Ovid) Re: testing cgi scripts by Ovid (Cardinal) on Nov 13, 2000 at 11:37 UTC
You'll have to be a bit more descriptive. When you say that you're not getting what you expected, what are you getting? Here's a couple of things that you might want to check (in no particular order): Is the Web server actually running? Is your shebang line correct? Typically with ActivePerl it's something like this: `#!c:/perl/bin/perl.exe -wT` [download] The `-wT` are optional and shouldn't affect whether or not your script is running, but they are a good habit to get into. Make sure that the path to your Perl executable matches the path on the shebang line! Can you run the script from the command line? That's important! If you can't, you won't be able to run it through a browser, either. Check your documentation. Some servers will not run scripts unless you have a `.cgi` extension. Others will not run them unless they are in a particular directory. Does entering `http://localhost` actually call up the default home page? If not, the problem is with the server installation. Are you running NT and possibly having an issue with permissions? Are you outputting the `Content-type:` header before other headers? `use CGI qw/:standard/; print header;` [download] Have you verified that all of your systems calls return true? For instance, don't open a file unless you check the value of $!. `open FILE, "<$somefile" or die $!;` [download] Have you checked the server's error logs? What do they say? Have you read the ActivePerl FAQ? Cheers, Ovid Join the Perlmonks Setiathome Group or just go the the link and check out our stats.	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: testing cgi scripts by neophyte (Curate) on Nov 13, 2000 at 13:51 UTC
Generally it is possible to test cgi-scripts with PWS, but you first have to go to the administration interface, and tell PWS where it can find Perl and I even had an installation, where I had to tell PWS that it may indeed execute files that lie in cgi-bin. Personally I find Apache (for win32) far easier to handle. Even though it has this large config-file, but I found the documentation within that file to be enough to get it running for local cgi-testing. For ease of configuration I can also recommend Xitami or OmniHTTPd. neophyte	[reply]
Re: testing cgi scripts by Fastolfe (Vicar) on Nov 13, 2000 at 18:45 UTC
You probably have to associate the .pl (and .pm?) extensions with ActivePerl in your web server configuration. But this may be a simple problem of extensiosn. CGI scripts don't just automatically run when you give it an extension of .cgi. If your CGI script had a .pm extension, that's how you should be requesting it. But a word of warning: .pm files are modules, not stand-alone scripts. It's weird that you would be running a .pm file as a CGI script. Are you sure it shouldn't be .pl?	[reply]
Re: testing cgi scripts by wardk (Deacon) on Nov 13, 2000 at 20:36 UTC
Just I put the program tryit.pm came with activeperl into c:\inetpub\wwwroot\cgi-bin and typed at address in browser http://localhost/cgi-bin/tryit.cgi. One thing right off: you mention tryit.pm, but the URL you cite is looking for tryit.cgi	[reply]