use IO::Socket;

my $host = "www.perlmonks.com";
my $port = 80;
my $path = "/"; # The path is everything after the host name (includin
+g the first /)


# You need the two \n in the get request
my $get =<<EOF;
GET $path HTTP/1.0

EOF

# Open our socket
my $http_request = IO::Socket::INET->new(
    Proto    => "tcp",
    PeerAddr => $host,
    PeerPort => $port,
) or die $!;

# Write our request
print $http_request $get;

# Grab the output
my @html = <$http_request>;

# Do something with the output
print @html;
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And, as always, make sure that you give a complete path to your system commands (e.g. lynx) so the CGI script knows where it is. I recommend putting them all at the top of your script for easy maintenance:

#!/bin/perl -- major peices missing, but you get the picture

use CGI;

my $lynx = "/usr/bin/foo/bar/lynx";
my $wget = "/export/home/genghis/bin/wget";

##etc..
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Same goes for that ourput file in your example (file.txt) - make sure you are giving an absolute path, as you cannot be sure from what directory lynx is being invoked.

Heck, as a general rule of thumb, use absolute paths for everything - it will save a lot of trouble in the long run. :)

Well I'm amazed I'm actually saying this about a turnstep post, but any advice that is pro hardcoded 'absolute file paths' I've got to add some advice. For code reuse and maintenance I've developed the general of rule of storing all absolute paths in an external file (.cnf .que, etc.)an grabbing them from there. Making one change in an external file is much more economical and portable.

Your problem with your two system calls is probably because 'lynx' isn't in the script's path. Specify an absolute filename to the program or update your PATH accordingly.

If you "can't" install a module, you might just consider using IO::Socket and request the page by hand using Perl's native network support. That would be the "most" portable solution, but obviously you're never going to code yourself a solution that's as robust as using LWP in the first place will be.

Thanks for your help. I think that indeed was my problem with the calls to lynx. However, I have since abandoned that method precisely because of nonportability. The script now looks for LWP, and if it isn't found uses IO::Socket. It works fine for my purposes. Installing the module would be my first choice, but my primary goal is ease of installation. It has to be as easy to install as possible by people who don't know anything about Perl, and have as few files as possible.

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It's hard to believe that everyone here is the result of the smartest sperm.