Ooooor as an alternative to CGI.pm, you could use cgi-lib.pl (which is what I have used since the time when the dinosaurs roamed the earth), if you only what to parse your query data.

A safe example would be:

eval {
    require 'cgi-lib.pl';
};

if ($@) {
    print qq{Content-type: text/plain\n\n};
    print qq{
I've goofed trying to find cgi-lib.pl!
$@
    };
}
[download]

At least that way you keep the script from outputting the ugly 500's back at ya (which, by the way, can also be acomplished by use CGI::Carp (fatalsToBrowser); if ya didn't have the problem in the 1st place).

There's more than 1 way to do it!