downloading file with CGI

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

Hi Monks,

I was trying to download a file using my CGI script, it's geting downloaded but I am not getting the actual file content ... means after saving the file ... when I open it I don't see the actual content .. instead I see the converted html of my script written into the file.Below is the code

print $cgi->header(-type=>'application/octet-stream',-expires=>'+2m',-
+charset=>'UTF-7',-attachment=>'booklist.csv');
print $cgi->start_html();
print $cgi->b("Thanks for downloading the file");
print $cgi->end_html();
[download]

I am using perl on windows and IE browser. Any idea why it's behaving so? Thanks for your help in advance.

Comment on downloading file with CGI Download Code

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Re: downloading file with CGI by almut (Canon) on Dec 02, 2009 at 19:38 UTC
There's nothing magic about the `-attachment` header — it's just a hint to the browser to prompt the user to save the content sent by the CGI script (instead of displaying it). But you still have to send the content, i.e. read `booklist.csv` and print it to STDOUT...	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: downloading file with CGI by Anonymous Monk on Dec 02, 2009 at 19:55 UTC
well,if I read from file and print it to STDOUT (as suggested) then it prints to the browser itself and dont prompt for download.	[reply]
Re^3: downloading file with CGI by almut (Canon) on Dec 02, 2009 at 20:05 UTC
You have to do both, i.e. use the `-attachment` header and print the content. The header tells the browser to prompt with "Save [as...]", using the suggested filename as default.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: downloading file with CGI by zentara (Cardinal) on Dec 03, 2009 at 13:08 UTC
.... see Download File using CGI I'm not really a human, but I play one on earth. Old Perl Programmer Haiku	[reply]
Re^2: downloading file with CGI by Anonymous Monk on Dec 03, 2009 at 14:37 UTC
Hi, I got it. It's working fine now. Thanks almut for the suggestion, it worked, but in this case I need to do double task ... . 1. pulled data into the file and save it. 2. again read the data and print it to STDOUT .. for the download purpose. Instead if I go for anchor tag `print $cgi->a({-href=>"filename to download","some text"});` [download] I directly download the file upon clicking the link Thanks again to you all for your help	[reply] [d/l]