Redirect problem

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

Hi!
I have created a 404-handler in perl, that is triggered by the following Apache rule: ErrorDocument 404 /cgi-bin/errorpage.pl The errorpage.pl is supposed to redirect the user to another page (condition-based, html-pages gets redirected to one location, images to another location, etc. Conditions are not included below):

...
print "Location: /cgi-bin/myapplication.pl?type=webpage&code=404\n\n";
...
[download]

This isn't working, and gives us a blank page. We suspect that this is because of that 404 is signalled before location is printed.

Is it possible to solve this task in a similar manner?

Comment on Redirect problem Select or Download Code

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Re: Redirect problem by Anonymous Monk on Feb 01, 2012 at 08:26 UTC
And the log says?	[reply]
Re^2: Redirect problem by DreamT (Pilgrim) on Feb 01, 2012 at 08:44 UTC
Nothing. This isn't a compilation problem or so, the white page is probably because of that the "Location:" is the only line that is printed.	[reply]
Re^3: Redirect problem by afoken (Chancellor) on Feb 01, 2012 at 09:17 UTC
AFAIK, the Location header must contain an absolute URL, not a relative. Use Firebug or Wireshark to find out what is sent to the browser. I guess Apache enforces status 404, so you won't get the 30x redirection that you expect. Perhaps you need to add a Status header. Alexander -- Today I will gladly share my knowledge and experience, for there are no sweeter words than "I told you so". ;-)	[reply]
Re^4: Redirect problem by DreamT (Pilgrim) on Feb 01, 2012 at 09:29 UTC
Re^5: Redirect problem by afoken (Chancellor) on Feb 01, 2012 at 09:38 UTC
Re^4: Redirect problem by Anonymous Monk on Feb 01, 2012 at 10:35 UTC
Re^5: Redirect problem by Corion (Patriarch) on Feb 01, 2012 at 10:37 UTC
Some notes below your chosen depth have not been shown here
Re^3: Redirect problem by Anonymous Monk on Feb 01, 2012 at 10:33 UTC
Nothing. This isn't a compilation problem or so, the white page is probably because of that the "Location:" is the only line that is printed. Logs contain things other than compilation errors. In any case, you should use CGI->redirect	[reply]
Re: Redirect problem by mcdave (Beadle) on Feb 02, 2012 at 02:26 UTC
If there's nothing in the server logs, then maybe the response is actually being sent but your client isn't interpreting it correctly. In general, when I've got a mystery of the form "this is a simple response, why isn't the browser reading it right?", I've found lwp-request invaluable, particularly the "-e" flag for looking at all the headers. Firebug is what all the cool kids are using for inspecting HTTP requests these days, but I like calling it from the command line. I know you skipped some of the conditions in the sample, but maybe you forgot a "Status" line? You might check http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.0/custom-error.html#custom to see whether the comment about a location having no effect is relevant.	[reply]