Installing Custom Perl Scripts

1. Place any Perl or CGI scripts in your cgi-local folder (directory).

Please note that FrontPage often uploads Perl and other CGI scripts in binary mode as opposed to ASCII mode.

Please use FTP (we recommend WS-FTP Pro from www.ipswitch.com) to publish your CGI scripts to /cgi-local.  Also, be sure to change the permission of the script to 755 (or whatever the author of the script recommends).

2. Edit the script to confirm or modify the following:

• The first line should be the full path to Perl. On our servers this is as follows:

#!/usr/bin/perl

• If the program sends email, verify the full path to sendmail in the program is as follows:

/usr/lib/sendmail

Notes:

• The current version of Perl installed is 5.003.  5.004.04 is currently being beta tested.  If you want to use this version, place #!/usr/local/bin/perl5.00404 as part of the first line of your Perl script.
• cgi-local is already setup as a cgi directory. No permissions have to be changed for this directory.
• We have a lot of Perl modules (CGI, CounterFile, LWP, HTML, and so on) already installed. If you aren't sure if a module is installed, please ask.
• In case you need to check your error log, you will find it at /stats/error_log on your domain.
• Be sure to use the Perl script (on your control panel) checker to verify the syntax of the Perl code prior to executing it for the first time.

While the Perl script checker can tell you your syntax is ok, your script may still generate an Internal Server Error. When this occurs it is a good time to check your error_log file to see if this can lead you to the logic error in the script.

We can debug your custom Perl scripts for you; however, this is a chargeable services. Email   to discuss your needs.

Other Resources
Perl and CGI Learning and Use Resources
Installing Custom Perl Scripts
Making Your CGI-scripts Server Independent
comp.lang.perl.misc
comp.infosystems.www.authoring.cgi

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