PERL CGI - Premature end of script headers:

Thanks, rj2 but in this case I'm writing directly on the server.  So it's not an FTP issue either.

Second line of script should be empty:

not


#!/usr/bin/perl -w
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";


but

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

works for me. try ./hello.pl just to see if you've got a shiesty linefeed on the hashbang line. vi should show hat m
's (^M) if so.

serg111, what the hell should the second line of your script be empty for? that's utter b.s.

serg111 - no luck

seesik - what do you mean exactly.  I'm not that familiar with vi

you're using the simplest possible example, so we're not looking for a syntax error. i'm not sure what platform/editor you're using (some nix variant obviously), but there's a pretty common problem w/ symptoms similar to yours. different platforms use different end-of-line characters, special characters that most editors don't display. we're looking for an invisible trailing \r\n after your hashbang line. the easiest thing to do to ensure you don't have that problem would be to just delete and retype that "#!/usr/bin/perl -w" line again.

did ./hello.pl work?

tbc...

serg111, what the hell should the second line of your script be empty for? that's utter b.s.

andersongrant24,

this can be only one of a few problems?

A:
syntax error  - No
lines endings - Possible
perl location - Possible
apache server error - Possible
upload problem - No

your sntax is fine and this basic script works fine on my windows box under apache server.  This does not mean it will work under linux due to line endings. To get rid of any line endings at the unix prompt type dos2unix filename and then chmod 777 filename.

retest and see what happens?

if still no good, check your path to perl ie your first line, are you sure this pointing to perl.  if still no luck check your apache logs and see what the error message is:

ie my logs are at:

tail -f /etc/httpd/logs/error_log  

and then run the script in the browser again check the error, report back with it.


one final question, you have configured cgi on your server haven't you, you can check by looking in the conf file, mime is at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf  


let me know if you need more help.
regards Peewee

Peewee

syntax error  - No
lines endings - Possible - it's not this, I created the file on Linux, I double checked it all, even ran dos2unix
perl location - Possible - the "which perl" and "whereis perl" both show it in the right place
apache server error - Possible - is possible
upload problem - No

We recently had somebody upgrade PHP and he may have made some changes to the config files.  I don't know.  What specifically should I be looking for in the httpd.conf file.  I found it at /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

I searched for CGI in there and there was a ExecCGI that was not specified under Options.  I specified it and restarted apache but no luck.

the ScriptAlias says
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/var/www/cgi-bin/"
and I tried putting
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/home/httpd/vhosts/northrockbp.com/cgi-bin/"
but no luck

Where exactly would be the directive to allow CGI scripting?

I did the AddHandler thing like this
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
AddHandler cgi-script .pl

and now the script runs if I run it out of ...com/hello.pl but it won't run out of ...com/cgi-bin/hello.pl

funny huh.  

That tells me that the script is structured fine and also that perl is working fine.  And the fact that I'm getting a 500 error and not a 404 error tells me that the script is being found.  But for some reason it just won't run CGI in the CGI bin.

I tried this for the script alias.  Is this right?  I just changed the option to ExecCGI and changed the paths from the default server CGI-BIN

    # Specify CGI-BIN for NorthrockBP
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/home/httpd/vhosts/northrockbp.com/cgi-bin/"

    <Directory "/home/httpd/vhosts/northrockbp.com/cgi-bin">
        AllowOverride None
        Options ExecCGI
        Order allow,deny
        Allow from all
    </Directory>

I'll make a fair bet that the problem is buffering.  "Premature end of script headers" means the script has not outputted the correct headers.

Try this:

#!/usr/bin/perl

$|=1;  # Turn buffering off.

print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";

print "<html><head>\n";
print "<title>Hello, world!</title></head>\n";
print "<body><h1>Hello, world!</h1></body></html>\n";

I used an AddHandler and got all my CGI scripts working but they are not working in the CGI-BIN (everywhere but the CGI-BIN, go figure)

Thanks for the help PeeWee

andersongrant24,

glad to be of help

regards Peewee

I just ran into this exact problem and it turned out
my webserver provider is using "suexec" with Apache.
When that option of Apache is turned on, you have
to make sure of two main things:

1. Your CGI script is _not_ group or world writeable.

2. The directory that the CGI script is in is _not_
  group or world writeable.

After I ran:

  chmod go-w cgidir/myscript.pl

and

  chmod go-w cgi-dir/

my CGI script ran perfectly.

More info about "suexec" is here: http://www.apache.org/docs/suexec.html