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Perl's problem with running an external program

Dear Perl experts,

I am trying to execute an external program through a perl script. This script creates a file, updates a file, and creates an HTML page on the fly. The script then needs to run a program called 'waisindex' to create several files. Waisindex works ok if it is run from the Unix command line. A file permission of 'sum_$id_value[1].txt' is 644, but other's permissions are 755. The related part of the script is as follows:
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.
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`/home/dcs0ock/bin/waisindex -t fields -d /home/dcs0ock/wsdb/sear -a /home/dcs0ock/public_html/terra/summary/sum_$id_value[1].txt`;
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icd

Not too sure about this, hence the comment rather than the answer.

You don't say what the actual error reported is.

Remember that as a user accessing the script through a web browser you will have a different user name (something like 'nobody'). Presumably you will have a different 'home' directory as a consequence. Could this be your problem?

dcs0ock

ASKER

The actual error of the perl script is that a part related to
'waisindex' of a perl script would not be run. The script has
been used as a CGI script without any problem and I've added the part of 'waisindex' to the script. The other parts of the script except a 'waisindex' part shown in the above question are normally run ok. Thus, it seems to me that this problem is not
concerned with a different user name or different 'home' directory. Have you got any clue?

Thank a lot.

Wayne Leister

Try putting the waisindex command inside a system call instead of using backticks.
ex:
system("/directory/waisindex options");

dcs0ock

ASKER

Edited text of question

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

pc012197

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