CGI Troubleshooting
CGI Troubleshooting Q & A


Here are the  solutions to some of the more common CGI script problems, in question and answer format. See also Permissions On Pre-Installed Scripts.

 Question:   When I activate my CGI program, I get back a page that says "Internal Server Error. The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request."

 Answer:    This is generally caused by a problem within the script. You will need to login via Telnet and test your script in local mode to get a better idea of what the problem is. You will need to first get into the directory in which your script is located, then execute the script. You can execute the script in either of two ways:

 1) Type "perl myscript.pl" (Perl being the language interpreter in this case).
Or
 2) Simply type "myscript.pl" alone, that will work if the first line is well written to indicate the location of Perl.

 The first one is useful to see if there's any error IN your script. The second one is useful to test if your "calling line" (the first line of the script) is okay, i.e. if you entered the right location of Perl.

Question:   I am being getting a "File Not Found," or "No Such File or Directory." error.
Answer:   Upload your Perl or CGI script in ASCII mode, not binary mode.

Question:    When I test my Perl script in local mode (by Telnet), I have the following error: "Literal @domain now  requires backslash at myscript.pl line 3, within string. Execution of myscript.pl aborted due to compilation errors."
 Answer:   This is caused by a misinterpretation by Perl.,  The "@" sign has a special meaning in Perl; it identifies an array (a table of elements). Since it cannot find the array named domain, it generates an error. You should place a  backslash (\) before the "@" symbol to tell Perl to see it as a regular symbol, as in an email address.

Question:    I am getting the message "POST not implemented."
 Answer:   You are probably using the wrong reference for cgiemail. Use the reference /cgi-bin/cgiemail/mail.txt. Another  possibility is that you are pointing to a cgi-bin script that you have not put in your cgi-bin directory. In general, this message really means that the web server is not recognizing the cgi-bin script you are calling as a program. It thinks it is a regular text file.

Question:    It's saying I don't have permission to access 
IMPORTANT: CGI scripts MUST be uploaded/downloaded in ASCII format.  They must also be saved in ASCII (text or .txt) format. This is very important. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in an inoperable program.

 Question:    It's saying I don't have permission to access 
 Answer:   This error message means that you are missing your index.htm file. Note that files that start with a "." are hidden files. To see them, type ls -al. If you wish to FTP this file in, go to the home/yourdomain directory.

Back To Index