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FAQ: CGI-Perl

1. What is the location of the perl executable?
2. What is a CGI-BIN? How do I know if I need one or not?
3. What is the location of the sendmail executable?
4. What version of Perl are you using?
5. What are my path, document root, script root, and home directory?
6. What is the URL to my CGI scripts?
7. I'm getting an internal server error. What's wrong?
8. Can Xenoplanet debug my code?
9. How do I "chmod" my files?
10. Do you support index.cgi?
11. What is a META REFRESH tag?
12. Does my account support cron?

What is the location of the perl executable?

Perl is located at:

#!/usr/local/bin/perl

What is a CGI-BIN? How do I know if I need one or not?

A CGI-BIN allows you to generate dynamic html with a programming language, i.e. Perl, C++, etc. Essentially it lets you do your own programming and apply that to your website.

If you don't know what one is, or know how to use programming languages, then you probably don't need one. It is typically used only by advanced web developers. If you have more questions about it, please feel free to contact Xenoplanet Support.

What is the location of the sendmail executable?

Sendmail is located at:

/usr/sbin/sendmail

You must use the "-t" option when using sendmail. The following code snippet illustrates the use of the proper invocation:

$to = "you\@yourdomain.com";
$from = "them\@theirname.com";
$subject = "My message subject";

open MAIL, "|/usr/lib/sendmail -t";
print MAIL "To: $to_addr\n";
print MAIL "From: $from_addr\n";
print MAIL "Subject: $subject\n";
print MAIL "\n";
print MAIL "$message_body\n";
close MAIL;

You can find this and other useful info on the CGI-Perl quick reference page.

What version of Perl are you using?

Perl 5.005 is currently installed on all virtual server accounts. Dedicated server customers can find out which version they are running by typing perl -v at the command prompt.

What are my path, document root, script root, and home directory?

You can find this and many other useful tips and info on the CGI-Perl quick reference page.

What is the URL to my CGI scripts?

You'll access your CGI using the URL:
http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/scriptname.pl

I'm getting an internal server error. What's wrong?

Make sure to check your script's syntax locally to insure that it will compile on our server. (Perl for Win32 is available at http://www.perl.com/).

ALWAYS upload your Perl script using ASCII mode -- not binary mode.

ALWAYS specify full pathnames to files opened or required by your perl script. Relative pathnames are not guaranteed to function properly.

Examine your error logs for help in identifying any problems with your script.

Make sure you are using the appropriate URL to access your script. A CGI file not found error appears as a 500 internal server error.

Can Xenoplanet debug my code?

Xenoplanet provides very limited support regarding usage and compatibility issues for our CGI system. Programming support is not provided under any circumstances. Custom programming services are billed at $70/hour.

How do I "chmod" my files?

You may use an FTP client which supports this feature such as CuteFTP, or you can use Webby in the customer control panel.

Do you support index.cgi?

Currently, our servers do not support index.cgi -- all CGI must be placed in the /cgi-bin directory. However, you can create a index.html which has a META REFRESH statement to forward to a index.cgi in the /cgi-bin directory.

What is a META REFRESH tag?

You can find more about the meta refresh tag at http://www.htmlhelp.com/reference/html40/head/meta.html

Does my account support cron?

For information about cron support, please visit http://www.Xenoplanet.com/support/cron.shtml