Perl script is not executing in HTML form

Question

I have a guestbook.htm file in the directory named as Chrome (/home/chankey/Desktop/Chrome/guestbook.htm) whose content is given below

<html>
<head>
<title>Guestbook</title>
</head>
<body>

<form action="/home/chankey/Desktop/Chrome/guestbook.pl" method="get">
<table>
<tr><td>Name</td><td><input name="name" type="text" value=""></td></tr>
<tr><td>E-Mail</td><td><input name="email" type="text" value=""></td></tr>
<tr><td>Location</td><td><input name="loc" type="text" value=""></td></tr>
<tr><td>Comments</td><td>
<TEXTAREA name="comments" rows="10" cols="32"></TEXTAREA></td></tr>
</table><br><br>
<input type="submit" value="Add Entry">
</form>

</body>
</html>

In the same Chrome directory I have one file "guestbook.pl" whose content is

#!/usr/bin/perl

my $query_string = "";
#Get the input
if ($ENV{REQUEST_METHOD} eq 'POST') {
read(STDIN, $query_string, $ENV{CONTENT_LENGTH});
} else {
$query_string = $ENV{QUERY_STRING};
}
##### We will remove this
print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";
print "Query String is \n<br> $query_string";
##### We will remove this

When I am executing the guestbook.htm file there appears a form, when I fill the data and click on "Add Entry" button a new page opens where the complete script appears.

i.e. the script "guestbook.pl" is not executing. May I know the reason behind this? Why the script is not executing? (I have already given executing permission to this file).

In the httpd.conf file I have added

AddHandler cgi-script cgi pl
<Directory /home/chankey/Desktop/Chrome/>
    Options +ExecCGI
</Directory>

Still it is not executing. Let me know the reason.

Are you actually accessing this through your web server (over HTTP), or are you trying to access it from the filesystem (with a file:// URL)? — BRPocock
– BRPocock, Commented Dec 29, 2011 at 15:22
Oops I am using file:///home/chankey/Desktop/Chrome/guestbook.htm — Chankey Pathak
– Chankey Pathak, Commented Dec 29, 2011 at 15:24

BRPocock · Accepted Answer · 2011-12-29 15:30:14Z

4

When you access a file locally (over the file:// type URL in your browser), it's not running from a web server, so:

There is no CGI environment
The httpd.conf/.htaccess files have no effect

A few ways to deal with this:

Create a folder named public_html in your home. Your web server likely has a setting to map http://localhost/~chankey/ to /home/chankey/public_html. (On MacOSX, the preferred name is Sites, instead, I believe.) On an SELinux system, you'll have to specifically grant permission for Apache to use this method.
For the specific case of Perl scripts using the standard CGI package, you can also run them manually from a terminal shell, and redirect their output to a temporary file (e.g. >/tmp/output.html), which you can then access
Migrate your development workspace into your web server's own directory structure, typically /var/www/html/…

PS / unrelated: I strongly recommend that, if you plan to put this on the Internet, you should probably use CGI; use strict; and have the tainting mode enabled #!/usr/bin/perl -WT …

answered Dec 29, 2011 at 15:30

BRPocock

14k3 gold badges35 silver badges51 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

7 Comments

choroba Over a year ago

I'd give two more upvotes for the "unrelated" if it were possible!

BRPocock Over a year ago

:-) yeah, I'm a tainting Nazi. It's the #1 thing I miss from Perl in any other language.

Chankey Pathak Over a year ago

Yes, I just had to move htm file to /var/www/html and script file to cgi-bin/ and it worked. Thank you :)

hobbs Over a year ago

There's no reason to add use CGI to a script that doesn't use anything from CGI.pm — and I wouldn't recommend writing new code to use CGI.pm :)

BRPocock Over a year ago

Why would not recommend using CGI.pm? — given the code above, I would 100% recommend rewriting it to use CGI.pm … it's already subject to multiple security exploits, and it doesn't do anything, yet.

|

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Perl script is not executing in HTML form

1 Answer 1

7 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

7 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related