CGI/Perl Scripts

1. What is the path to Perl, Sendmail, etc ?
2. How do I set up a FormMail script?
3. Why do I keep getting Internal Server 500 errors?
4. Where can I upload my CGI scripts?
5. Why do I get a Permission Denied Error?
6. Do you allow to run ikonboard?

1. What is the path to Perl, Sendmail, etc ?

The path to perl (version 5.6.0) is:
#!/usr/bin/perl

The path to sendmail is:
#!/usr/sbin/sendmail

2. How do I set up a FormMail script?

Please do NOT use the formmail.pl program, due to these security concerns : www.securitytracker.com
And, we have a server-side script that 'searches and renders useless' formmail.pl on our servers... Needless to say, most any other form processing script ( we recommend in the PHP language ) will suit for your needs. Check out

www.hotscripts.com/PHP
or php.resourceindex.com

... or just to the excellent PHP FormMail script we recommend at:

www.lumbroso.com/scripts
The PHP script is also easier to set up (no messing with file permissions) and also offers more features, such as file upload, and more.
Just upload the formmail.php script to your web site, then try out the example HTML form provided with the script. Afterwards, you can modify the form however you wish.

3. Why do I keep getting Internal Server 500 errors?

Here are a few common problems that can occur when working with CGI-scripts, and how to fix them:

• Make sure your path to perl is: #!/usr/bin/perl

• Be sure to upload your script as ASCII (text). Most FTP programs will do this automatically, but be sure to double-check this.

• Make sure your /cgi-bin, and any sub-folders in your /cgi-bin, and your scripts themselves are set to 755 permissions. If you set it to 777 permissions, none of your scripts in it will work.

• CGI-scripts can only be run from the cgi-bin and sub-folders of it (chmod these sub-folders to 755 also). Make sure you are uploading to the CGI-BIN and not your HTML folder.

Path to your cgi-bin :
/home/username/public_html/cgi-bin

Repeat steps above if it still doesn't work.

4. Where can I upload my CGI scripts?

CGI scripts are executable only from within your cgi-bin directory (/var/www/cgi-bin/), which is accessible on the web at yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/

And, only .cgi scripts can go in your /cgi-bin/... any HTML or PHP files, etc. will not work if placed in your cgi-bin, and instead should be moved to your main web folder.

5. Why do I get a Permission Denied Error?

CGI scripts need to be set executable. You need to change the mode, or permissions, of your programs with your FTP program, and make them 755, or rwxr-xr-x.

Note: A lot of scripts out there will tell you need to make them 775 or even 777. This is not good and for security reasons your scripts will not work with these settings! It means anyone on the server can write to your script, and since its executable and executes as you, it could delete all your files!

6. Do you allow to run ikonboard?

No, ikonboard takes a too much our system resources, so we don't let our clients run this script on our server anymore.