Internal server error

[GeXus]

Hey guys, Im installing a script and im getting intermittent internal server errors, this happends with other CGI scripts as well, so ive come to the conclusion that its a server problem (i have a dedicated server running apache and freeBSD)

Has anyone ever heard of this before or know how it can be fixed?

[littleFella]

Internal server error doesn't necessarilly mean the server is at fault. so to speak. It may be your code's bug that the server does not know how to handle. If you try to divide by zero you may also get internal server error.

Is it 500 Error?

[South]

500 errors suck. It's like "I'm telling you there's a problem, but I ain't telling you what it is!"

Lots of times it's just a permissions issue.

Also make sure you're uploading .cgi and .pl files in ascii.

[dave conz]

How to deal with internal server errors in perl.

[trevHCS]

Edit: Re-reading your post I figured you probably know a bit about this stuff anyway, so I'd skip numbers 1, 3 and probably 4, but I'll leave them in incase their of use to anyone else.


Couldn't get Dave's web site link to load, so a few hints for anyone hitting CGI problems:


1) In your FTP software, the file should be listed with permissions rwx-xr-r and if not, chmod the file with the value 755


2) Just after the line that looks something like #!/usr/bin/perl put the following code:
[code:1:d70c4e6b8a]use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);[/code:1:d70c4e6b8a]

That'll hopefully give you a more friendly error message.


3) If that doesn't work, you may need to change your shebang line which looks something like: [code:1:d70c4e6b8a]#!/usr/bin/perl[/code:1:d70c4e6b8a]

Ask your hosts tech support what that should say although from my experience that one generally works.

This must be the first line with no line breaks or spaces above it!


4) Before you print anything to the screen you need to put a line such as:
[code:1:d70c4e6b8a]print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";[/code:1:d70c4e6b8a]

I used to put that somewhere near the top of the script during debugging then the script was ready for any outputs.


Finally, check your server logs as those will give the best indication of the causes.

Trev - who's really glad he doesn't do much Perl these days

[dave conz]

Could someone else please check my link? Seems to be working for me.

[Jazzee]

Works for me.

[dave conz]

Thanks J. We've been having server issues recently with an IP migration. Stats are down at the moment and I was a bit worried.

[trevHCS]

Back on the right hand side of the Atlantic as well - must have been DNS.

Trev

[Jonathan VanSchaack]

best way to check why its erroring out is too read the error logs, most hosts now give access to these in there control panel