[thelist] Perl error: formmail

[Seb Barre]

At 05:01 PM 11/27/2000 -0500, you wrote:
>As a favor for a friend, I got the formmail script from Matt's Script
>Archive and put it on my friend's website.  It's supposed to email him the
>contents of a form when the form is submitted, but instead, when the form is
>submitted I get this:
>
>
>-----------------------
>Internal Server Error
>The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable
>to complete your request.
>Please contact the server administrator, webmaster at debt-end.com and inform
>them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that
>may have caused the error.
>
>
>There was also some additional information available about the error:
>[Mon Nov 27 16:52:33 2000] access to
>/u/home/d/debt/public_html/cgi-bin/formmail.pl failed for 209.208.87.4,
>reason: Premature end of script headers

If you're using a 'canned' script, I would start by making sure that things 
like the interpreter path (first line in the script) and the various config 
elements in the script match the setup on the server.  That's often a 
problem when adapting scripts that you either didn't write or that were 
written on a different machine or in a different environment.

That specific error message can mean alot of stuff, but it usually means 
one of the following (in case this helps):

1. The script didn't output anything.  This is a common error.  As part of 
the CGI spec, the called script _must_ return something, starting with a 
Content-type header (and I think that's it for requirements, but if you 
just send the header and no content, users will have a blank page).  If the 
script just executes and doesn't return any output, you will get a 500 error.

2. The script wasn't able to run.  This is usually caused by a bad path to 
your Perl interpreter (see above).

If you're still having trouble with that particular script, (warning: 
shameless plug coming) I have a pretty kickass (IMNSHO) form mailer CGI 
written in Perl that I'd be happy to give out to anyone who wants it.  It's 
very simple, fully configurable and easy to install and use.



>------------------------
>
>Unfornately, I'm stictly an NT/ASP/VB kinda guy, and my friend's Hosting
>Company is strictly *nix/Perl.  I'm sure this is an extremely simple problem
>for someone who knows anything about Perl.. I'm just not that someone.  Any
>ideas where I should begin?
>
>
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--- -- -
Seb Barre - seb at oven.com
OVEN Digital Toronto
Work: 416-595-9750 x 222
Mobile: 416-254-5078
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