Re: My apache server stopped doing CGI

Karel Kubat <karel@xxxxxxxxxxxx> · Mon, 16 Feb 2009 09:14:52 +0100

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Hi Kevin,

On Feb 16, 2009, at 1:41 AM, Kevin O'Gorman wrote:

The logs are not much help.  The access log shows that the
request got an error code,
64.166.164.49 - - [15/Feb/2009:15:46:32 -0800] "GET /hex-bin/board
HTTP/1.1" 500 542

OK.. so a HTTP 500 (internal server error) code.

and all that the error log says is:
[Sun Feb 15 15:46:32 2009] [error] [client 64.166.164.49] Premature
end of script headers: board

This usually indicates that the script didn't send "Content-Type: text/ 

html" as its first line (at least, in my case, because that's what I  

usually forget).

I put a simple C program in there to create a file in /tmp, and  

nothing happens.

You mean you replaced /hex-bin/board with another CGI that didn't  

execute? Strange, because the error log above indicates invalid  

execution - but execution nonetheless.

So the question is: how can I debug this?  Or does anyone have an
inuition about what might be wrong?

Have your script send messages to stderr. These will go into Apache's  

error log.

Alternatively, to work from the CLI, proceed as follows. Set the  

environment variable QUERY_STRING to your input arguments (as in,  

export QUERY_STRING="name=Kevin&location=San+Francisco") so you can  

run the script from the commandline and see what happens. The script  

must answer with Content-Type: text/html followed by one empty line,  

and then must send HTML that the browser would render.

Also very important: try the CLI approach while under the permissions  

of the Apache user (stated in your httpd.conf). E.g., if your user is  

"www", then:

	su - www
	cd /hex/bin/
	export .... and so on

That way you truly verify that the www user has access to the cgi-bin  

directory and may run the script.

- --
Best regards / met vriendelijke groet, Karel Kubat
Mob +31 6 2956 4861

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