How do I fix an error message that results when running my Perl/CGI script? .: Netfirms 24/7 Support

If your Perl/CGI script is not running as expected or if it renders an error message, please follow the guidelines below to troubleshoot your script:

I. Syntax or coding errors in your CGI/Perl script
If it is a web page ending in .cgi or .pl that is producing the error, check your script for errors. You can use the following web-based tool (where membername.netfirms.com is the member name assigned to your account - please check your Welcome Letter for your membername; scriptname.pl is the name of the script you are attempting to run):

http://membername.netfirms.com/cgi/cgierr.pl/cgi-bin/scriptname.pl
OR
http://membername.netfirms.com/cgi/cgierr.pl/cgi-bin/scriptname.cgi

CGI Script Guidelines:
1. When editing your CGI script, use a program that saves the file as a 'text file' type. DO NOT use Wordpad that comes with Microsoft Windows because it doesn't save files in pure ASCII text format. Use Notepad instead to edit files.

2. Upload your CGI scripts in ASCII mode into the cgi-bin directory.

3. Set the file permissions on the CGI script file and directories to be 'chmod 755.' If you use an FTP program to transfer files, right-click on the file and select change file attributes. Using FileZilla, enter 755 under numeric value.

4. If you are still getting errors, you can instruct the server to display any errors messages to the web browser by adding the following line near the top of the Perl script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

5. Double-check any changes you have made to the script and also ensure the following line appears after the perl path:
print "Content-type: text/html \n\n";

6. Ensure that the perl modules you require for your script is supported on the Netfirms plan. For a list of the currently supported Perl modules, please click here

II. Interference with an .htaccess file
If you have implemented .htaccess on your site, it may be interfering with the web page you are trying to load into your browser. Please either remove the .htaccess file or double check the .htaccess configurations to ensure that it doesn't contain any errors. Currently Netfirms only supports .htaccess for password protection of folders and Custom Error pages.

How do I fix an error message that results when running my Perl/CGI script?

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