error printing array's

phek · 09-26-2001, 03:43 PM

OK, im new to perl but, in this script its just basic, putting items into an array and printing them. Now it works fine if i execute it from the console but, when i try to run it from my web browser, it gives me an internal server error. From what i can tell, the cgi can't print more than 2 items in an array, but i'm not sure where to go from there. Well heres my script:

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# Fun with array's
#
#########################################################
# Create 2 arrays, food and music
@food = ("apples", "pears", "eels");

#print "$food[2]\n"; #print the third object in food array
print "@food\n"; #print all objects in food array

push(@food, "eggs"); #add eggs to the end of food array
print "@food\n"; #print all objects in food array

$grub = pop(@food); #pop returns and removes the last object in an array
print "$grub\n"; #prints $grub
print "@food\n"; #prints all objects in food array

$f = @food; #value of $f is the number of items in the array
print "$f\n"; #print the amount of items in the array food
$f = "@food"; #value of $f is each item of array with a seperatin space
print "$f\n"; #print objects in food array

$a = 1;
$b = 2;
$c = 3;
$d = 4;

($a, $b) = ($c, $d); #same as $a=$c and $b=$d
print "$a $b $c $d\n"; #prints
($a, $b) = @food; #$a and $b equal the first 2 items of @food
print "$a $b\n"; #prints
($a, @somefood) = @food; #$a is the first item of @food, @somefood is the rest
print "$a, @somefood\n"; #prints
(@somefood, $a) = @food; #@somefood is @food and $a is undefined
print "$a, @somefood\n"; #prints
print $#food. "\n"; #prints the last index of @food

and the error i recieve in my apache error_log is:
[Wed Sep 26 12:22:38 2001] [error] [client 10.1.1.143] malformed header from script. Bad header=eels: /www/cgi-bin/test2.cgi

Now, I've taken the "eels" out of the @food array and it works fine with only 2 items instead of 3, but if I add it back in, add something else back in, or try to use the function push to add eels, it gives me the error.

anyone have any ideas? I kind of figure it may be something with my apache server i need to change since the code runs fine from console.

thanks
phek

notsoevil · 06-04-2002, 03:29 PM

You are not printing a Content-type header, which is required for a browser to display content.

Your very first print statement should be the Content-type, as such:

Code:

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use strict;
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";
 #blah blah blah rest of script

Also, though not NECESSARY for this script, please always use '-w' and 'use strict' -- you'll be happier in the long run.

EDIT: Damn, I really need to pay attention to post age -- the question was from 2001! Well, at least an answer is documented for future reference, eh?

vfs · 06-05-2002, 06:59 AM

And, when you

use strict;

declare variables with 'my()', like:

my @array;

for my $i (@ARGV) { ... }

and so...

vfs