I cannot get cgi scripts to work in Apache2. Debian 7 stock install.

rblampain · 07-30-2015, 10:20 AM

I thought I had Apache2 configured properly according to the instructions on Apache site on my testing machine as it looks simple enough with /etc/apache2/sites_available/default as follows:

Code:

	DocumentRoot /var/www
	<Directory />
		Options FollowSymLinks
		AllowOverride None
	</Directory>
	<Directory /var/www/>
		Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
		AllowOverride None
		Order allow,deny
		allow from all
	</Directory>
	ScriptAlias "/cgi-bin/" "/usr/lib/cgi-bin/" # tried first outside of quotes
	AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .yab .pl# tried without it here
	<Directory "/usr/lib/cgi-bin">
		AllowOverride None
		Options +ExecCGI -MultiViews +SymLinksIfOwnerMatch
#		AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .yab	.pl# tried uncommented
		Order allow,deny
		Allow from all
	</Directory>

Code:

drwxr-sr-x 2 Paul users 4096 Jul 30 22:03 cgi-bin

# tried with different owners
I have the following scripts in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/ the first script is written in yabasic (.yab) I do not know Perl.

Code:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 Paul users 93 Jul 30 20:24 basic_testing.yab

Code:

#!/usr/local/bin/yabasic	#(this line is correct)
print "Content-type: text/html"
print: print-: print "It works."
end

Code:

-rwxr-xr-x 1 Paul users 76 Jul 30 21:26 perl_testing.pl
#!/usr/bin/perl		#(this line is correct)
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
print "Hello, World.";

and the 2 calling scripts in /var/www/html/en/poli/
form_test.yab.htm

Code:

<html><body><head><title></title></head><form method="post" action="/usr/lib/cgi-bin/basic_testing.yab"><input type="submit" value="Submit"></form></body></html>

this was first tried with relative path (/cgi-bin/) which gave a file not found through the browser

form_test.pl.htm

Code:

<html><body><head><title></title></head><form method="post" action="/usr/lib/cgi-bin/perl_testing.pl"><input type="submit" value="Submit"></form></body></html>

"apache2ctl restart" was issued after each modification of the config file

running form_test.yab.htm script in the browser prints the contents of basic_testing.yab while running form_test.pl.htm in the browser asks if perl_testing.pl should be open or saved. There is nothing in the logs. apachectl configtest says syntax OK

Can anyone tell me where my mistake is?

Thank you for your help.

NevemTeve · 07-30-2015, 11:49 AM

Off: Please use [code] and [/code] tags.
On: File extension .cgi might be more suitable for CGI programs than .pl or .htm

rblampain · 07-30-2015, 11:35 PM

To NevemTeve
There is no

Code:

.htm

extension in the cgi scripts and changing the cgi extension from

Code:

.yab

or

Code:

.pl

to

Code:

.cgi

makes no difference and I have never seen anything in any Apache instruction suggesting it might.
I always try to be meticulous in my questions although I regularly fail miserably, it seems you tend to rush when you read questions since my previous post regarding "onclick", which you complained about, was never about the onclick event but about the onclick side-effect of the onMouse event, a misunderstanding I thought would confuse things even more if I tried to correct it. However, other volunteers like yourself may lose interest in a post when they get the impression the question is a lot more basic than it really is and I have found if a valid answer is not given as the first answer, even if it needs to be expanded, it is likely there will be no valid answer to the question. I must say that I have a lot of sympathy for people like you because it can be very frustrating to provide knowledge free of charge to help someone else (lq or any business) to succeed, all the computer-related work I do is as a volunteer for a Not-For-Profit.

I suspect all the code explained above is correct according to Apache instructions which are outdated (I read this on the Internet) or not matching the use of Apache2 made by Debian 7, the problem is to identify which.

NevemTeve · 07-31-2015, 12:40 AM

I think you should install all your files into the same directory (e.g.: /home/yourusername/public_html).

Code:

$ cat ~/public_html/basic_testing.html
<html>
<head><title>No Title</title></head>
<body>
 <form method="post" action="basic_testing.cgi">
  <input type="submit" value="Submit">
 </form>
</body>
</html>

Whenever you experience a problem, consult file /var/log/apache2/error_log

rblampain · 08-10-2015, 12:53 AM

My apologies for the delay, the problem had to be shelved for a while. Sleeping on it showed I made a big mistake somewhere and probably made it worse as I tried, entering the correct code in the browser showed there was nothing wrong with anything, entering:

Code:

http://127.0.0.1/cgi-bin/perl_testing.pl

worked.