Persistent error on web page

[Julieann]

On a previous server, I was using a script called "Tell me what you think" for adding user comments at the bottom of a web page, and it worked very nicely. But now I'm getting the following error when trying to implement a perl script to add text to the bottom of my pages through SSI:

an error occurred while processing this directive




This is the code on the web page (I have to get to the cgi directory by going back one directory, hence the "../"):

<!--#include virtual="../cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl?page=index.shtml&action=view "-->



I've played with the above line again and again but keep getting the same error as above. Could I possibly have something wrong in the script itself?

Thanks!

[mattsiegman]

that is the wrong SSI directive. I think you need something more along the lines of an exec. I'd recommend chacking out google and seeing what you can find on SSI commands.

[jason]

I don't think #include statements support the .. notation. If my memory serves me correct (its been about five years since I've used any form of SSI anywhere), the virual="" argument needs to start with a slash. So, if the cgi-bin you refer to is at the top of your site (ie in public_html), just remove the .. and make it /cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl?....

--Jason

[mike7727]

According to my CGI-101 book: "On the virtual include, you aren't including the full Unix path to the filename, but rather the path from the root directory of the web server. So if your server's root directory is /web/kira, and you have an include file in /web/kira/include/botbar.inc., then the virtual path is "/include/botbar.inc". (Or, if you're using a public_html directory and your homepage is located at http://hourhost.com/~yourname/, include files in your public_html/include dir can be included with the virtual path "/~yourname/include/botbar.inc".)

[Julieann]

Wierd thing is, that the path I used in my original post worked just fine with my old server. But, that might be comparing apples to oranges. :-)

I've tried the following tonight (and I do have my own domain name):

/cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl
/akdreamer/cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl
/www/akdreamer/cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl
/web/akdreamer//cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl

...as well as some I don't even remember now.

BTW, I have tried changing "include" to "exec" with no results at all. I've also tried taking out "virtual". I've been on Google and lots of tutorial sites, and from what I'm seeing, using "#include virtual=" is correct, and in fact, is what the author of the script says to use. Like I said, it worked before.

Back to gritting my teeth.... :-)

[Vin DSL]

Hello, neighbor! I live over the hill and around the bend from you in Payson...

I wish I could add to this discussion, but I'm in the same boat as Jason. I lived by CGI/PERL until I Nuked my site and few months ago. I actually find PHP very similar in a lot of ways, but for the life of me, I can't remember enough to offer any help, and that makes me sad, I guess. I didn't even realize it until now. LoL!

I code mostly in PHP, CSS, Javascript and HTML. I can't seem to break away from HTML, as hard as I try. And, of course, this all runs on top of MySQL. That's where it's at these days. I'm not flamin' or anything, but you might consider jumping in; the water's fine!

Anyway, I just wanted to pop in a say, "hello." Most of the ppl I deal with now are in Thailand, Greece or wherever. I'm a nightbird and these are usually the only ppl online when I am. They're 10,000 miles away, not 50, you know...

Good luck to you...

[jason]

Are you sure that the error is in the SSI directive and not the script itself? Try calling the script through your browser and see what happens. It may or may not work, depending on how it was written, but it might point you in the right direction.

If it doesn't work through the browser, try running it from the command line in SSH. If everything is set up correctly and your permissions are correct, the following command should dump a bunch of HTML to your terminal window:

~/public_html/cgi-bin/comments.pl

Good luck...

--Jason

[Julieann]

Here are the settings I have in the script itself. The info for what to use in here was taken from Jaguar's support page, as well as knowing what worked in the past:

#!/usr/bin/perl

#Your mail program (sendmail, mail, etc)
$mail_prog = '/usr/sbin/sendmail' ;
#Set this to 1 if you want want to be mailed each tima an user send a comment. Otherwise, leave it 0 (zero)
$send_notify = 0;
#Your email
$webmaster = "julieann\@akdreamer.com";
#Parsing the form input
&GetFormInput;
#Path (not URL) to your comments' cgi directory.
$root_dir = "/home/akdreamer/www/cgi-bin/comments";
#URL (not PATH) to your comments cgi.
$root_url = "http://www.akdreamer.com/cgi-bin/comments/comments.pl";
#if your server allows you to use the flock command, set this variable to 1. Otherwise, leave it 0 (zero)
$lock = 0;

[jason]

Check to make sure that the script is chmodded to 755. If not, the server won't be able to run it and will throw a script error.

Unfortunately with SSI all errors are displayed as "an error occurred while processing this directive." Not very helpful....

--Jason

[Darryl]

Try looking in your error log as well. Apache/Perl should dump some info there