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down in the lower right margin of this page. This is the best way to
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Due to time constraints, I am unable to provide support for the scripts.
I get a great deal of e-mails from people trying to get their first
cgi-bin script up and running. I want to help you be successful, but
you have to do some homework in terms of getting to know your server.
There are probably about fifty flavors of Unix with about eight
different httpd servers. Any of these can be configured in an unlimited
number of ways.
ATTENTION HYPERMART AND VIRTUALAVE USERS!!!
It appears that these two services do not support SMTP.
Please modify your bnbform, virtual card, nomodomo, birdcast
scripts to use the $SEND_MAIL variable. The instructions
are in the scripts and README.TXT files.
Virtualave.net: $SEND_MAIL="/usr/sbin/sendmail -t";
Hypermart.net: $SEND_MAIL="/var/qmail/bin/qmail-inject";
ATTENTION NOMODOMO USERS!!!
There was a problem in the nmmdadmin.cgi module in that the
e-mail address was not being seperated from the log information.
Please download the
script, or view line 304 to about 307 to see the fix.
BEFORE STARTING ON A SCRIPT OR LOOKING ANY FURTHER
READ THIS SECTION. IT HAS COMMON PROBLEMS ASSOCIATED
WITH MOST SCRIPTS!
- First, find out from your system administrator if you are
allowed to run cgi scripts on your server.
- Second, find out where your cgi-bin directory is located.
- Third, find out how to call a cgi-bin script, i.e.,
http://domain.com/cgi/yourname/cgi-bin/script.cgi
or /cgi-bin/script.cgi as examples.
- Fourth, make sure you know how to properly FTP files between
your PC and unix server. Files ending with .txt, .cgi, .pl,
.html must be sent as type ASCII. Files such as .jpg, .mid,
.gif must be sent as type BINARY.
- Fifth, ask where PERL is located on the server. Popular
locations are /usr/local/bin/perl, /usr/bin/perl, and /usr/sbin/perl
make sure it is the right perl! Some systems have more than
one version of perl installed. Go for Version 5.
- Sixth, if the script uses e-mail, such as Virtual Cards, BNBFORM,
BNBBOOK, or BIRDCAST, make sure you have the sendmail
program correct or that SMTP is set correctly. In the scripts, it is
/usr/lib/sendmail -t
If you must change it to /usr/sbin/sendmail or some
other location, be sure to have the -t
option on the
command line. Making the mistake of removing the -t
is a sure way to kill any of these scripts!
DID YOU READ THE README.TXT FILE????
There is a file README.TXT included with all BNB scripts
with the exception of the whois script. It pretty much covers
all of the possible problems and gives solutions. I would have
to say that over 95% of the help mail I get is covered by the README.TXT!!!
If you don't hear back from me, well.... Please understand that
this site is not our living, and that we only have a few
hours a week that can be dedicated to handling e-mail.
Just under this paragraph you will see two versions of a very
small, but telling script called diag.cgi that can
tell me everything I need to know to help you out. If your
PERL is in /usr/local/bin, use #1. If it is in /usr/bin,
the use #2. If it is elsewhere, you will have to make a minor
change to either script.
Test Script Version #1: Assumes perl is in /usr/local/bin
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
foreach $item (keys %ENV)
{ print "$item = $ENV{$item}<BR> \n"; }
$rundir=`pwd`;
print "Working Directory is: $rundir<BR>";
Test Script Version #2: Assumes perl is in /usr/bin
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
foreach $item (keys %ENV)
{ print "$item = $ENV{$item}<BR> \n"; }
$rundir=`pwd`;
print "Working Directory is: $rundir<BR>";
- STEP 1: Highlight and copy the proper script above to
your favorite editor.
- STEP 2: Made certain that the line with #!/usr/local/bin/perl
(or whatever your perl is) is the first line with NO LINES above
it, or spaces before it.
- STEP 3: If your path to perl is different, then edit the first
line so it is correct. Be sure to leave the #!/ beginning alone.
- STEP 4: Save the file as diag.cgi
- STEP 5: Using FTP, transfer the file to what you belive to be
your cgi-bin directory. Make certain that you use ASCII mode,
and NOT binary.
- STEP 6: Using the Unix Permissions function of your FTP program,
set the permission on diag.cgi to 755. This means that the
owner can read-write-execute, group can read-execute and all others
can read-execute.
- Step 7: Attempt to run the script from your browser. To do this,
you must know how to call a cgi-bin script.
If it runs, you have successfuly installed and executed a cgi script.
For a demonstration
FILES NOT BEING CREATED AUTOMATICALLY
On some servers, the cgi-bin scripts do not run as your user id,
but as a special user that is typically called noone or
nobody. If your scripts are not automatically creating files
that they should, make a directory in your main html directory as
shown below:
cd public_html (or whatever it is called on your system)
mkdir files
chmod 777 files
FTP users, issue the above commands via ftp. 777 means all permissions
for everyone!
If you are using the survey.cgi script,
you will see a line in it
that reads
$DATA_PATH="/";
Change it to read
$BASEDIR="$ENV{DOCUMENT_ROOT}/files/";
For the bnbform.cgi script, you will have to set your outputfile
variable to the full system pathname, such as
/usr/local/etc/httpd/public_html/files/filename.dat
Again, pay close attention to how your directories are named.
THE VIRTUAL CARD SCRIPT
98% of the problems people seem to have with installing this script
are as follows:
- $BASEDIR is set wrong. It must be a FULL UNIX PATH, NOT A URL!
in otherwords it should look something like /usr/httpd/bruce/html/cards
- Permissions are wrong on the cards directory. Not all servers run
scripts as you. If the card is not being created, the chmod 777 the cards
directory.
- An oldie but goodie- you MUST put a \ backslash before the domain
name of any hard-code e-mail address you might place in the script.
"bruce@here.com" will not work.
"bruce\@here.com" will!
THE BNBBOOK GUESTBOOK SCRIPT
The BNBOOK is a rather simple script, but
here are the most common problems with setting up BNBOOK that usually
result in the script not working:
- The $GUESTBOOK variable is not set to the FULL UNIX PATH, NOT
A URL. It should be something like /usr/httpd/bruce/html/gbook.html
- You either removed the line <!--bookmark--> or it is not
on a line by itself. It must be placed at the end of the top part
of the guestbook that does not change, or in otherwords, where the
next submitter's entry is to go.
- An oldie but goodie- you MUST put a \ backslash before the domain
name of your $MY_EMAIL. $MY_EMAIL="bruce@here.com" will not work.
$MY_EMAIL="bruce\@here.com" will!
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