[clug-talk] Apache web server with cgi / perl scipts

[Darcy Brodie]

Hello

I am in the process of rebuilding a web server for a non-profit 
organization that I belong to.  I ahve the site back up and running, 
with the exception of a program that they use for password protecting a 
members only section of the web site.

What is the problem?  I can not get the perl scripts to run from a 
browser.  I have created simple perl scripts that I can run from the 
command line, however, when I attempt to run them from a browser, it 
will either type them out (instead of executing them) or give me a "500 
Internal Server Error - The server encountered an internal error or 
misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request"

I am fairly confident that the problem lays with giving apache 
permission to the directory with the Perl - CGI scripts in it.  I have 
even tried (with no change to anything) to place the CGI-BIN folder 
directly in the web site home directory.  This made no difference.  Same 
errors.  If need be, I can change or move almost anything on the server 
that needs to be moved to get this working

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated

Thanks
Darcy


*_Configuration_*

CentOS 5.4
Apache 2.2.3
Perl 5


root directory for web site   /var/www/html/locks (locks is the name of 
the web site home directory)
path for CGI-BIN directory /var/www/cgi-bin
path for perl                         /usr/bin/perl

permissions on the perl scripts are set to 755, and the CGI-BIN directory

I have verified that at the beginning of the scripts is the following
#!/usr/bin/perl

Excerpts from the httpd.conf file (If I haven't included the information 
that you need, please ask)

ScriptAlias    /cgi-bin/    /var/www/cgi-bin/

<Directory /var/www/html>
     Options    FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
     AllowOverride    AuthConfig FileInfo
     Order   allow,deny
     Allow from all
</Directory>

<Directory /var/www/cgi-bin>
     AllowOverride    None
     Options    Includes ExecCGI
     Order    allow, deny
     Allow from all
</Directory>