Cgi - system command and redirecting

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April 18th, 2008, 07:39 AM

cowboyroy

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Cgi - system command and redirecting

HI

I have a perl cgi that does everything i want, now im at the end of it and I want it to run a shell script and then redirect the user to another page.

I have tried looking in the system and exec calls but can't get either to work and am not even sure which is the best one to use.
If someone can provide me some simple syntax for how to execute a file that i would normally do like this:
# ./myscriptname
I would be most greatful.

Once it runs myscript I then need the user to be redirected to a page example.htm
I have tried
print "location: path/to/example.htm"; but it only seems to work when put at the top of the cgi, this is no good as the cgi validates a form (it doesnt when you put this at the top)

Alternatively to this the cgi could generate its own html...

At the moment my script looks like this (excluding the usual stuff at the top)

perl Code:

Original - perl Code
validation(); if ($status == 0) { print "Please go back and correct the mistakes \n"; die; } else { go(); }

validation();
if ($status == 0)
{
print "Please go back and correct the mistakes \n";
 die;
}
else
{
go();
}

I need the things i detailed above to happen after the go subroutine.

THanks !

April 18th, 2008, 09:40 AM

vb.net

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You could possibly try it using Javascript. Here is an example: http://www.w3schools.com/JS/tryit.asp?filename=tryjs_location

So you'd end up with something like this:

perl Code:

Original - perl Code
validation(); if ($status == 0) { print "Please go back and correct the mistakes \n"; die; } else { print "<script>// change url here</script>"; }

validation();
if ($status == 0)
{
print "Please go back and correct the mistakes \n";
 die;
}
else
{
print "<script>// change url here</script>";
}

April 20th, 2008, 06:49 AM

Axweildr

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the location redirect will only work if it's the 'first' thing printed to the browser...

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April 21st, 2008, 08:32 AM

cowboyroy

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cheers for the replies. I have found a rather skanky way of doing it - generating my own html which then uses a meta refresh / redirect, but I may just generate my own html without redirecting as it doesn't need to be anything special.

now... Does anyone have any idea how i would run a shell script from within my cgi script.
I think I want to use 'system' as it does it then returns back to the cgi to carry on.
I don't need any output from the script - i just want it to run but I just cant get it to work.

April 21st, 2008, 06:52 PM

Axweildr

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what have you tried?

April 22nd, 2008, 03:37 AM

cowboyroy

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Axweildr

what have you tried?

At the moment i have this line of code

perl Code:

Original - perl Code
system("/var/www/cgi-bin/myfolder/myscript") == 0 or die "error ! $?;

system("/var/www/cgi-bin/myfolder/myscript") == 0 or die "error ! $?;

As far as I know there is nothing wrong with that and since my last post i have come to think it must be something to do with folder /file permissions.

Firstly, should i chown myscript to apache?
myscript also puts a file in to a different folder - /var/www/html/download - does the download folder need to be chowned to apache? I have write / execute permissions set for both so that shouldnt be a problem.

April 22nd, 2008, 12:24 PM

Axweildr

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you need to pass the path to perl

perl Code:

Original - perl Code
system("/usr/bin/perl /var/www/cgi-bin/myfolder/myscript") or die "error $!\|$?";

 system("/usr/bin/perl /var/www/cgi-bin/myfolder/myscript") or die "error $!|$?";

April 24th, 2008, 06:11 AM

cowboyroy

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Its a shell script not a perl script - do i still need to do that?
I noticed that you included $! and Thats given me a better error message

"inappropriate ioctl for device"
$? is giving me the error message 0

Is this because my shell script wants to print something to the terminal ? and to make things more complicated... my shell script calls another one which also wants to write things to the terminal..

HELP !

April 24th, 2008, 12:22 PM

Axweildr

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have a wise look at your shell scripts and see how much is involved in porting them to perl, otherwise you'd need to enable permissions which wouldn't be a good idea

#10

April 29th, 2008, 04:32 AM

cowboyroy

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I have put some of it in to perl but some of my stuff just had to stay in the shell script..
my error message disappeared and looking through my apache logs I found out there were also permissions problems so I chowned a few folders to apache and it now works.

now to get stuck on the next bit

#11

April 29th, 2008, 04:36 AM

Axweildr

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good stuff.