Gossamer Forum: Products: Links 2.0: Installation -- Unix: Can't use global $! in "my" at db

Hi

I've a error with Links which I cannot find any reference to in the support forums - anyone got any good ideas?

I get this when any .cgi files are called in a browser:

Code:
Error including libraries: Can't use global $! in "my" at /home/redcom/cgi-bin_local/childrenfirst/admin/db_utils.pl line 27. 

Make sure they exist, permissions are set properly, and paths are set correctly.

db_utils.pl line 27 is this:

Code:
    open (DB, "<$db_file_name") or &cgierr("error in get_records. unable to open db file: $db_file_name.\nReason: $!");

My config file has this:

Code:
# PATH and URL of Admin CGI directory. No Trailing Slash.     
    $db_script_path   = "/home/redcom/cgi-bin_local/childrenfirst/admin"; 
    $db_dir_url       = "http://childrenfirst.webarchitects.co.uk/cgi-bin/childrenfirst/admin"; 

# URL of User CGI directory. No Trailing Slash. 
    $db_cgi_url       = "http://childrenfirst.webarchitects.co.uk/cgi-bin/childrenfirst"; 

# PATH and URL of Pages to be built. No Trailing Slash.          
    $build_root_path  = "/home/redcom/www/childrenfirst_org_uk/links"; 
    $build_root_url   = "http://childrenfirst.webarchitects.co.uk/links";

This is how Apache is set up:

Code:
# childrenfirst 
NameVirtualhost 192.168.1.28 

<VirtualHost 192.168.1.28> 
ServerAdmin root@localhost 
DocumentRoot /home/redcom/www/children_first_org_uk 
ServerName childrenfirst.webarchitects.co.uk 
ErrorLog logs/childrenfirst-error_log 
TransferLog logs/childrenfirst-access_log 

ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/redcom/cgi-bin_local/ 

<Directory /home/redcom/cgi-bin_local> 
Options Indexes Includes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI   
order allow,deny 
allow from all 
AllowOverride None 
</Directory> 

</VirtualHost>

Everything in the admin dir is 777 (Apache runs as nobody) and all the paths seem OK:

Code:
[chris@atomism admin]$ pwd 
/home/redcom/cgi-bin_local/childrenfirst/admin 
[chris@atomism admin]$ ls -la 
total 318 
drwxrwxrw-   7 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 15:05 . 
drwxr-xr-x   3 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 14:24 .. 
drwxrwxrwx   2 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 14:24 HTML 
drwxrwxrwx   3 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 14:24 LWP 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      11923 May 18 14:07 Mailer.pm 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       4525 May 18 14:09 Template.pm 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       3217 May 18 14:09 Validator.pm 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       5879 May 18 18:15 admin.cgi 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      71022 May 18 14:07 admin_html.pl 
drwxrwxrwx   2 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 14:24 backup 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       3191 Feb 11 00:08 category.def 
drwxrwxrwx   4 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 14:24 data 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      38723 Feb 11 00:08 db.pl 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      23352 May 18 16:07 db_utils.pl 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      10470 May 18 15:28 links.cfg 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       4777 Feb 11 02:10 links.def 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      47765 May 18 14:07 nph-build.cgi 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       7488 May 18 14:07 nph-email.cgi 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody       9721 May 18 14:10 nph-verify.cgi 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      46559 May 18 14:09 site_html.pl 
-rwxrwxrwx   1 nobody   nobody      16354 May 18 14:07 site_html_templates.pl 
drwxrwxrwx   2 nobody   nobody       1024 May 18 14:24 templates

There are not any stray carriage returns (I've done this for all the files and my editor, notetab saves in unix format by default):

Code:
[chris@atomism admin]$ perl -wc admin.cgi 
Name "main::db_script_url" used only once: possible typo at admin.cgi line 59. 
Name "main::db_script_link_url" used only once: possible typo at admin.cgi line 59. 
admin.cgi syntax OK

If I run admin.cgi from the command line I get the same message:

Code:
[chris@atomism admin]$ perl admin.cgi 
Content-type: text/plain 

Error including libraries: Can't use global $! in "my" at /home/redcom/cgi-bin_local/childrenf 
irst/admin/db_utils.pl line 27. 

Make sure they exist, permissions are set properly, and paths are set correctly.

If I run db_utils.pl at the command line I get this:

Code:
[chris@atomism admin]$ perl db_utils.pl 
Can't modify substitution in postdecrement at db_utils.pl line 3, near "#               --" 
  (Might be a runaway multi-line ## string starting on line 1) 
syntax error at db_utils.pl line 19, near "sub get_record " 
Can't use global $! in "my" at db_utils.pl line 27.

perl -wc gets roughly the same thing:

Code:
[chris@atomism admin]$ perl -wc db_utils.pl 
Can't modify substitution in postdecrement at db_utils.pl line 3, near "#               --" 
  (Might be a runaway multi-line ## string starting on line 1) 
syntax error at db_utils.pl line 19, near "sub get_record " 
"my" variable $key masks earlier declaration in same scope at db_utils.pl line 25. 
"my" variable $found masks earlier declaration in same scope at db_utils.pl line 25. 
Can't use global $! in "my" at db_utils.pl line 27.

My Apache logs are set to debug level but there is nothing of use there.

Perl is OK (and I've changed all files to: #!/usr/bin/perl):

Code:
[chris@atomism admin]$ whereis perl 
perl: /usr/bin/perl5.00502 /usr/bin/perl /usr/man/man1/perl.1

The server is RedHat 5.9 which has not been hacked about with much.

Anyone come across this before? Have I missed something really simple? I have installed Links a few times before and have never had a problem like this.

Help!!

TIA

Chris