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Multiple 500 Errors

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Multiple 500 Errors
Greetings!
I've been working on this problem for quite some time, eager to try and solve it myself (using all of the posts from this great website), but it has been to no avail. My problem is one that I have seen listed on the board before, but nothing seems to work. Basically, the following files yield an Internal Server Error (500):
add.cgi, jump.cgi, modify.cgi, rate.cgi, search.cgi, subscribe.
I have re-uploaded, and chmoded all of the appropriate directories/files, following the detailed FAQ. An interesting quirk appears, though. After I "build" the indexes, etc., the permissions of "links.db" changes from 666 to 644. Could this be a reason? Also, the links appear in the links.db file, but when I try to validate, "admin.cgi" says that there are no links to validate.
My links.cfg file follows:

# Paths and URL's to Important Stuff
# --------------------------------------------------------
# PATH and URL of Admin CGI directory. No Trailing Slash.
$db_script_path = "/home/thedialogbox/www/cgi-bin/links/admin";
$db_dir_url = "http://www.thedialogbox.net/cgi-bin/links/admin";

# URL of User CGI directory. No Trailing Slash.
$db_cgi_url = "http://www.thedialogbox.net/cgi-bin/links";

# PATH and URL of Pages to be built. No Trailing Slash.
$build_root_path = "/home/thedialogbox/www/pages";
$build_root_url = "http://www.thedialogbox.net/pages";

# PATH and URL of What's New page. No Trailing slash.
$build_new_path = "$build_root_path/New";
$build_new_url = "$build_root_url/New";

# PATH and URL of What's Cool page. No Trailing slash.
$build_cool_path = "$build_root_path/Cool";
$build_cool_url = "$build_root_url/Cool";

# PATH and URL of What's Rating page. No Trailing slash.
$build_ratings_path = "$build_root_path/Ratings";
$build_ratings_url = "$build_root_url/Ratings";

# Database Options
# --------------------------------------------------------
# You really need to use flock(). However if your system doesn't support it (Win95),
# then turn this off at your own risk!
$db_use_flock = 1;
# Use Pragma: no-cache to stop browsers from caching output? (0 = cache, 1 = nocache)
$db_nocache = 0;
# Use IIS headers? Set this to 1 if your web server needs the full headers (HTTP/1.0 etc.)
$db_iis = 0;
# Field number of category in category.db
$db_main_category = 1;
# Referers -- which hosts are allowed to add to your database.
@db_referers = ();

# Email Options
# --------------------------------------------------------
# NOTE: Be sure to edit the text of the message. It can be found
# in the templates directory: email-add.txt, email-del.txt and
# email-mod.txt respectively.

# Set only ONE of either $db_mail_path which should go to a
# mail program like sendmail, or $db_smtp_server which will use
# a SMTP server. Do not set both at once!

# PATH of sendmail. # SMTP Server
$db_mail_path = '/usr/sbin/sendmail'; $db_smtp_server = '';

# Email address of the administrator. BE SURE TO SET!
$db_admin_email = 'webmaster@thedialogbox.net';

# Notify visitors automatically when their links are validated?
$db_email_add = 0;

# Notify visitors automatically when their links are modified?
$db_email_modify = 0;

# Log all outgoing messages? Put the full path to a logfile and make sure it
# exists and is writeable (chmod 666 -rw-rw-rw-). This logfile can get pretty
# big!
$db_mailer_log = '';

# Build Options
# --------------------------------------------------------
# Setting for popular cutoff, can either be a percent (i.e. top 3%), or
# a fixed value (i.e. top 10). Enter 0.03 or 10 respectively.
$db_popular_cutoff = 0.03; # Top 3%
# Number of days a link is considered New.
$db_new_cutoff = 14; # 14 days old.
# Return search results bolded (1 = yes, 0 = no).
$search_bold = 1;
# The name of an index file.
$build_index = "index.html";
# The extension to use for non index files:
$build_extension = ".html";

# Should your add.cgi automatically select what category the user
# is adding his link into?
$db_single_category = 1;

# Directory Permissions. Do NOT put quotes around it. Set to 0777
# for world writeable. If you put this at 0755, you might need a
# script to remove any directories created as they will be owned
# by the web server or user nobody. Better solution might be to
# run the nph-build routine from the command shell.
$build_dir_per = 0777;

# The script can now break up category pages that have more then x
# number of links in it. It will also create next and previous links
# to help navigate. Set this to 1 if you want to break up pages or 0 if
# you want to have only one page per category.
# Setting this to one, will also break up the What's New pages into
# per day sections (not affected by number of links per page).
$build_span_pages = 1;

# Number of links per page.
$build_links_per_page = 10;

# Detailed View: The script can build a single html page per link. This is
# great if you have a review in your database. To enable, you must set
# the directory where all the pages will be stored, the url to that directory
# and set the enable option.
$build_detailed = 0;
$build_detail_path = "$build_root_path/Detailed";
$build_detail_url = "$build_root_url/Detailed";

# Use Templates: instead of editing site_html.pl, you can edit regular html pages
# encoded with special <%links_tags%>. It's not as flexible as site_html.pl, but it
# may be easier.
$build_use_templates = 1;

# Site Title, the default title to use. You should really spend some time customizing
# the directory though!
$build_site_title = 'Gossamer Threads Links';

# Date Routines
# --------------------------------------------------------
# Your date format can be whatever you like, as long as the following
# two functions are defined &date_to_unix and &unix_to_date:
# The default is dd-mmm-yyyy.

sub date_to_unix {
# --------------------------------------------------------
# This routine must take your date format and return the time a la UNIX time().
# Some things to be careful about..
# timelocal does not like to be in array context, don't do my($time) = timelocal (..)
# int your values just in case to remove spaces, etc.
# catch the fatal error timelocal will generate if you have a bad date..
# don't forget that the month is indexed from 0!
#
my $date = shift; my $i;
my %months = map { $_ => $i++ } qw!Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec!;
my ($day, $mon, $year) = split(/-/, $date);

exists $months{$mon} or return undef;
$day = int($day); $year = $year - 1900;

require Time::Local;
my $time = 0;
eval {
$time = &Time::Local::timelocal(0,0,0, $day, $months{$mon}, $year);
};
if ($@) { die "invalid date format: $date - parsed as (day: $day, month: $months{$mon}, year: $year). Reason: $@"; }
return $time;
}

sub unix_to_date {
# --------------------------------------------------------
# This routine must take a unix time and return your date format
# A much simpler routine, just make sure your format isn't so complex that
# you can't get it back into unix time.
#
my $time = shift;
my ($sec, $min, $hour, $day, $mon, $year, $dweek, $dyear, $tz) = localtime $time;
my @months = qw!Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec!;
$year = $year + 1900;
return "$day-$months[$mon]-$year";
}

sub long_date {
# --------------------------------------------------------
# This routine is for printing a nicer date format on the what's new page. It should
# take in a date in your current format and return a new one.
my $time = shift;
$time = &date_to_unix ($time);
my ($sec, $min, $hour, $day, $mon, $year, $dweek, $dyear, $tz) = localtime $time;
my @months = qw!January February March April May June July August September October November December!;
my @days = qw!Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday!;
$year = $year + 1900;
return "$days[$dweek], $months[$mon] $day $year";
}

# -------------------------------------------------------------
# Extra Paths -- unless you feel the need to rename files, you
# can leave this as is.
# -------------------------------------------------------------
$db_script_url = $db_dir_url . "/admin.cgi"; # Admin script.
$db_header_path = $db_script_path . "/header"; # Place to store header and footers.
$db_footer_path = $db_script_path . "/footer";
$build_search_url = $db_cgi_url . "/search.cgi"; # URL of search script.
$build_add_url = $db_cgi_url . "/add.cgi"; # URL of add script.
$build_modify_url = $db_cgi_url . "/modify.cgi"; # URL of modify script.
$build_jump_url = $db_cgi_url . "/jump.cgi"; # URL of jump script.
$build_email_url = $db_cgi_url . "/subscribe.cgi"; # URL of email update script.
$build_rate_url = $db_cgi_url . "/rate.cgi"; # URL of rate script.
$db_mail_url = $db_dir_url . "/nph-email.cgi"; # URL of admin mass mail script.
$build_css_url = $build_root_url . "/links.css"; # URL to your CSS file.

$db_lib_path = $db_script_path; # PATH of library files.
$db_links_name = "$db_script_path/data/links.db"; # PATH to links database.
$db_category_name = "$db_script_path/data/categories.db"; # PATH to category database.
$db_valid_name = "$db_script_path/data/validate.db"; # PATH to validation database.
$db_modified_name = "$db_script_path/data/modified.db"; # PATH to modification database.
$db_url_name = "$db_script_path/data/url.db"; # PATH to URL lookup database.
$db_email_name = "$db_script_path/data/email.db"; # PATH to email database.
$db_links_id_file_name = "$db_script_path/data/linksid.txt"; # PATH to links counter file.
$db_category_id_file_name = "$db_script_path/data/categoryid.txt"; # PATH to category counter file.
$db_hits_path = "$db_script_path/data/hits"; # PATH to hits directory.
$db_template_path = "$db_script_path/templates"; # PATH to templates.
$db_rates_path = "$db_script_path/data/rates"; # PATH to ratings.
1;

Thank you in advance for any assistance! Smile


Quote Reply
Re: Multiple 500 Errors In reply to
Have you tried using the ABSOLUTE PATH for ALL CGI scripts (*.cgi) in the first require line???????????

Like the following:

Code:

require "/home/thedialogbox/www/cgi-bin/links/admin/links.cfg";


If that doesn't work, then you possible have the WRONG absolute paths configured in your links.cfg file.

Also, triple check your PERL path in ALL your .cgi scripts. That typically is the main cause for Internal Server Errors as stated in the README file.

Regards,

Eliot Lee
Quote Reply
Re: Multiple 500 Errors In reply to
Mr. Lee,

Thank you for the assistance. I have tried everything you mentioned, to no success. I used telnet, and ran the perl command (with the -w option) on all of the cgi's in the links directory (since they all seem to be the ones causing the server errors). The following message came up for search.cgi:

Name "main::db_use_flock" used only once: possible typo at search.cgi line 209.
Name "main::numcat" used only once: possible typo at search.cgi line 261.
Name "main::build_root_url" used only once: possible typo at search.cgi line 292.
Name "main::search_bold" used only once: possible typo at search.cgi line 127.
Name "main::build_use_templates" used only once: possible typo at search.cgi line 39.
Name "main::search_fields" used only once: possible typo at search.cgi line 220.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /www/thedialogbox/cgi-bin/links/admin/db_utils.pl line 572.
Use of uninitialized value in string eq at /www/thedialogbox/cgi-bin/links/admin/db_utils.pl line 572.


The bolded section appears when I run the perl -w option on each cgi in the directory (add.cgi, jump.cgi, modify.cgi, rate.cgi, search.cgi, subscribe.cgi). Do you think that the error may be in the db_utils.pl file? I have looked through it, but have found no use of absolute references that I could alter.

Thanks again for all of your help! Smile

Joshua Marine


Quote Reply
Re: Multiple 500 Errors In reply to
Are you hosted at OLM.net?

-harris

Quote Reply
Re: Multiple 500 Errors In reply to
Have you chacked the paths to perl.

....and links in links.db do not require validating......the links in validate.db need validating.


Paul Wilson. Shocked
(Dont blame me if I'm wrong!)