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Common problem, no solution, please help

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Common problem, no solution, please help
This is the third time in one year that I have tried to install this script, with no luck :( I get the 500 error when I try to access admin.cgi or any of the cgi files. My server administrator set permissions for me ( I sent him exact permissions ). It is an NT server. The first line of all .cgi files is left blank. Server administrator confirmed my path d:/html/users/commercialapexcom/html/ also, everything in the cgi-bin was uploaded in ascii. Any ideas? Is anyone willing to try this out? This is so frustrating! No answers were found on this site.

Here is the links.cfg

# PATH and URL of Admin CGI directory. No Trailing Slash.
$db_script_path = "d:/html/users/commercialapexcom/html/cgi-bin/links/admin";
$db_dir_url = "http://commercialapex.com/cgi-bin/links/admin";

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

# PATH and URL of Pages to be built. No Trailing Slash.
$build_root_path = "d:/html/users/commercialapexcom/html/pages";
$build_root_url = "http://commercialapex.com/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 = ''; $db_smtp_server = '';

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

# 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;

Quote Reply
Re: Common problem, Error building In reply to
Ok, the last problem was fixed when my host tinkered with IIS. Now admin.cgi and search.cgi are working fine. I am now getting an error when I add the category United_States_and_Canada. This is what I get when I build. Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!

Building Pages
Pages built on 14-Jan-2001 at 20:53:44
--------------------------------------------------------

Backing up database . . .
Backup exists for today.. Skipping
Done.

Building URL Index . . .
Done.

Updating New and Popular Records . . .
What's New Cutoff: 14 days
Popular Cutoff: 2 hits

CGI ERROR
==========================================
Error Message : Error building! Links database is 0 bytes!
Script Location : D:\html\users\commercialapexcom\html\cgi-bin\links\admin\nph-build.cgi
Perl Version : 5.006

Form Variables
-------------------------------------------

Environment Variables
-------------------------------------------
ALLUSERSPROFILE : C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
COMMONPROGRAMFILES : C:\Program Files\Common Files
COMPUTERNAME : WEB36
COMSPEC : C:\WINNT\system32\cmd.exe
NUMBER_OF_PROCESSORS: 2
OS : Windows_NT
OS2LIBPATH : C:\WINNT\system32\os2\dll
PATH : C:\WINNT\system32;C:\WINNT;C:\WINNT\System32\Wbem;C:\Perl\bin;C:\bin
PATHEXT : .COM;.EXE;.BAT;.CMD;.VBS;.VBE;.JS;.JSE;.WSF;.WSH
PROCESSOR_ARCHITECTURE: x86
PROCESSOR_IDENTIFIER: x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 3, GenuineIntel
PROCESSOR_LEVEL : 6
PROCESSOR_REVISION : 0803
PROGRAMFILES : C:\Program Files
QUERY_STRING :
REQUEST_METHOD : GET
SYSTEMDRIVE : C:
SYSTEMROOT : C:\WINNT
TEMP : C:\WINNT\TEMP
TMP : C:\WINNT\TEMP
USERPROFILE : C:\Documents and Settings\Default User
WINDIR : C:\WINNT


Quote Reply
Re: Common problem, Error building In reply to
You have to ADD links before building your directory. The error message indicates that there are NO links in the links.db file, thus the building stops.

Regards,

Eliot Lee
Quote Reply
Re: Common problem, Error building In reply to
Thank you so much! I should have thought of that on my own, all is well now.

BizyGal

Quote Reply
Re: Common problem, Error building In reply to
OR you should've read the README File where it plainly states what you should do to test the Links scripts...Tongue

Regards,

Eliot Lee