PERL Scripts Do Not Run

ID: Q186801

The information in this article applies to:

Microsoft Internet Information Server version 4.0

SYMPTOMS

PERL scripts do not run.

In addition, the following are additional error messages and symptoms that have been related to PERL not being installed or set up properly:

The server failed to load application:

PERL scripts in SSL cause Inetinfo.exe to fail, causing an access violation.

During installation of PERL: "Could not find path"

WORKAROUND

Use Up-To-Date Version of PERL That Automatically Configures IIS

NOTE: A version of PERL that some Internet Information Server (IIS) users use is provided by ActiveState. For more information, visit http://www.activestate.com/. As of May 1998, the most recent build of ActiveState's PERL version 5.0 was 316 (5.003_16), which is self- configuring.

Install the latest version and build of PERL for Win32 (core of PERL) and the matching version and build of PERL for ISAPI (IIS extension). Note that if these version and build numbers do not match, PERL will not run.

These downloaded files should be self-extracting executable (.exe) files for the Intel platform. When you run these .exe files, accept most or all of the default settings.

If IIS 4.0 is already installed, and its default settings have not been changed, PERL should run properly. If the defaults have been changed, see below for more information.

If IIS 4.0 Default Settings Have Been Changed

If some of the IIS 4.0 default settings have been changed, first install PERL (as described in the previous section of this article), and then perform the following steps:

Make sure that the Web site containing the PERL scripts has an application set up. To do this, perform the following steps:
1. In the Internet Service Manager (ISM), right-click the directory that is the application starting point, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Home Directory, Virtual Directory, or Directory tab.
3. Under Application Settings, verify that the Name text box is not dimmed, and that it contains a name.
4. If the dialog box is dimmed, click Create to create an application, and then give the application a name (the default name is "Default Application").
5. Under Permissions, verify that "Execute (including script)" is selected.
For more information about setting up applications, open the following in the online Product Documentation's table of contents:
- Microsoft Internet Information Server
- Server Administration
- Configuring Applications

Verify that application mapping for .pl files is set up. To do this, perform the following steps:
1. In the ISM, under Internet Information Server, right-click the computer name, and then click Properties.
2. In the Master Properties drop-down list box, select WWW Service and then click Edit.
3. Select the Home Directory tab, and then click Configuration.
4. On the App Mappings tab, an entry similar to the following should be listed (this entry varies depending on the actual location of PerlIS.dll on the computer):
```
         .pl   C:\Perl\bin\PerlIS.dll
    
```
5. If the application mapping has not been set up (as described in the preceding step), click Add, and then create a new mapping, using the following information (substituting the correct path on your computer for "<path>"):
```
         Executable: <path>\perlis.dll
         Extension: .pl
         Script Engine: Checked
         Click OK.
      
```

Verify that the file and directory permissions are set correctly in the computer's Access Control List (ACL). For anonymous access, the IUSR_<computername> and IWAM_<computername> user accounts must have at least Read permission (RX). When using other types of password authentication, the permissions needed may vary.

MORE INFORMATION

To test if PERL is installed properly, perform the following steps:

Type the following lines of code in a text editor such as Notepad:


      print "HTTP/1.0 200 OK\n";
      print "Content-Type: text/html\n\n";

      print "<HTML>\n";
      print "<HEAD>\n";
      print "<TITLE>Hello World</TITLE>\n";
      print "</HEAD>\n";
      print "<BODY>\n";
      print "<H4>Hello World</H4>\n";
      print "<P>\n";
      print "Your IP Address is $ENV{REMOTE_ADDR}.\n";
      print "<P>";
      print "<H5>Have a nice day</H5>\n";
      print "</BODY>\n";
      print "</HTML>\n";

Save the file to the Web site, using the file name Helloworld.pl.

Browse Helloworld.pl on the Web site:

http://<computer_name>/<path>/Helloworld.pl

STATUS

The third-party products discussed here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.

Keywords :
Version : WINNT:4.0
Platform : winnt
Issue type : kbprb