Question

I fixed it! During the step where you are supposed to rename all the perl scripts to a .cgi extension (because that's what 1&1 requires), I ran this command:

      cd twiki/bin
      for i in `ls`; do mv $i $i.cgi; done;

Well, this script worked great - too well in fact. It renamed the setlib.cfg file to setlib.cfg.cgi!!!! Of course this breaks every script trying to include it.

Now my question is, how the heck did testenv.cgi work?? This test should be added to the testenv script - sorry, I would do it myself but my perl skills are amateurish

Thanks for the great product! I can't wait to get started using it for my own personal stuff (as opposed to the boring stuff at work:)

--Dave.

Original Question

When I run any of the scripts (other than testenv), I get a "error 500: Internal Server Error" screen. See http://tearesolutions.com/bin/twiki/bin/view.cgi/Main/WebHome.

Amazingly, my testenv works great! Take a look http://tearesolutions.com/bin/twiki/bin/testenv.cgi. I have installed TWiki on my own machines twice and once testenv works, I have never had any troubles. This new installation is hosted by 1&1. What gives?

The worst part is I can't seem to find any logs!!? The twiki/data/debug.txt is empty, and so is warning.txt. I can't seem to find the apache logs; there is nothing in the /var/logs dorectory, which is not surprising because it is a hosted site, but after I update ErrorLog in my local httpd.conf, no logs are created.

Please help me find out what I'm missing!

Thanks! --Dave.

Environment

-- TWikiGuest - 19 Feb 2004

Answer

The first thing is to get the Apache logs, as you've been trying to do. Presumably this is a new Apache installation or the logs would already be working. I would just point ErrorLog at /var/log/apache/log (note spelling of /var/log, no 's'), making sure all these directories exist (mkdir -p /var/log/apache while su'ed to the Apache userid).

Also, check the permissions on the log file and its containing directory. Since 1&1 is a web hosting company, the simplest approach may be to ask them where the logs are - it's likely that they are somewhere under your home directory if this is a shared webhost. See also TWikiOnWebHostingSites.

Your testenv setup looks OK, and since testenv loads TWiki.pm in a similar way to normal scripts, I'm not sure what the issue could be without this error output. It's worth re-reading your webhost's documentation on how to install CGI scripts, particularly any restrictions on permissions - if they use suexec as in DreamhostSetupNotes, you may find a slight permissions change causes this type of error.

-- RichardDonkin - 19 Feb 2004

I set this to "answered" and filed a "Feature Request" for testenv to warn when setlib.cfg is not available.

Note that testenv specifically checks if setlib.cfg is there, and specifically avoids barfing in that case. Since someone thought that aspect of things through at least that far, I haven't hacked into testenv myself to change it, lest there be some reason why testenv should not really care about setlib.cfg!

-- MartinGregory - 30 Mar 2004

The CGI requirement is most likely caused by the Plesk control panel that 1&1 uses. I've spent a couple of days trying to get this and other perl programs to work, only to have to add the .pl extention to the files in bin.

-- BobVanCleef - 15 Apr 2007