Very Computer

> > > Subject: (Fwd) Problems running perl program...

> > > Gentlemen,

> > > I have set up a message board program on new virtual server for a
> > > client.

> > > I'm having a hard time finding the .conf file line to tweak/add to get the
> > > program running correctly. The problems are:

> > > When accessing the URL "www.rrmag.com/lion" containing the
> > > scripts from a browser, a 403 error is displayed-- "The requested
> > > URL /lion/ was not found on this server." The perl program should
> > > display the "index.html" file upon execution of the script.

> > > However, if I type the complete command line from the browser,
> > > "www.rrmag.com/lion/main.cgi" the program will execute and function
> > > correctly but the ".gif" files will not display in the html docs (they
> > > are in the same dir and referenced in the scripts).

> > > The only .conf file I modified was "srm.conf" where I added a
> > > ScriptAlias to activate the "lion (program lives in)" dir. for CGI.

> > > I added a .htaccess file in the server root dir with the following
> > > lines:

> > > Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
> > > AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .cgi
> > > AddType text/x-server-parsed-html .html

> > > What do I need to change to get this program running correctly? Any
> > > help would be appreciated.

> > > Rick Ciaccio
> > > Mesa Industries

> > Rick-

> > To be frank... I don't think that you should add a new ScriptAlias
> > in the srm.conf unless you know what you're doing.  Just create
> > a subdirectory "lion" in the cgi-bin area and run all of the
> > scripts from there.  The problem is you cannot server CGI's and
> > HTML/GIF images from the same directory.  The ScriptAlias will
> > only allow you to execute from that directory... you won't be
> > able to get an index of that directory or server HTML or any
> > other content from that directory- it is a security violation
> > to do so.  The whole beauty of the virtual server is that it allows
> > you to have a separate and distinct cgi-bin area.  I recommend
> > that you take advantage of that feature and place the cgi scripts
> > where they belong... in the cgi-bin area.

> > Warm regards,

> > Rus Berrett
> > Staff Member, Iserver Support

> Rus,

> I did place the program in the /cgi-bin/lion directory and tried it--
> same results. The way this particular perl program is written, all
> the .gif and .html files are in the same directory.

> As I understand your message, it is not possible to get .gif and
> .html files from the cgi directory, only execute scripts. So this
> program is worthless on a virtual server as written?
>The program is worthless on any NCSA httpd server as far as I
>know.  The author may have developed it for another type of web
>server- this I have no way of knowing.  It probably wouldn't
>take too much to rewrite it.
>Another possible approach is to not use the ScriptAlias to get
>the CGI to run.  Rather uncomment out the line in srm.conf that
>enables CGI's to be executed from *any* directory:
>AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .cgi
>(if you wanted files with .pl extension to be executed add that
>to the definition).
>You will also need to add the "ExecCGI" directive to your
>htdocs directory options in your access.conf file.

> Rick Ciaccio
> Mesa Industries

>Does anyone know of how to configure Apache so that it changes
>to different user(s) for CGI programs?

>Eliot Muir

> The default setup is that if the server is started by 'root', it will
> run as 'nobody', but you can change that user in the conf files.  If
> it is started by another user, it will run as that user.  It is best
> to stick with a default user that has minimal permissions.

> If the users want to do something that requires their permissions,
> they can run setuid scripts (chmod 4755).  Perl is good for that
> because it halts with an error if they attempt to do anything insecure
> from an suid script.

> David Efflandt/Elgin, IL USA