Depending on how you upload your CGI programs to your site, you may need to perform operating system dependent conversions before the files will properly execute. Even after making the changes, you still might experience problems due to programming errors. To help you setup and debug your CGI programs, ControlPoint provides several useful utilities, described below and accessable by selecting "CGI Utilities" on the Navigation menu.

Stipping Carriage Returns and setting File Permissions

If you have uploaded your CGI programs from a non-UNIX system, you may have problems executing them. Two common reasons are because either the file permissions are wrong, or the carriage return character is not correct for a UNIX operating system. You may fix both problems at once by entering the program name in the "Strip CR and chmod 755" section of the Work Area, and click on "Check CGI" button.

Tail Error Log

To help debug your site, you may launch a separate window which always shows the last several lines from the server error log. To launch your window, enter the number of lines you wish to see, and the number of seconds between refreshing the display of the new window. Now click on the "Tail Log" button. The last lines of your error logs will now display in a separate browser window that will refresh according to the time you entered. When you are finished viewing your logs, simply close the window with the "Close Window" button located on the Title Bar.