cgi web app gives "premature end of script headers" but it's there

#1 (**permalink**) 04-22-2008

To get back to basics from a thread I entered elsewhere, I just tried
to access a small C program that does nothing but create an empty web
page. I put it in cgi-bin and give that folder and the app 755
permissions. When I access mysite.com/cgi-bin/myapp, I get a 500
internal server error and the error log says: "Premature end of script
headers: /home/rbelics/public_html/cgi-bin/test".

However, run locally on the command line, the output is correct:
Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/
TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head><title>

The only thing in the cgi-bin .htaccess file is "Options ExecCGI"

Am I missing something?

#2 (**permalink**) 04-22-2008

On Apr 22, 12:07 pm, drhowarddrfine <robbel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> To get back to basics from a thread I entered elsewhere, I just tried
> to access a small C program that does nothing but create an empty web
> page. I put it in cgi-bin and give that folder and the app 755
> permissions. When I access mysite.com/cgi-bin/myapp, I get a 500
> internal server error and the error log says: "Premature end of script
> headers: /home/rbelics/public_html/cgi-bin/test".
> However, run locally on the command line, the output is correct:
> Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/
> TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head><title>
> The only thing in the cgi-bin .htaccess file is "Options ExecCGI"
> Am I missing something?

Perhaps your push cart ran outa gas?? Then again this comes up over
and
over when someone embeds ^M characters in a cgi by using a M$ editor
to create it in the first place. It works on command line but Apache
sees
^M and bales. Perhaps Dr. Curly could perform an operation...

#3 (**permalink**) 04-22-2008

usenetpersongerryt@gmail.com wrote:

> On Apr 22, 12:07 pm, drhowarddrfine <robbel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>> To get back to basics from a thread I entered elsewhere, I just tried
>> to access a small C program that does nothing but create an empty web
>> page. I put it in cgi-bin and give that folder and the app 755
>> permissions. When I access mysite.com/cgi-bin/myapp, I get a 500
>> internal server error and the error log says: "Premature end of
>> script headers: /home/rbelics/public_html/cgi-bin/test".
>> However, run locally on the command line, the output is correct:
>> Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
>> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/
>> TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head><title>
>> The only thing in the cgi-bin .htaccess file is "Options ExecCGI"
>> Am I missing something?
>
> Perhaps your push cart ran outa gas?? Then again this comes up over
> and
> over when someone embeds ^M characters in a cgi by using a M$ editor
> to create it in the first place. It works on command line but Apache
> sees ^M and bales. Perhaps Dr. Curly could perform an operation...

Yes. Sure. He uses notepad.exe and then sets file permissions to 0755 on
a file in /home/rbelics/public_html/... Sounds reasonable.

Felix

#4 (**permalink**) 04-22-2008

drhowarddrfine wrote:

> To get back to basics from a thread I entered elsewhere, I just tried
> to access a small C program that does nothing but create an empty web
> page. I put it in cgi-bin and give that folder and the app 755
> permissions. When I access mysite.com/cgi-bin/myapp, I get a 500
> internal server error and the error log says: "Premature end of script
> headers: /home/rbelics/public_html/cgi-bin/test".
>
> However, run locally on the command line, the output is correct:
> Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
>
> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/
> TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head><title>
>
> The only thing in the cgi-bin .htaccess file is "Options ExecCGI"
>
> Am I missing something?

Perhaps: Who's the owner of that compiled C program? If you're owner and
the permissions are set to 0755, then the apache user (perhaps wwwrun?)
won't be allowed to execute the program. Does it work after chmod 0777?

Felix

#5 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008

On Apr 22, 5:46 pm, Felix Saphir <dasr060-use...@yahoo.de> wrote:
> drhowarddrfine wrote:
> > To get back to basics from a thread I entered elsewhere, I just tried
> > to access a small C program that does nothing but create an empty web
> > page. I put it in cgi-bin and give that folder and the app 755
> > permissions. When I access mysite.com/cgi-bin/myapp, I get a 500
> > internal server error and the error log says: "Premature end of script
> > headers: /home/rbelics/public_html/cgi-bin/test".
>
> > However, run locally on the command line, the output is correct:
> > Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
>
> > <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/
> > TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head><title>
>
> > The only thing in the cgi-bin .htaccess file is "Options ExecCGI"
>
> > Am I missing something?
>
> Perhaps: Who's the owner of that compiled C program? If you're owner and
> the permissions are set to 0755, then the apache user (perhaps wwwrun?)
> won't be allowed to execute the program. Does it work after chmod 0777?
>
> Felix

Changing it to 777 didn't do anything. I should say that I'm on a
shared host system and not my own.
That's a question I have about ownership. The static html files are
accessed, though. Were uploaded the same way.

I compiled this little program on FreeBSD but it's a Linux platform.
Could that have anything to do with it? All it is is a series of
printfs to stdout.

#6 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008

On Apr 22, 3:42 pm, Felix Saphir <dasr060-use...@yahoo.de> wrote:
> usenetpersonger...@gmail.com wrote:
> > On Apr 22, 12:07 pm, drhowarddrfine <robbel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> >> To get back to basics from a thread I entered elsewhere, I just tried
> >> to access a small C program that does nothing but create an empty web
> >> page. I put it in cgi-bin and give that folder and the app 755
> >> permissions. When I access mysite.com/cgi-bin/myapp, I get a 500
> >> internal server error and the error log says: "Premature end of
> >> script headers: /home/rbelics/public_html/cgi-bin/test".
> >> However, run locally on the command line, the output is correct:
> >> Content-type: text/html; charset=utf-8
> >> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/
> >> TR/html4/strict.dtd"><html><head><title>
> >> The only thing in the cgi-bin .htaccess file is "Options ExecCGI"
> >> Am I missing something?
> > Perhaps your push cart ran outa gas?? Then again this comes up over and
> > over when someone embeds ^M characters in a cgi by using a M$ editor
> > to create it in the first place. It works on command line but Apache
> > sees ^M and bales. Perhaps Dr. Curly could perform an operation...
> Yes. Sure. He uses notepad.exe and then sets file permissions to 0755 on
> a file in /home/rbelics/public_html/... Sounds reasonable.

I re-read the post and...
Only if the cgi is a script. If its compiled C then no. It could be an
suexec
problem too. And that should be DrHowardDrFineDrHoward. There were 3
Stooges.

#7 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008

And that should be DrHowardDrFineDrHoward. There were 3
> Stooges.

Forums truncate too often.

#8 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008

On Apr 22, 4:25 pm, drhowarddrfine <robbel...@gmail.com> wrote:
> And that should be DrHowardDrFineDrHoward. There were 3 Stooges.
> Forums truncate too often.

Now that we've established that universe is flawed, the origiinal
question
remains... You are attempting to run a cgi in a user directory. As I
recall
suexec must or at least should be enabled for this to work, compiled
binary or script.
The log message may be misleading you.

#9 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008

On Apr 22, 6:37 pm, usenetpersonger...@gmail.com wrote:
> On Apr 22, 4:25 pm, drhowarddrfine <robbel...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > And that should be DrHowardDrFineDrHoward. There were 3 Stooges.
> > Forums truncate too often.
>
> Now that we've established that universe is flawed, the origiinal
> question
> remains... You are attempting to run a cgi in a user directory. As I
> recall
> suexec must or at least should be enabled for this to work, compiled
> binary or script.
> The log message may be misleading you.

I've read elsewhere that might have something to do with it. I'll
pass that along as I finally decided to contact the sysadmins to see
if they can see what's happening. I get the feeling that, unless it's
PHP, they don't know.

#10 (**permalink**) 04-23-2008

Well, it's more complicated than I thought. I compile the app on
FreeBSD but one of the libraries doesn't exist on Linux. I haven't
thoroughly looked into it but I have to find a way to make this more
standalone.

Thanks guys.
Doc

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