Running external program from CGI/Perl

[elsanto666]

Hi all,

I'm from Java and new to perl. I'd like to call from computer A a program on computer B, so to avoid any firewall or network settings, I decided to use port 80 and have an Apache server sitting on computer B that will get an HTTP request from A and run the program.
So I started learning cgi scripting with Perl and I can get computer A to call basic commands on computer B like "dir" ...
But when I do something more complex, like calling a prog.exe, the web page hangs, the prog.exe process is visible in the computer B task manager and nothing happens.
Any advise is welcome
Thanks a lot

 

[stevexff]

Hey, we should think up a name for this. How about 'web service'?

But seriously, how are you 'calling' the program from your CGI script - post some code and we'll have a look at it...

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]

 

[elsanto666]

I call the script by visiting a URL :

http://localhost/myscript.cgi

myscript.cgi has a line : system("windows.bat");
and windows.bat is
cd "C:\Program Files\TTB"
ttb.exe

Thanks

 

[stevexff]

I think we can probably lose the BAT file, as it may be spawning a command window which may be the source of the hang. Something along the lines of

my @command_output = qx{C:/Program Files/TTB/ttb.exe};

might do it, although you may need to mess about quoting the path to the command because of the space in Program Files. Sorry I'm on Linux just now so can't test this properly...

Steve

[small]"Every program can be reduced by one instruction, and every program has at least one bug. Therefore, any program can be reduced to one instruction which doesn't work." (Object:erlDesignPatterns)[/small]