use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser) not sending file handle errors tobrowser

[Bennett Haselton]

I wrote the following script to test whether, if I try writing to an
invalid filehandle, the error message would get sent to the browser:
#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use IO::File;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

# This will not open a valid filehandle since the script runs as
nobody
my $fh = IO::File->new("> doesnotexist.txt");
print $fh "foo";

die "Die here, if you get this far";
The line 'print $fh "foo";' does generate an error, however that error
gets written to /var/log/httpd/error_log where it says "Can't use an
undefined value as a symbol reference at /var/www/html/carptest/open-
wrong-file-with-carp-fatalstobrowser.cgi line 11". I want that sent
to the *browser*, not written to the log file. The line 'die "Die
here, if you get this far";' never gets executed.

The CGI::Carp page says that "Nonfatal errors will still be directed
to the log file only". But isn't the file handle error a *fatal*
error, since it caused the script to exit before getting to the 'die
"Die here, if you get this far";' line? And if it's a fatal error,
why didn't it get sent to the browser?

 

[xhoster]

I wrote the following script to test whether, if I try writing to an
invalid filehandle, the error message would get sent to the browser:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use IO::File;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

# This will not open a valid filehandle since the script runs as
nobody
my $fh = IO::File->new("> doesnotexist.txt");
print $fh "foo";

die "Die here, if you get this far";

The line 'print $fh "foo";' does generate an error, however that error
gets written to /var/log/httpd/error_log where it says "Can't use an
undefined value as a symbol reference at /var/www/html/carptest/open-
wrong-file-with-carp-fatalstobrowser.cgi line 11". I want that sent
to the *browser*, not written to the log file. The line 'die "Die
here, if you get this far";' never gets executed.

I can't replicate your problem.

perl -le 'use CGI::Carp; print $CGI::Carp::VERSION'
1.29

perl -le 'use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); use IO::File;
my $fh=IO::File->new("/fooasdf"); print $fh "foo"'


Content-type: text/html


<h1>Software error:</h1>
<pre>Can't use an undefined value as a symbol reference at -e line 1.
....

Xho

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[Gunnar Hjalmarsson]

I wrote the following script to test whether, if I try writing to an
invalid filehandle, the error message would get sent to the browser:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use IO::File;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";

# This will not open a valid filehandle since the script runs as
nobody
my $fh = IO::File->new("> doesnotexist.txt");
print $fh "foo";

die "Die here, if you get this far";

The line 'print $fh "foo";' does generate an error, however that error
gets written to /var/log/httpd/error_log where it says "Can't use an
undefined value as a symbol reference at /var/www/html/carptest/open-
wrong-file-with-carp-fatalstobrowser.cgi line 11". I want that sent
to the *browser*, not written to the log file. The line 'die "Die
here, if you get this far";' never gets executed.

As Xho indicated, you may be using a buggy version of CGI::Carp, so it
could be worth trying to upgrade. The usual check of the return value,
when doing IO operations, may be another solution:

my $fh = IO::File->new("> doesnotexist.txt")
or die "Filehandle creation failed: $!";