@node CGI/Carp, CGI/Fast, CGI/BasePlus, Module List
@unnumbered CGI routines for writing to the HTTPD (or other) error log


@unnumberedsec NAME

@strong{CGI::Carp} - CGI routines for writing to the HTTPD (or other) error log

@unnumberedsec SYNOPSIS

@example
use CGI::Carp;
@end example

@example
croak "We@'re outta here!";
confess "It was my fault: $!";
carp "It was your fault!";   
warn "I@'m confused";
die  "I@'m dying.\n";
@end example

@unnumberedsec DESCRIPTION

CGI scripts have a nasty habit of leaving warning messages in the error
logs that are neither time stamped nor fully identified.  Tracking down
the script that caused the error is a pain.  This fixes that.  Replace
the usual

@example
use Carp;
@end example

with

@example
use CGI::Carp
@end example

And the standard warn(), die (), croak(), confess() and carp() calls
will automagically be replaced with functions that write out nicely
time-stamped messages to the HTTP server error log.

For example:

@example
[Fri Nov 17 21:40:43 1995] test.pl: I@'m confused at test.pl line 3.
[Fri Nov 17 21:40:43 1995] test.pl: Got an error message: Permission denied.
[Fri Nov 17 21:40:43 1995] test.pl: I@'m dying.
@end example

@unnumberedsec REDIRECTING ERROR MESSAGES

By default, error messages are sent to STDERR.  Most HTTPD servers
direct STDERR to the server@'s error log.  Some applications may wish
to keep private error logs, distinct from the server@'s error log, or
they may wish to direct error messages to STDOUT so that the browser
will receive them.

The @code{carpout()} function is provided for this purpose.  Since
carpout() is not exported by default, you must import it explicitly by
saying

@example
use CGI::Carp qw(carpout);
@end example

The carpout() function requires one argument, which should be a
reference to an open filehandle for writing errors.  It should be
called in a BEGIN block at the top of the CGI application so that
compiler errors will be caught.  Example:

@example
BEGIN @{
  use CGI::Carp qw(carpout);
  open(LOG, ">>/usr/local/cgi-logs/mycgi-log") or
    die("Unable to open mycgi-log: $!\n");
  carpout(LOG);
@}
@end example

carpout() does not handle file locking on the log for you at this point.

The real STDERR is not closed -- it is moved to SAVEERR.  Some
servers, when dealing with CGI scripts, close their connection to the
browser when the script closes STDOUT and STDERR.  SAVEERR is used to
prevent this from happening prematurely.

You can pass filehandles to carpout() in a variety of ways.  The "correct"
way according to Tom Christiansen is to pass a reference to a filehandle 
GLOB:

@example
carpout(\*LOG);
@end example

This looks weird to mere mortals however, so the following syntaxes are
accepted as well:

@example
carpout(LOG);
carpout(main::LOG);
carpout(main@'LOG);
carpout(\LOG);
carpout(\@'main::LOG@');
@end example

@example
... and so on
@end example

Use of carpout() is not great for performance, so it is recommended
for debugging purposes or for moderate-use applications.  A future
version of this module may delay redirecting STDERR until one of the
CGI::Carp methods is called to prevent the performance hit.

@unnumberedsec MAKING PERL ERRORS APPEAR IN THE BROWSER WINDOW

If you want to send fatal (die, confess) errors to the browser, ask to 
import the special "fatalsToBrowser" subroutine:

@example
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
die "Bad error here";
@end example

Fatal errors will now be echoed to the browser as well as to the log.  CGI::Carp
arranges to send a minimal HTTP header to the browser so that even errors that
occur in the early compile phase will be seen.
Nonfatal errors will still be directed to the log file only (unless redirected
with carpout).

@unnumberedsec AUTHORS

Lincoln D. Stein <lstein@@genome.wi.mit.edu>.  Feel free to redistribute
this under the Perl Artistic License.

carpout() added and minor corrections by Marc Hedlund
<hedlund@@best.com> on 11/26/95.

@unnumberedsec SEE ALSO

Carp, CGI::Base, CGI::BasePlus, CGI::Request, CGI::MiniSvr, CGI::Form,
CGI::Response

