[sf-perl] Getting Help (was Re: Debugging a CGI script - how)

[Quinn Weaver]

On Sat, Mar 08, 2008 at 11:17:33AM -0800, David Fetter wrote:

> Does anybody have a reference on how to write a good bug report/shout
> out for help?

Unfortunately, I don't.  I'd be interested to know of one and, if
someone can find one that looks good enough, I will include it in the
metadata (intro email, et cetera) for this list.

Meanwhile, for the purposes of this conversation:

Neil, we need a lot more detail and code samples if we're going to debug
this specific problem.

On the other hand, if you just want general tips about debugging
Apache scripts (so you can pursue it on your own), Joe's recommendations
are spot-on.

I'll add that it's possible to connect the Perl debugger to an Apache
process.  Matt Lanier gave a nice talk on this some years ago.
Here are his notes:
http://www.lanier.org/~matt/ad-talk/launch-perldb.html

Meanwhile, since you're just starting out with Apache and have lots of
questions, you should pick up one of the books on the subject.
If you're using Apache 1.3.x (as opposed to Apache 2), I highly recommend the
mod_perl Developer's Cookbook.  It's very well-written, and it's
broken up into "recipes" so you can get at exactly what you want
(they're self-contained, so that you need little or no prior knowledge
to benefit from a given recipe).  You can peelk at the table of contents
and some samples here:  http://www.modperlcookbook.org/

Thanks,

-- 
Quinn Weaver, independent contractor  |  President, San Francisco Perl Mongers
http://fairpath.com/quinn/resume/     |  http://sf.pm.org/
510-520-5217