Creating a Script

• Start it in Notepad, FTP it.
• Or, do it all in pico.
• Start with the shebang line (#!), which tells the web server where to find the Perl interpreter.
• You have to change the file's permission on oz.  Some servers do that automatically, but you must specify it in oz.
• At the prompt, type chmod 755 script.pl
• Where script.pl is the name of the script you want to run.
• Each number means something.  If you really want to what know, ask me.  Otherwise, know that 755 means you can read/write/execute, and the rest of the world can read and execute the file.
• Comments
• You know they are very important.
• In Perl, the pound or number sign is what starts a comment.
• Example: # This is a commented line.
• In this class, as in real life, comments are important!
• Check Syntax
• This is as far as debugging goes here.
• Type perl -c script.pl to let Perl take a cursory glance at your script.
• Beyond that, if it does not work, you will get a 500-series error when you try to run it.
• Some ISPs actually provide a debug-log of sorts when you get this error.  This is not available on oz.
• The key: write your script in chunks and test it as you add more to it!