Lisa,
Thanks!
I synthesized from your answer and realized that my use of 'use CGI::Carp
qw/fatalsToBrowser/;' was having me die long before I could have the code
handle the problem. I commented out the '...Carp...' block and, indeed, my
builtin code handled the error the way I'd intended.
I was even able to see my 'friendly' ;-) user's error message: "Because your
message was too long, we ran out of electrons. Please shorten your e-mail
message.". When I shortened the message to less than the 4K I spec'd, the
form and code did the right thing and produced the intended e-mail.
Follow-up question: Does POST_MAX measure the length of the incoming stream
as the code asks for it -- $recd_data = $form->param('sent_data'); -- and
then pulls the plug if 'sent_data' goes outside the bounds of acceptable
social behavior?
I ask because, while this change worked in my current program, I want to
more fully understand the working principles for my next system.
Thanks.
John--
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
-----Original Message-----
From: Lisa Nyman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Thursday, August 23, 2001 1:20 PM
To: John
Cc: Beginners-CGI
Subject: Re: CGI::POST_MAX use and control
Hi,
On Thu, 23 Aug 2001, John wrote:
> The current incarnation of my script blows itself out of the water if the
> $user_body variable (the TEXTAREA source) is greater than 4K, for example.
> This is good.
>
> I would like to be able to capture and control the process so that I don't
> get rudely blown out of the water with a crude 500 Server message (this
> would be gooder! <g>). I would like to: a)generate a useful message and,
b)
> set some flags, do some more processing, and send a message back to the
user
> to give them an opportunity to correct their input and atone for their
sins.
> (This would be more gooder! <g>)
In general, you always want to die gracefully from within a web script so
the error is logged and the user doesn't get an icky 500 error page.
For example, in database apps I write, for any error, I tell the user the
database is unavailable and I log the error.
The following has worked for me when dealing with POST_MAX:
use CGI qw/:standard/;
$CGI::POST_MAX=1024 * 10;
$CGI::DISABLE_UPLOADS = 1;
$| = 1;
my $page = new CGI;
print $page->header;
$run = $page->param('RUN');
if (!$run && cgi_error()) {
# do whatever you do for an error
&dieWell ("413: Max Posting surpassed.");
}
sub dieWell {
my $message = shift;
# remember to print proper headers if not done by now
print "$thanks_for_playing_message\n";
# do logging of $message if you want, send yourself email, whatever
&footer; # end my html -
exit;
}
Lisa Wolfisch Nyman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> IT Warrior Princess
"Life is too short to wear ugly underwear."
Get the facts at http://quickfacts.census.gov/
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