" ... > open(FILE,">somefile") or die "Cannot open 'somefile' $!";
Not being argumentative here but I've seen this said before. Not really sure why it is important. I mean why is the open action singled out for this protection. It seems other actions could also cause a misfired script? ..." --Harry Hi Harry, Your scepticism is appropriate here, although possibly for the wrong reason. The die function can be very useful working in console mode, but it is hell for CGI debugging. Since errors go into the server error log, which tends to be accessible only to the system admin, it can be damn near useless to have die statements in a CGI script. File opening is particularly vulnerable to forces external to your program compared with other operations. The basic concept is that if you don't have a source for your information, you have nothing to go on. Still, unless further activity in your scri8pt can be destructive of data, it may not be necessary to die. For cont3exts where die leaves me without sufficient information for debugging, I prefer print: open (NEWMEMBERS, "< newmember.txt" or print "<h3> Sorry, file newmembers.txt did not open because $!</h3>\n"; Of course, I am now in debugging mode. Before I release my CGI for public use, I will probably substitue a cleanup function: $FileName = "newmember.txt" open (NEWMEMBERS, "< $FileName" or SignalOpenFailureAndDie($FileName, $!); where SignalOpenFailureAndDie() prints a page briefly explaining to the user why they are not getting expected results. Joseph -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
