Perl Gurus - need a script

[Smegma]

Need a quick script written in Perl.

The only thing it should do is display the following in a web-browser.

"This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another. "

Anyone?

[DrGuile]

why perl?

echo "This emails is unavailable... blabla"; 

[vending_machine]

Why Perl/PHP? Why not straight HTML....

[Smegma]

Hard coded URL to a perl file.. can't change.

[DrGuile]

you can make .cgi or .pl file be parsed by php.. .or be considered html files...


Think outside the box ;p

[nuclei]

#!/usr/bin/perl

use CGI ':cgi';

print header;
print "This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another.\n";
exit;


the above is to display in a web browser. to display as plain text in anything BUT a browser:

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another.\n";
exit;

[salsbury]

this one will auto-detect if it is running from a web hit (note that it isn't the best way. given more time, i would have incorporated references, but it does work as it is)

#!/usr/bin/perl
#
# prints the text
# "This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another. "
# and exits.

# make sure we're not slipping up
use strict;

my $OUT_STRING = '"This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another."';

# support sub-routines

# returns the character, for addition to a buffer
sub bufferChar ($) {
my ($char) = @_;
return $char;
}

sub bufferLine ($) {
my ($line) = @_;
my $out;
foreach my $char (split (//, $line)) {
$out .= &bufferChar ($char);
}
$out .= &bufferChar ("\n");
return $out;
}

# main program

# overall output
my $output;

my $line_output = &bufferLine ($OUT_STRING);

# verify if we're running from a web request
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'}) {
# we are, we need to print headers
my $headers = &bufferLine ("Content-type: text/plain");
$headers .= &bufferLine ("Content-length: " . (length ($line_output)));
$headers .= &bufferLine ("");
print $headers;
}
print $line_output;

exit 0;

[nuclei]

haha nice spaghetti code there, took how many lines to do exactly what the 3 or 4 line scripts i pasted do?

[vending_machine]

Originally posted by nuclei
haha nice spaghetti code there, took how many lines to do exactly what the 3 or 4 line scripts i pasted do?

I think you need to see my signature, think about it for about 120 minutes, and then come back. Mkaye?

[salsbury]

Originally posted by nuclei
haha nice spaghetti code there, took how many lines to do exactly what the 3 or 4 line scripts i pasted do?

oh suure, you and your high and mighty "use CGI" and simple "print" statements doing all the work for you. why, back in my day, things were hard, and we were damn glad for it.

[nuclei]

does what hurt exactly?

that it took someone about 30 lines for a bone dry 3-4 line script?

not at all =)

[nuclei]

Originally posted by salsbury


oh suure, you and your high and mighty "use CGI" and simple "print" statements doing all the work for you. why, back in my day, things were hard, and we were damn glad for it.

heh, I have been here under the same name for a lotta years mate, I was here before CGI.pm. But as for lettin git do the work, hell yes as its 50x faster.

as for the "simple print statements" jibe:

print $headers;
}
print $line_output;

yers does the exact same thing, it just takes you 30 lines to build print "whatever he wanted printed\n";

[salsbury]

Originally posted by nuclei


heh, I have been here under the same name for a lotta years mate, I was here before CGI.pm. But as for lettin git do the work, hell yes as its 50x faster.

ha ha. if it isn't paaaainfully obvious yet, i wrote that as a joke. however, in any case, you might want to compare the two for speed. run each 100 times:

x=0;time while [ $x -lt 100 ];do
./salsbury.script
x=$((x+1))
done

(edit: forgot to increment $x. ha ha.)

and then ./nuclei.script

i did that, and found mine to be 833% faster. and mind is breaking the goddamn line up and then putting it back together again piece by piece!! of course, it would have been faster with references, but those are tricky sometimes.

"use CGI" takes up an inordinate amount of CPU time.

[Smegma]

Thanks! it worked.

[wwwcashmountain]

10 print "This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another. "
20 goto 10

[nuclei]

It does huh?

[root@ns1 /root]# time ./obfuscated.pl
0:00.59elapsed 13%CPU

[root@ns1 /root]# time ./mine.pl
0:00.09elapsed 8%CPU


oooookay

[nuclei]

now lets see, multiply that by 100 right?

[salsbury]

Originally posted by nuclei
It does huh?

[root@ns1 /root]# time ./obfuscated.pl
0:00.59elapsed 13%CPU

[root@ns1 /root]# time ./mine.pl
0:00.09elapsed 8%CPU


oooookay

you gotta run it more than once man. like, 100 times, like i suggested. or did that show exactly what i said it would?

salsbury@root:/home/salsbury$ x=0;time while [ $x -lt 100 ];do ./salsbury > /dev/null; x=$((x+1));done
1.64s real 0.01s user 0.05s system

salsbury@root:/home/salsbury$ x=0;time while [ $x -lt 100 ];do ./nuclei > /dev/null; x=$((x+1));done
13.04s real 0.10s user 0.06s system

[DirkPitt]

How do I write to a data base or text file in perl from a form or a link?

[nuclei]

Originally posted by salsbury


you gotta run it more than once man. like, 100 times, like i suggested. or did that show exactly what i said it would?

salsbury@root:/home/salsbury$ x=0;time while [ $x -lt 100 ];do ./salsbury > /dev/null; x=$((x+1));done
1.64s real 0.01s user 0.05s system

salsbury@root:/home/salsbury$ x=0;time while [ $x -lt 100 ];do ./nuclei > /dev/null; x=$((x+1));done
13.04s real 0.10s user 0.06s system

oh so if i run it 100 times its going to be faster.. umm think about what you just said mate.

if its slower just running it once.....

I mean face it, the guy aint going to run it 100 times everytime he needs it to spit out that line now is he?

[nuclei]

Originally posted by DirkPitt
How do I write to a data base or text file in perl from a form or a link?

you use a form handling script. I would not suggest matts formmail tho :P

[salsbury]

Originally posted by DirkPitt
How do I write to a data base or text file in perl from a form or a link?

take my code (or nuclei's) and add:

open (OUTPUT, ">output.text.tmp") || die "output.text.tmp: $!";
close (OUTPUT);

around it. then replace every 'print' line with

$FINAL_OUTPUT .=

then, add before the close OUTPUT line:

$FINAL_LENGTH = length ($FINAL_OUTPUT);
print OUTPUT $FINAL_OUTPUT;

after the close (OUTPUT);

if (-s "output.text.tmp" == $FINAL_LENGTH) {
rename ("output.text.tmp", "output.text") || die "rename output.text.tmp output.text: $!";
}

and you're done! wala!

[salsbury]

Originally posted by nuclei
oh so if i run it 100 times its going to be faster.. umm think about what you just said mate.

if its slower just running it once.....

that's right, it will be faster. running it once won't show you jack shit. that's like a scientist running an experiment once and declaring it absolute truth.

btw:

From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:

overhead
2: (computer science) the processing time required by a device
prior to the execution of a command [syn: {command
processing overhead time}, {command processing overhead},
{command overhead}]

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02) [foldoc]:

overhead

1. Resources (in computing usually processing time or storage
space) consumed for purposes which are incidental to, but
necessary to, the main one. Overheads are usually
quantifiable "costs" of some kind.

[nuclei]

Originally posted by salsbury


that's right, it will be faster. running it once won't show you jack shit. that's like a scientist running an experiment once and declaring it absolute truth.

btw:

From WordNet (r) 1.7 [wn]:

overhead
2: (computer science) the processing time required by a device
prior to the execution of a command [syn: {command
processing overhead time}, {command processing overhead},
{command overhead}]

From The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (09 FEB 02) [foldoc]:

overhead

1. Resources (in computing usually processing time or storage
space) consumed for purposes which are incidental to, but
necessary to, the main one. Overheads are usually
quantifiable "costs" of some kind.

mate, I dont wanna start a war with ya, yer code works, however, his program calling it is only going to run it one time for each instance it is called. In which case my code is faster with less overhead (CPU usage).

calling it 100 times isnt going to mean a damn thing to him as his use only requires it running once.

[salsbury]

Originally posted by nuclei


mate, I dont wanna start a war with ya, yer code works, however, his program calling it is only going to run it one time for each instance it is called. In which case my code is faster with less overhead (CPU usage).

calling it 100 times isnt going to mean a damn thing to him as his use only requires it running once.

oh so it's war you want?

[nuclei]

hmm ok I ran the same test 10 times (one at a time, the same as his need is) with the only differance being a .01 change in 2 tests.

Now i can say it is truth.

[salsbury]

Originally posted by nuclei
hmm ok I ran the same test 10 times (one at a time, the same as his need is) with the only differance being a .01 change in 2 tests.

Now i can say it is truth.

damn. well, all i can say now is we're some damn fine perl programmers. i'd say we've got this problem licked! i think lensman should make this topic sticky just in case anyone else needs to print a single line using a perl CGI script (or even non-CGI).

[nuclei]

hahahaha

look me up if you have some spare time and want some extra cash mate :P

I assume you can use CGI even if you like arguing against it =)

[DirkPitt]

You guys ever Use iBills ref variables. Do you know the perl code that writes your new member's email to a mysql data base or a .txt file? I'm looking for the complete perl code on your server not iBill's.

[nuclei]

Originally posted by DirkPitt
You guys ever Use iBills ref variables. Do you know the perl code that writes your new member's email to a mysql data base or a .txt file? I'm looking for the complete perl code on your server not iBill's.

Salsbury showed you how to write it to a file.

[The Truth Hurts]

Jesus Fucking Christ nuclei...

I guess there's a good reason it's "PerlCoders" and not "JavaScriptCoders".

Just navigating around that fucker I ended up with 11 instances of the same fucking "PerlCoders Member Benefits" popup, plus the "guided tour" popup, plus the "profitscripts.com" popup, plus the main window I originally went in with.

WHAT THE FUCK?!?!

[nuclei]

Only place you get *any* popups is the free script page. and the only way you can get the guided tour popup window is to CLICK the guided tour links. what browser are you using??

[KC]

Jesus Christ..

He just wants a script to print out a single string.

Why does everyone want to complicate things?? He doesn't need a custom daemon built to handle it, it doesn't need air conditioning and heated seats..

Simple is better!!!! ;)

[fiveyes]

Originally posted by KC
Jesus Christ..

He just wants a script to print out a single string.

Why does everyone want to complicate things?? He doesn't need a custom daemon built to handle it, it doesn't need air conditioning and heated seats..

Simple is better!!!! ;)

Oh, why didn't someone say so earlier???

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\nThis Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another.";

[KC]

Originally posted by fiveyes


Oh, why didn't someone say so earlier???

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\nThis Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another.";

I was thinking something more along these lines Nice work

[KC]

I'm surprised someone didn't suggest the following:

1) You're going to need 3 dedicated servers and a load balancing solution for this

2) Install MySQL on 1 of the servers (NOTE: Make sure to install Caching RAID 5 controllers in each system) You're going to need about 4 GB's of system memory and a minimum of 512MB on the controller.

3) You'll need to write a custom httpd server to handle the kind of volume this thing is going to need to support.

4) Install custom httpd server on the remaining 2 servers.

5) Configure the load balancer for fault tolerance and load balancing on the 2 httpd servers.

6) You should have an armed guard monitor the physical location of the server as well as constantly monitor the log files.


Spec for the httpd servers:
- Maintain a pool of at least 2,000 ENCRYPTED Connections to the MySQL Server at all times.
- Monitor the health of the MySQL Server to make sure there are no critical errors.
- Handle inbound connections
- Connect to DB, pull the data, compare with the MD5 hash to maintain data integrity.
- In the event you are unable to connect to the server or verify the data integrity, it should simply output "This Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another. " otherwise it should output the authenticated message.

Spec for administration interface of Message:
- 128 Bit Encryption REQUIRED for the admin interface.
- User Authentication
- Restrict Admin access to only 1 IP address at anytime and only between the hours of 17:30GMT and 17:35GMT.
- Triple Message Confirmation
- Edit, Delete and Add functions should enable the admin to control the message.

Bandwidth Requirements:
- A minimum of 2 dedicated Gigabit Uplinks to seperate multi-homed networks.
- Dual Gbit NICs in every machine (of course)

Emergency Recovery Procedure:
- Create a file called script.pl and place the following text in it:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/plain\n\nThis Mail Client is Unavailable. Please select another.";

Remember, you'll want to intall the above setup in multiple locations for disaster preparedness.

[salsbury]

Originally posted by KC
I'm surprised someone didn't suggest the following:

6) You should have an armed guard monitor the physical location of the server as well as constantly monitor the log files.

that's just silly. he doesn't have to be armed.

[KC]

Originally posted by salsbury


that's just silly. he doesn't have to be armed.

He must at least be a martial artist

[salsbury]

Originally posted by KC


He must at least be a martial artist

oh, absolutely.

[nuclei]

[Theo]

holy......these people code freaks