This page mostly addresses Unix systems. If you are consigned to something else, after reading this page, you should probably check out the various other Perl FAQs just in case.

If you're like most people on the newsgroup, you've presented us with the clasiquísimo CGI problem: ``it doesn't work'', without providing us sufficient background to divine what the real problem is. This is infuriating, because is makes you come off like some drooling idiot begging for free consulting help without having done any investigation on your own part. This drives people away who could otherwise help you and impoverishes the Net by exacerbating the already annoyingly low signal-to-noise ratio.

For a start, you need to look through the checklist below for a few simple questions that need answering. While some sample answers are provided, you'll have to figure them out on your own.

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