Installing and running Perl scripts in cPanel

Installing a Perl Module

1. Log in to cPanel.
2. Click on Perl Modules under Software.
3. Under Find a Perl Module, input your search term.
4. Click Go.

If you then want to install one of the Perl Modules, you can simply click Install next to your desired module.

Before running the script

• Add the following code to your .htaccess file, to ensure your Perl scripts are run correctly: Options +ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script .pl
• Ensure that your Perl script is located in the cgi-bin folder. You can locate the cgi-bin folder by navigating to the folder your website is in (usually public_html).
• Make sure your script starts with the following code; this will ensure that the script is run as a Perl script: #!/usr/bin/perl

Making your script executable

You will need to add special “execute” permissions. You can do this by running the following shell command using the shell built into cPanel or SSH:
chmod +x /path/to/perl/script.pl

Running your Perl script

There are two key ways a script can be run:

• Accessing the script via the web browser: E.g. https://my-domain-name.com/cgi-bin/script.pl
• Running the script via the command line: /usr/bin/perl /path/to/my/perl/script.pl