Where to learn scripting?

[SanDiegoPaul]

I took over a club website that has passworded areas granted by htaccess. The page that actually *assigns* the passwords for new members does not work and I do not know how to fix it...naturally the active new members are all over me about this.

I have tested the access with my own password and that works just fine. All I need is to fix the one page that accepts the user input and adds it to the config file, I guess.

Where do I start? I know I cannot post web links but I'll post the code if somebody can tell me which area to look at.

Thank you

Paul in San Diego

[opifex]

i'm willing to bet that the program is a stock one available everywhere. copy the files from your cgi folder and take a look at what the form is sending to the program. .pl is pretty staight forward to debug. thought that the perms might not be set? or reload the files and reset the perms ... remember that you have to uplaos in ASCII

[SanDiegoPaul]

If the parameters were not set, then how could the rest of the site function properly? I can log in just fine, as can others that already have a PW.

New members though cannot get a password to work.

[opifex]

what is the .pl you're using... some have separate parts .... such as the old favorite with htpasswd.cgi , register.cgi and logon.cgi ....
maybe only register has the prob since old users can enter?

[SanDiegoPaul]

There's an acctman.pl configured by a config.pl

The only real editable regions are set up correctly; file locations and such. I'm really confused!

So back to my original question: Where can you learn this stuff? (sorry)

[opifex]

you have to really be into the code ... some are ... some aren't ....
not sure if they are still around, but the "perl monks" used to have a really good site with lots of help for the novices. Some books and tutorials are also available on the subject ... check perl org and others. perl is open source. hope this helps
very few actual "classes" are available, but check with a local technical school.......

[MichaelBluejay]

Are you sure your usernames/passwords file is a "config" file and not an .htpassword file? What is the last modified date of that file? Does that file contain any entries? Does it contain entries for those new members who say they can't get in? At this point we don't know whether the problem is that the registration program isn't writing the new usernames & passwords to the file, or if the usernames & passwords are being written correctly but the login program can't see or can't access that file for some reason.