How do I fix "Permission denied" when I try to run an external Perl script?

Question

system("logscr.ply ");

The error I get is this:

Can't exec "logscr.ply": Permission denied at eal.ply line 3

Why am I getting the error, and how do I fix it?

Answer 1

What platform/OS is this?

Probably logscr.ply just does not have execute permissions set. On Linux/Unix e.g. you should do

chmod u+x logscr.ply

then try again.

Note: This assumes you are the owner of logscr.ply. If not, adjust accordingly.

Answer 2

Without knowing any more details, there could be a variety of reasons:

• Your example code states you're trying to execute "logscr.ply ". The space character at the end might be parsed as part of the file name. This should yield a file-not-found error, though.
• The protection bits for the called script might not allow for direct execution. Try chmod u+x logscr.ply from your command prompt.
• The folder containing logscr.ply might not be accessible to you. Make sure you have both read and execute permission on it (try chmod u+r,u+x folder-name).
• The called script might not recognize itself as a Perl script, try system("perl logscr.ply");.
• There might be a file with the same name somewhere earlier in your $PATH. Use absolute paths in your call to prevent this (system("perl /some/path/logscr.ply");), don't rely on your $PATH variable.