Help, what's this?

[spacemanspiff]

I'm trying to fix a broken click counter using my severly limited knowledge of programming. I'm trying to read a file, but when I open it, I get jibberish, like squares and y's with dots over them and other wired characters. The file has a .pl extension, so I thought it would be a perl file. All I need to do is determine where it's looking for some other files, so I can put them there.

Thanks,
SS

[Woff]

Try opening the file in WordPad, the gibberish you see is newlines etc., which dont always display in .pl in notepad.

[urb]

Notepad sometimes does strange things.

Here's a free download of Textpad which is the best (IMO) text editor and will not mess up your code.

It also has great search and replace and spell checker + a load of other useful stuff for programming in php etc...

[spacemanspiff]

Well, I tried Textpad, and no joy. Cool editor though. I think I'll keep it.

Could this stuff be a programming language that needs a special editor to read. It's not just a few strange characters, it's most of them, with a few plain english words tossed in. I thought it may be the way I was downloading, so I tried different modes, and even using vi on the server. Nothing but hieroglyphics.

[urb]

Is this a perl file you are trying to edit? If it is, then have you saved it in notepad? Coz that sometimes messes up the code.

If there's a version untouched on the server download it in ASCII mode (depending on how your FTP client is set).

If that doesn't work, then maybe you could PM the file to me.

[spacemanspiff]

Hey Urb,

I assume it's a perl file, but only because of the .pl extenstion. I don't know how it was originally created and saved, but notepad is a good bet. I tried downloading it in ascii mode, but still got the same thing.
I don't see any way to attatch it to a pm. I can just send the contents of the file, but I don't think that would help. You'd just get this kind of goop.
WVS‰Ò�u‹^ü�|ž‰=*œ…Û~)ƒ}
The more I look at this, the more it feels like I'm just trying to read a file using an editor that's not compatible with the one it was created in.
Is there another way I can send it to you, email, ICQ?
Thanks for the help

SS

[Cleo]

Looks like you are trying to edit a binary that has been compiled which you can't do.

[urb]

As Cleo said, it looks compiled, so your best bet is to contact the programmer who installed it on the server.

[spacemanspiff]

Yeah, that's probably best.

One last question. If it's a compiled binary, then it could have been uploaded to any folder on the server, and then compiled to the folder it's in now. Is this correct? Should there be, somewhere, a file that I can read or edit, and then recompile if necessary.

OK, that's two questions.

Thanks guys.

[Cleo]

No that just means that it was put through a compiler before it was given to you.

A compiler is an application that a programer uses after they write the software that, errr, well it compiles it.

Open up something like Photoshop in a text editor and you will see a big screen a gobblerly goop, that is a compiled application.

[spacemanspiff]

OK, thanks Cleo.

[venturi]

I agree, it's probably been compiled or encrypted. If you have SSH/telnet access on your server you can find out what it is by typing (in the directory where it resides) "file thisfile.pl" without the quotes and the system will tell you what kind of file it thinks it is.

[spacemanspiff]

It is a compiled program. The tech guy at our host figured it out. He even got the program working by executing the program from the command line and looking for what wasn't working. Apparently it was a module that wasn't compatible with apache 2.

Mystery solved. Many, many hours of work narrowly averted.

Thanks to all who kindly offered assistance.

SS