a "search engine" (ahem)

hnd has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

i found this "search engine" while searching for some examples to help me learn CGI....
i think (well i know) its a kind of buggy.....
please help me improve it.......

#!perl -w
use strict;
use File::Find;
use CGI qw(:standard);
my $query = param("query");
print header();
print start_html();
print "\n<p>For the query $query, these results were found:</p>\n<ol>\
+n";
undef $/;

find( sub
{
 return if($_ =~ /^\./);
 return unless($_ =~ /\.html/i);
 stat $File::Find::name;
 return if -d;
 return unless -r;

 open(FILE, "< $File::Find::name") or return;
 my $string = <FILE>;
 close (FILE);

 return unless ($string =~ /\Q$query\E/i);
 my $page_title = $_;
 if ($string =~ /<title>(.*?)<\/title>/is)
 {
     $page_title = $1;
 }
 print "<li><a href=\"$File::Find::name\">$page_title</a></li>\n";
},
'/home/username/public_html');

print "</ol>\n";
print end_html();
[download]

------------------------------------------------------

i'am worst at what do best and for this gift i fell blessed...
i found it hard it's hard to find well whatever
NEVERMIND

Comment on a "search engine" (ahem) Download Code

Replies are listed 'Best First'.
Re: a "search engine" (ahem) by apl (Monsignor) on Jul 09, 2009 at 19:50 UTC
please help me improve it....... `use warnings;` Assign $_ to, say, `$path` Don't have `find( sub` return without displaying something. For example: '.' specified! File '$file' is not HTML File '$file' is a directory! File '$file' does not exist! File '$file' could not be opened!	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: a "search engine" (ahem) by hnd (Scribe) on Jul 09, 2009 at 19:59 UTC
thanks apl but i cannot clearly understand your third point.... and since this is not my code so i actually cannot understand what $file is used for.... ===================================================== i'am worst at what do best and for this gift i fell blessed... i found it hard it's hard to find well whatever NEVERMIND	[reply]
Re^3: a "search engine" (ahem) by apl (Monsignor) on Jul 09, 2009 at 23:56 UTC
Assune the find sub is called with $_ equal to SomeFile.html, but that file does not exist. The routine as written simply returns, and the user is left to wonder why nothing was displayed. I'm suggesting that a message be displayed explaining why nothing was displayed. The reason I suggested the name of the file be passed in a global variable (e.g. `$path`) is because $_ is used internally by Perl for a number of reasons. To prevent the path from being clobbered, it should be explicitly stored.	[reply] [d/l]
Re: a "search engine" (ahem) by moritz (Cardinal) on Jul 09, 2009 at 20:01 UTC
Use taint modus, see perlsec. use the 3-arg form of open (see also perlopentut. Don't interpolate `$query` into the HTML without HTML-escaping it first; that's a cross-site scripting vulnerability.	[reply] [d/l]
Re^2: a "search engine" (ahem) by hnd (Scribe) on Jul 09, 2009 at 20:17 UTC
thnx moritz but how do i HTML-escape `$query` and yeah the 3-arg form is more readable than this one ===================================================== i'am worst at what do best and for this gift i fell blessed... i found it hard it's hard to find well whatever NEVERMIND	[reply] [d/l]
Re^3: a "search engine" (ahem) by moritz (Cardinal) on Jul 09, 2009 at 20:33 UTC
Use `escapeHTML` from CGI. Or a template system that has the option to escape interpolated variables.	[reply] [d/l]


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