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We appear to have solved the download problem

Posted: Mon Aug 24, 2020 9:47 pm
by davidnorth
The evidence suggests that it all comes down to switching the server from running CGI to FastCGI when the new store was installed. The fast version is the one recommended by the hosting company.

I quote from metacpan: "CGI::Fast is a subclass of the CGI object created by CGI.pm. It is specialized to work with the FCGI module, which greatly speeds up CGI scripts by turning them into persistently running server processes. Scripts that perform time-consuming initialization processes, such as loading large modules or opening persistent database connections, will see large performance improvements."

Alas, the law of unintended consequences came into play here. As the the guy who did the troubleshooting put it: "the CGI process is a ‘run until completion’ mode, whereas FastCGI is ‘run until resources are exhausted, then restart the process’.

I have switched back to the standard version of CGI. So far, three users have tested previously failed downloads and succeeded in obtaining them.

Those who have had trouble downloading, please try one or two of your prior purchases again to see if they now transfer properly. Report any issues. Thanks.