UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

OS: unix, version unknown (any way to write it to a file??)
cannot telnet to the server, only got shell access via cgi/pl

To have the UNIX version, you can try in perl script:
system "uname -a > ver";
ver is the file in which you will have the version.
If this don't work, I think you have a problem with the system shell ( maybe you don't have the good path or rights define).
Do you try other system command like cp, touch , ... ?

it say's "Linux server.name.com 2.4.16 #1 SMP Thu Nov 29 15:43:24 CET 2001 i686 unknown"

this is my code used to get the file;

#!/usr/local/bin/perl
#/var/log/apache/site/www.computel.com_log
#/var/log/apache/site/user.2y.net_log
print ("Content-type: text/html\n\n");
print ("Bezig met log-file.<hr>Kopie maken...");
system("cp /var/log/apache/sites/www.computel.com_log /nfs/home/computel/logs");
print ("<br>chmod...");
system("chmod 777 /nfs/home/computel/logs/www.computel.com_log");
print ("<br>gzip...");
system("gzip -cfq9 /nfs/home/computel/logs/www.computel.com_log > /nfs/home/computel/logs/www.computel.com_log.gz");
print ("<br>verwijderen oude log...");
system("rm -r /nfs/home/computel/logs/www.computel.com_log");
print ("<br>chmod...");
system("chmod 777 /nfs/home/computel/logs/www.computel.com_log.gz");
print ("<br>Hernoem...");

# Have to rename it to log_'datetime'.gz

system "mv /nfs/home/computel/logs/www.computel.com_log.gz /nfs/home/computel/logs/log.gz";
print ("<br>Klaar.");
exit;