Can' get couchdb external http handlers to work

following the instructions here http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/ExternalProcesses

this is what I get

{

    * error: "{{badarg,[{erlang,port_command, [#Port<0.2056>, [123, [34,<<"info">>,34], 58, [123, [34,"db_name",34], 58, [34,<<"transfer_central">>,34], 44, [34,"doc_count",34], 58,"39441",44, [34,"doc_del_count",34], 58,"0",44, [34,"update_seq",34], 58,"56508",44, [34,"purge_seq",34], 58,"0",44, [34,"compact_running",34], 58,<<"false">>,44, [34,"disk_size",34], 58,"43593828",44, [34,"instance_start_time",34], 58, [34,<<"1272560477320483">>,34], 44, [34,"disk_format_version",34], 58,"5",125], 44, [34,<<"id">>,34], 58,<<"null">>,44, [34,<<"method">>,34], 58, [34,"GET",34], 44, [34,<<"path">>,34], 58, [91, [34,<<"transfer_central">>,34], 44, [34,<<"_test">>,34], 93], 44, [34,<<"query">>,34], 58,<<"{}">>,44, [34,<<"headers">>,34], 58, [123, [34,<<"Accept">>,34], 58, [34, <<"text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8,application/json">>, 34], 44, [34,<<"Accept-Charset">>,34], 58, [34,<<"ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7开发者_运维知识库,*;q=0.7">>,34], 44, [34,<<"Accept-Encoding">>,34], 58, [34,<<"gzip,deflate">>,34], 44, [34,<<"Accept-Language">>,34], 58, [34,<<"en-us,en;q=0.5">>,34], 44, [34,<<"Connection">>,34], 58, [34,<<"keep-alive">>,34], 44, [34,<<"Host">>,34], 58, [34,<<"127.0.0.1:5984">>,34], 44, [34,<<"Keep-Alive">>,34], 58, [34,<<"115">>,34], 44, [34,<<"User-Agent">>,34], 58, [34, <<"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3">>, 34], 125], 44, [34,<<"body">>,34], 58, [34,"undefined",34], 44, [34,<<"peer">>,34], 58, [34,<<"127.0.0.1">>,34], 44, [34,<<"form">>,34], 58,<<"{}">>,44, [34,<<"cookie">>,34], 58,<<"{}">>,44, [34,<<"userCtx">>,34], 58, [123, [34,<<"db">>,34], 58, [34,<<"transfer_central">>,34], 44, [34,<<"name">>,34], 58,<<"null">>,44, [34,<<"roles">>,34], 58,<<"[]">>,125], 125,10]]}, {couch_os_process,writeline,2}, {couch_os_process,writejson,2}, {couch_os_process,handle_call,3}, {gen_server,handle_msg,5}, {proc_lib,init_p_do_apply,3}]}, {gen_server,call, [<0.110.0>, {prompt,{[{<<"info">>, {[{db_name,<<"transfer_central">>}, {doc_count,39441}, {doc_del_count,0}, {update_seq,56508}, {purge_seq,0}, {compact_running,false}, {disk_size,43593828}, {instance_start_time,<<"1272560477320483">>}, {disk_format_version,5}]}}, {<<"id">>,null}, {<<"method">>,'GET'}, {<<"path">>,[<<"transfer_central">>,<<"_test">>]}, {<<"query">>,{[]}}, {<<"headers">>, {[{<<"Accept">>, <<"text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8,application/json">>}, {<<"Accept-Charset">>, <<"ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7">>}, {<<"Accept-Encoding">>,<<"gzip,deflate">>}, {<<"Accept-Language">>,<<"en-us,en;q=0.5">>}, {<<"Connection">>,<<"keep-alive">>}, {<<"Host">>,<<"127.0.0.1:5984">>}, {<<"Keep-Alive">>,<<"115">>}, {<<"User-Agent">>, <<"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3">>}]}}, {<<"body">>,undefined}, {<<"peer">>,<<"127.0.0.1">>}, {<<"form">>,{[]}}, {<<"cookie">>,{[]}}, {<<"userCtx">>, {[{<<"db">>,<<"transfer_central">>}, {<<"name">>,null}, {<<"roles">>,[]}]}}]}}, infinity]}}"
    * reason: "{gen_server,call, [<0.109.0>, {execute,{[{<<"info">>, {[{db_name,<<"transfer_central">>}, {doc_count,39441}, {doc_del_count,0}, {update_seq,56508}, {purge_seq,0}, {compact_running,false}, {disk_size,43593828}, {instance_start_time,<<"1272560477320483">>}, {disk_format_version,5}]}}, {<<"id">>,null}, {<<"method">>,'GET'}, {<<"path">>,[<<"transfer_central">>,<<"_test">>]}, {<<"query">>,{[]}}, {<<"headers">>, {[{<<"Accept">>, <<"text/html,application/xhtml+xml,application/xml;q=0.9,*/*;q=0.8,application/json">>}, {<<"Accept-Charset">>, <<"ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7">>}, {<<"Accept-Encoding">>,<<"gzip,deflate">>}, {<<"Accept-Language">>,<<"en-us,en;q=0.5">>}, {<<"Connection">>,<<"keep-alive">>}, {<<"Host">>,<<"127.0.0.1:5984">>}, {<<"Keep-Alive">>,<<"115">>}, {<<"User-Agent">>, <<"Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.3) Gecko/20100401 Firefox/3.6.3">>}]}}, {<<"body">>,undefined}, {<<"peer">>,<<"127.0.0.1">>}, {<<"form">>,{[]}}, {<<"cookie">>,{[]}}, {<<"userCtx">>, {[{<<"db">>,<<"transfer_central">>}, {<<"name">>,null}, {<<"roles">>,[]}]}}]}}, infinity]}"

}

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I figured it out, the cryptic error message is not helpful. I didn't have the paths correct pointing to my scripts in the [external] block

also the permissions were wrong when starting CouchDB with launchctl on OSX.