I am still setting up the links program but when testing the nph-build.cgi page, it won't run correctly because the $db_links_name.bak file has 0 bytes. How can I fix this?

Links doesn't care how many bytes are in the backup files. It does care about how many bytes are in the links.db file. If it is 0 bytes, Links will not build the pages. This is because Links must have at least 1 link added before it will build anything. So, add a link, and you should be set.

I hope this helps.