CGI BIN
CGI-bin Applications
CGI stands for "Common Gateway
Interface," a fancy name meaning computer programs running on the
web server that can be invoked from a www page at the browser. The
"bin" part alludes to the binary executables that result from
compiled or assembled programs. It is a bit misleading because cgi's
can also be Unix shell scripts or interpreted languages like Perl.
CGI scripts need to be saved in ASCII format and uploaded to your
server's cgi-bin in ASCII or text format. This is very
important.
CGI, Common Gateway
Interface, includes programs that run on the server to enhance the
quality and functionality of a web site. There are many
resources on-line that allow the downloading of free cgi
scripts.
( For instance: http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/
) or ( http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Programs_and_Scripts/
)
We do allow running of cgi scripts on the server, however
they must conform to our acceptable server resource usage policy. If
we deem that a script is using an excessive amount of server
resources, it will be disabled. We do offer shell access to
our servers for debugging or creating scripts- you will need
Telnet access. We highly recommend that you setup Linux
as a second operating system on your own workstation, as the more
you familiarize yourself with this operating system, the better it
will perform for you. As often as possible, however, our web
servers should be used only to upload the fully debugged final
version of a cgi script so performance and uptime for other
customers on the server is not compromised.
To keep our
hosting prices as low as possible we do not keep a programmer on
staff who can debug or install scripts for you. However we can refer
you to a 3rd party programmer that can provide you that service for
a fee if you need it.
We have provided below some
general information that will find helpful when installing cgi
scripts.
Before a cgi script will
work certain modifications must be made to them. Certain paths
must be specified in some scripts. After the "#" in the
first line of the perl script, the path to perl must be
specified. /usr/bin/perl should suffice for this path.
Below is a printout of a "whereis perl" from our
system.
perl: /usr/bin/perl
Other common paths sometime
needed for cgi scripts: Send Mail
- /usr/lib/sendmail Date - /bin/date
Also, often you will need
to know the exact physical path to your root directory on the
webserver your account exists upon. On our newer Linux
servers, the path to your root directory
is: /home/username/
Obviously, substitute
"username" with the login you were assigned when you first received
your account details. Also, keep in mind that when you
configure your CGI, that your /public_html is included in your
path. For instance, if you have a guestbook.pl script in your
/cgi-bin, the exact physical path to that file
is: /home/username/public_html/cgi-bin/guestbook.pl
The documentation of your
program should tell you what lines that you need to changed in order
to get your script up and running.
When you have all your
modifications made you will want to save the file as a .pl or .cgi
file. (Make sure to use a plain text format.) When you
upload the file DO NOT upload in binary mode, instead using ASCII.
Uploading in binary will cause the server not to
recognize the scripts as executables. Most FTP clients will
upload .pl or .cgi files in binary mode by default so you will need
to change this. You will need to upload your scripts into your
cgi-bin.
Setting
Permissions
You can very easily change permission on
your files in the File Manager option in your control
panel.
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