CGI Scripts Information

• Scripts must be made executable with chmod 755 filename
• Any script must end in .cgi to ensure execution.
• Scripts that do not respond with Content Type tag as first line, must be named nph-Scriptname.cgi . The nph- stands for non-parsed-headers.
• Perl 5 is located at /usr/local/bin/perl, perl 4 at /usr/bin/perl4.036, make sure the first line has this right or else!
• Perl scripts will REFUSE to run if uploaded in binary from a non-unix computer.
• Perl 4 scripts usually will need to have any @ or $ escaped with \ character to be perl 5 compatible. i.e., print "webmaster\@yourdomain.com"
• The directory cgi-bin is reserved for our shared cgi directory. You can use a directory other than cgi-bin or icons to store your scripts. Actually the cgi-bin is mapped to our /web/cgi-bin/ so you can use our cgi scripts with your domain.com and not have to make duplicate copies of the files.
• index.cgi is vaLId, as a directories home page for a cgi script. Like wise you could replace index.htm with index.shtml to use PARSE(Server Side includes).
• <!-- Server Side includes --> only work in files with .shtml extension. The execute bit and read public bits must be on to use .shtml.
• <!--exec cgi="mycgi.cgi" --> is a cool way to output the result of a simple cgi script into the middle of somefile.shtml .
• If you can't figure out why it doesn't work, run it from the command line, or rename it to nph-Scriptname. You'll see more error messages.
• CGI is programming, don't be mistaken into thinking it is as easy as HTML. It isn't.
• If you are going to use perl, buy a Perl book, please.
• If you can't figure it out, ask us, we will help you by email on a time permits basis.
• There are many undocumented examples in /web/cgi-bin and /web/cgi-src , however We don't support them until we document them and know they are working.

  My First CGI SCRIPT - myfirst.cgi

  ---

  
  
  #!/bin/sh
  echo Content-type: text/plain
  echo
  echo 10 print "HELLO"
  echo 20 goto 10
  echo Hello there I see you saw my page at $HTTP_REFERER
  echo You are using $HTTP_USER_AGENT as a browser.
  echo $HTTP_USER_AGENT >> agentfile.txt
  echo \&lta href=\"http://mydomain.com\"\> Home \</a\>
  

  Yawn - Notice the \ escapes, the blank echo after the content-type line. Also If you want to use agentfile.txt line, I had to upload a blank file called agentfile.txt, and then use the file manager to set PUBLIC WRITE on that file. Or the script will not work! (telnet: touch agentfile.txt;chmod o+w agentfile.txt)
  

  Top Of Page

  ---

  Galaxy's CGI- Common Gateway Interface
  - Lots of information on CGI scripting, and the longest URL on the Web, including pointers for more information on image mapping, etc.

  Julia Martinson's Collection
  - a great collection of information on CGI & HTML.

  O'Reilly & Associates
  - Don't normally recommend books, but in the case of Perl, Unix, Linux, Scripting, etc. your might need to read-up with the best.

  The Common Gateway Interface
  - An introduction (with examples) to CGI scripting. One of the best sites.

  Shareware CGI Scripts
  - Consists of scripts for Guestbooks, Forms, and Counters. Includes some Apple programs as well.

  FeLIpe's Applescript CGI Examples
  - An Apple reference to CGI-Scripting with examples. We're not Mac-users at Web2010, so I haven't tested this site out. Mac people, let us know what you think.

  CERN HTTPD
  - Resources for image-mapping, scripts, forms, search engines, CGI, etc. Please note that this is not our server, though similar, and some of the steps (BIN references) are different. Please refer to our FAQ for specifics on this.

  Accessory Scripts- CERN
  - Reference for forms submissions, etc. Again, the references are going to be slightly different for our server and please refer to our FAQ documentation for the changes needed.

  The processing of CGI arguments under TCL
  - More information on CGI.

  Accessory Scripts- CERN
  - Reference for forms submissions, etc. Again, the references are going to be slightly different for our server and please refer to our FAQ documentation for the changes needed.

  Imagemap Help Page
  - Imagemaping made simple in an easy to follow guide.

  HTGREP
  - if you need a searchable index, this is supposed to do the trick. I haven't messed with it yet, though.

  NASA's 'Information on Search Tools'
  - a interesting page with many ideas on solving local searching problems.

  PERL
  - A great language to learn in the generation of dynamic documents (on-the-fly page creation) such as forms.