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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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