NAME¶
cgi - Common Gateway Interface
DESCRIPTION¶
The Common Gateway Interface is a way to create dynamic web pages. It defines
rules for interaction between a program and the web server while the server
talks to the client. There are some ways to use it.
ENVIRONMENT¶
Normally the webserver sets several environment variables to give some
information to the CGI program so it can determine various stuff.
- AUTH_TYPE
- This reflects the authentification method used to validate
a user.
- CONTENT_LENGTH
- The length of the data in bytes passed to the CGI program
through standard input. This is used by the POST method.
- CONTENT_TYPE
- The MIME type of the query data, such as
"text/html", optional.
- DOCUMENT_ROOT
- This reflects the document root directory of the
webserver.
- GATEWAY_INTERFACE
- Reflects the version of the Common Gateway Interface that
the server is using
- HTTP_ACCEPT
- A comma separated list of MIME type that the client is
willing to accept.
- HTTP_FROM
- The email address of the user issuing the information
request. This is not supported by most browsers.
- HTTP_REFERER
- Reflects the URL from which this CGI program was
accessed.
- HTTP_USER_AGENT
- The name, version and libraries of the browser making the
request. This information can be used to determine if the browser is
capable of graphics and is able to display frames and tables.
- PATH_INFO
- This shows extra information that was passed to the CGI
program via command line. Normally it's empty or non-existent.
- PATH_TRANSLATED
- The translated path on the local filesystem.
- QUERY_STRING
- This variable refers to additional arguments that were
appended to the CGI program - normally with the '?' sign.
- REMOTE_ADDR
- This refers to the host from which the information request
was issued, as IP number.
- REMOTE_HOST
- This refers to the host from which the information request
was issued.
- REMOTE_USER
- The authenticated name of the user.
- REQUEST_METHOD
- This refers to the method with which the information
request was issued. Normally this is either GET or POST.
- SCRIPT_NAME
- The virtual name of the script being executed.
- SERVER_NAME
- The server's hostname or IP number. This may be used to
determine the correct paths or resulting HTML code for CGI programs that
are used on the same machine for several servers.
- SERVER_PROTOCOL
- This is the name and version of the information protocol
the request came in with. Normally this is "HTTP/1.0" or
"HTTP/1.1".
- SERVER_PORT
- This refers to the TCP/IP port on which the webserver is
running.
- SERVER_SOFTWARE
- This reflects the name and revision of the webserver
software.
AUTHOR¶
This CGI library is written by Martin Schulze <joey@infodrom.org>. If you
have additions or improvements please get in touch with him.
SEE ALSO¶
cgiDebug(3),
cgiHeader(3),
cgiSetType(3),
cgiSetHeader(3),
cgiGetValue(3),
cgiGetVariables(3).