Enabling CGI scripts

[Kegnut]

Hello.

First off, I am VERY NEW to apache, so please forgive me.

I am running Apache 1.3.19 on Linux RH 7.1. I wrote a little test script that looks a lil something like this:

bash# vi roo.cgi
#!/usr/bin/perl
print "This is a test";

Now, how is it when I go to the URL (

http://localhost/bugs/roo.cgi)

it prints out the whole script instead of executing it.

I have added ExecCGI to the options, And that doesn't seem to do the trick. When I add the "AddHandler cgi-script .cgi" I get an error. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
J

 

[ifincham]

Hi,



You have to have a content-type statement like this :



print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";



The following should
demonstrate :


#!/usr/bin/perl

##

## printenv -- demo CGI program which just prints its environment

##



print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n";

foreach $var (sort(keys(%ENV))) {

$val = $ENV{$var};

$val =~ s|\n|\\n|g;

$val =~ s|"|\\"|g;

print "${var}=\"${val}\"\n";

}





You also need to 'chmod +x scriptname.cgi' .



To activate cgi you have to uncomment the AddHandler directive in httpd.conf, e.g.

AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl

and define the physical path of the cgi directory :



ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/usr/local/apache/cgi-bin/"

You also need :



LoadModule cgi_module         modules/mod_cgi.so



and



AddModule mod_cgi.c



in the appropriate sections of httpd.conf . Also you would need something like the following for the cgi-bin directory :



<Directory &quot;/usr/local/apache/cgi-bin&quot;>

    AllowOverride None

    Options ExecCGI

    Order allow,deny

    Allow from all

</Directory>



Hope this helps

 

[Kegnut]

Thanks!

It was the &quot;Content-type: text/plain\n\n&quot;; line that I had left out. What exactly is that and why do I need it?

Thanks again!
Josh

 

[ifincham]

Hi,



Its MIME content-type information thats used to identify the type of information in the resource. A http client (browser) sends an accept header saying what mime-types it can handle - can be html, plain text, gif, pdf , etc., etc.



Regards