CGI
CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is the standard way in which a web
server passes a user's data to an application and then returns
information to the user. CGI depends on scripts often written in
languages such as PHP or Perl
to perform the actions that are requested by the user. In order
to access the CGI script, the name of the application is indicated in
the HTML code.
For example, if you are creating the form, the URL of the script is
indicated in the FORMS tag:
<FORM METHOD=POST
ACTION=www.myfiles.com/cgi-bin/myprog.pl>
Note: Any Script Language that can pipe output can be
used, though -
you can have scripts in Shell Script, Python, etc. You just need
to configure the correct MIME type, and your favorite scripting language
will work in MyServer.
In order to keep all of the CGI scripts in one place, you can place a cgi-bin
directory in the web directory in MyServer
as seen below:
The cgi-bin directory is directly
beneath the selected web folder.
However, CGI scripts can be placed anywhere as long as their location
is indicated in the HTML code and they are mapped to be CGI through their extension.
CGI scripts that a new process is created for every requests. This can cause some problems with
performances but ensure some security as if the new process crashes the main MyServer process
is not corrupted.