man cgi (Formats) - Common Gateway Interface

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 tis 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-existant.
PATH_TRANSLATED
The translated path on the local filesystem.
QUERY_STRING
This variable refers to additional arguments that were appended to the CGI programm - 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.north.de>. If you have additions or improvements please get in touch with him.

SEE ALSO