>
Back
What is CGI?
CGI, Common Gateway Interface, includes programs that run
on the server to enhance the quality and functionality of a website. There are
many resources on-line that allow the downloading of free CGI scripts. See the
Customer Care Resource Document for CGI scripts.
Do you allow CGI to run on your servers?
We do allow running of CGI scripts on the servers, 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.
What is the correct path to perl?
Before a CGI script will work, certain modifications must
be made. 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 "where is perl"
from our system.
perl: /usr/bin/perl
What is the path to sendmail?
Another program that needs to be specified in many scripts
is sendmail. This is located at /usr/lib/sendmail
What is the exact physical path to your root directory
on the webserver?
The path to your root directory is: /home/username/
Substitute "username" with the login you were
assigned when you first received your account details. Also, keep in mind 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
Why doesn't my CGI work?
When you upload the CGI file, DO NOT upload in binary mode.
Instead use ASCII mode. 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
the scripts into your cgi-bin directory for security reasons, however they will
execute from anywhere within your account.
The last step is to set the file permissions. This
is otherwise known as chmoding and can be done from most FTP clients. For specifics
on chmoding you can refer to our
chmoding FAQ section.
