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cgi-bin on NT 1
- Thread starter cic
- Start date
-
1
- #2
What cgi-bin is for? well.....
when we say web-server, we can be refering to one of two
things: the physical machine and the process on that
machine that listens to a port for an HTTP request. When
I say web-server, I mean that process that is doing the
web page serving.
Since 'cgi' applications give outside users the ability
to run programs on a machine, most web servers try to
limit what the web-server process can do. One method
of restricting what a web-server process can do is to
tell it that it is allowed to run programs only if they
reside in specific spot in the directory structure on
that machine. That spot is separate from where the
machine stores all of its OS commands. This makes it
so that the OS commands are not directly available to
cgi application (web) users. The cgi programs can find
and use the OS commands, but the web user can only run
the programs in the specified cgi directory. That
directory is the 'cgi-bin'. That name is a naming
convention commonly used by Apache and many other
web-server software packages. However, true to form,
M$ decided to call theirs something different. But,
no matter what they call it, they use the same general
pattern of a specified directory to contain those
programs that the web-server is allowed to run.
If you want to install a 'cgi' program on your service
provider's machine, you will need to ask them for the
specifics: what web-server software they are using and
where they want you to put your stuff.
HTH
keep the rudder amid ship and beware the odd typo
when we say web-server, we can be refering to one of two
things: the physical machine and the process on that
machine that listens to a port for an HTTP request. When
I say web-server, I mean that process that is doing the
web page serving.
Since 'cgi' applications give outside users the ability
to run programs on a machine, most web servers try to
limit what the web-server process can do. One method
of restricting what a web-server process can do is to
tell it that it is allowed to run programs only if they
reside in specific spot in the directory structure on
that machine. That spot is separate from where the
machine stores all of its OS commands. This makes it
so that the OS commands are not directly available to
cgi application (web) users. The cgi programs can find
and use the OS commands, but the web user can only run
the programs in the specified cgi directory. That
directory is the 'cgi-bin'. That name is a naming
convention commonly used by Apache and many other
web-server software packages. However, true to form,
M$ decided to call theirs something different. But,
no matter what they call it, they use the same general
pattern of a specified directory to contain those
programs that the web-server is allowed to run.
If you want to install a 'cgi' program on your service
provider's machine, you will need to ask them for the
specifics: what web-server software they are using and
where they want you to put your stuff.
HTH
keep the rudder amid ship and beware the odd typo
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