real basic perl question

[TheBulletDodger]

Hi i am new to perl and have a section of code in a program i have inherited. can any one give the the general idea what it is doing? see the code below. TIA

program{
local (*in)=@_if @_;
local ($i,$loc,$key,$val);

if($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "GET"){
$in=$ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
}elseif($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'}eq"POST"){
read(STDIN,$in,$ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
}
@in=split(/&/,$in);
foreach $i(0..$#in){
$in[$i]=~s/\+//g;

($key,$val)=split(/=/,$in[$i],2);

@key=~s/%(..)/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;
@val=~s/%(..)/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;

@in{$key}.="\0" if (defined($in{$key}));
@in{$key}.=$val;
}
return 1;
}

 

[KevinADC]

I believe it's for getting data sent to the server, could be from a form or from a URI string. Better to use the CGI module for this purpose. Looks like it came from an old script.

 

[TheBulletDodger]

yeah i understood the initial part where it gets the post from the html form but i dont really understand what it is doing with the posted info after that point?

@in=split(/&/,$in);
foreach $i(0..$#in){
$in[$i]=~s/\+//g;

($key,$val)=split(/=/,$in[$i],2);

@key=~s/%(..)/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;
@val=~s/%(..)/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;

@in{$key}.="\0" if (defined($in{$key}));
@in{$key}.=$val;
}
return 1;
}
this bit basically???

 

[devashiya]

Its defenitly a part of some CGI script that process some kind of form.
The information in a form can be send either by GET or POST method.So first script is checking the method.
eg

http://www.tek-tips.com/viewthread.cfm?qid=1175050&page=1

is using GET method.
qid=1175050&page=1 is the info passed to the server.
This script is trying to extract this info.Script will split the args at '&' and '=' and seems pushing to a hash.

GET method is not secure because the feilds passed are visible in the address bar.So use POST instead.
use CGI modules for CGI programming.

 

[TheBulletDodger]

thanks for the help. i think that tells me what i needed.

cheers.