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* Bananic provides CGI for all web
hosting accounts.
- CGI-bin Applications
- Where to Put CGI-bin Scripts
- Paths to Mail, Date, Perl, etc.
- Troubleshooting
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- CGI-bin Applications
CGI is short for "Common Gateway Interface,"
a name meaning computer programs running on
the web server that can be invoked from a web
page at the browser. The "bin" part alludes
to the binary executables that result from compiled
or assembled programs. It is a bit misleading
because cgi's can also be Unix shell scripts
or interpreted languages like Perl.
For those who are not familiar with CGI scripting,
you may want to read on the subject or find
information on the Internet about CGI scripting.
There are many good resources for CGI scripts
found on the web. Basic scripts can be found
at Matt's Script Archive; http://www.worldwidemart.com/scripts/
. You'll find many scripts free of charge and
with detailed configuration information. Another
excellent resource is The CGI Resource Index
found at http://www.cgi-perl.com/
-- if you are not an expert, look for scripts
that are very well documented and come with
step-by-step instructions.
Note: CGI scripts need to be uploaded
in ASCII or text format. This
is very important or your script may not work.
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- Where to Put CGI-bin Scripts
You can put your cgi-scripts anywhere throughout
your server. However, we would recommend
creating a cgi-bin folder and putting them in
there.
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- Paths to Mail, Date, Perl, etc.
Here are your paths to the common server resources
that CGI scripts often require:
Sendmail: /usr/sbin/sendmail
Perl5: /usr/bin/perl
Tcl
: /usr/bin/tclsh
Date: /bin/date
CGI path: "/users/web/<yourlogin>/web/cgi-bin".
Note: this path is seen as "/cgi-bin"
via ftp.
Root web path: "/users/web/<yourlogin>/web"
(your root web directory of your account)
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- Troubleshooting
Below are solutions to some of the more common
CGI script problems, in question and answer
format. You will find a list of proper permission
settings for the scripts we provide at the end.
Q) I am being told "File Not Found," or "No
Such File or Directory."
A) Upload your Perl or CGI script in ASCII
mode using FTP, not binary mode.
Q) When I activate my CGI program, I get
back a page that says "Internal Server Error.
The server encountered an internal error or
mis-configuration and was unable to complete
your request."
A) This is generally caused by a problem within
the script or file permission errors. To locate
the problem, you will want to look at the error
log and the execution log
for your website.
As a general guideline, you may test to see
if your script by logging in via SSH/Telnet
and test your script in local mode to get a
better idea of what the problem is. To do this,
go into the directory in which your script is
located, then execute the script. To execute
the script, you can do it by typing "./myscript.pl"
(replace myscript.pl with the name of your script
file). If the script executes, that means that
the first line of the script refers to the correct
script interpreter path (eg. /usr/bin/perl).
This is useful to see if there's any error IN
your script and is also useful to test if your
"calling line" (the first line of the script)
is okay, i.e. if you entered the right location
of Perl.
Q) When I test my Perl script in local mode
(by Telnet), I have the following error: "Literal
@domain now requires a back slash at myscript.pl
line 3, within string. Execution of myscript.pl
aborted due to compilation errors."
A) This is caused by a misinterpretation by
Perl. You see, the "@" sign has a special meaning
in Perl; it identifies an array (a table of
elements). Since it cannot find the array named
domain, it generates an error. You should place
a back slash (\) before the "@" (eg. "\@") symbol
to tell Perl to see it as a regular symbol,
as in an email address.
Q) I am getting the message "POST not implemented."
A) A possibility is that you are pointing to
a cgi-bin script that you have not put in your
cgi-bin directory. In general, this message
really means that the web server is not recognizing
the cgi-bin script you are calling as a program.
The webserver only recognises the file as a
regular text file. If you would like to place
CGI files outside the cgi-bin directory, the
CGI script files needs to have the .cgi extension.
Q) It's saying permission denied.
A) This error message means your CGI script
file permission is not set correctly. To set
the file permissions using FTP, please see Setting
Permissions.
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