cgi(5)

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 this 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-existent.

PATH_TRANSLATED
    The translated path on the local filesystem.

QUERY_STRING
    This variable refers to additional arguments that were appended to the CGI program - 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.org>. If you have additions or improvements please get in touch with him.

SEE ALSO
cgiDebug(3), cgiHeader(3), cgiSetType(3), cgiSetHeader(3), cgiGetValue(3), cgiGetVariables(3).