Apache Administrator's Handbook

Chapter 15. CGI Programs

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Apache Configuration

• The Anatomy of a CGI Program

• Input

• Output

• Example Programs

• Troubleshooting Common Problems

• Limitations of CGI

	It seems to me As we make our own few circles 'round the sun We get it backwards And our seven years go by like one
	--Dog Years—Test For Echo (1996)—Rush

Since the very early days of the Web it was clear that static documents, as useful as they were, were just not going to cut it with the evolving roles that the Web was filling. The very first technology that was developed to address this limitation was the Common Gateway Interface, or CGI.

The CGI is a standard for communication between any program and a Web server. Ordinarily, this means some program that generates text output (specifically ...