Mac OS X Leopard: The Missing Manual

FTP

FTP sites (file transfer protocol) store pieces of software that can be accessed from the Internet. If you've heard of FTP at all, it was probably under one of two circumstances— either you've downloaded software from an Internet FTP site, or you've created and maintained your own Web site.

POWER USERS' CLINIC: CGI Scripts

A CGI script (Common Gateway Interface) is a program— written in a language like Perl, AppleScript, or Python—that runs right on your Web page. You've seen these on many a Web page: Web-visitor counters, interactive polls, shopping forms, and so on. Apple even includes a few of them with Mac OS X; they're in your System → Library → Perl → [version number] → CGI Scripts folder, for example.

If you've got a CGI script of your own that you'd like to incorporate into your Web page, copy it into your Library → WebServer → CGI folder. (This means you, administrators.) The script's Web address becomes http://111.222.3.44/cgi-bin/scriptname. (Substitute your actual public IP address and the real name of the script file, of course.)

Unfortunately, you won't get far testing out your CGI script, because it comes with its "execute" permissions turned off. To turn them on again, you need to use the chmod (change mode) command.

You can use a permission-changing shareware program like SuperGetInfo, available from the "Missing CD" page of www.missingmanuals.com, or you can do the job in Terminal, as described on Changing Permissions with Terminal. (In this case, you'd type sudo ...