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authorDenis Vlasenko2007-02-11 14:52:07 +0000
committerDenis Vlasenko2007-02-11 14:52:07 +0000
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Add CGI docs
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+<html><head><title>CGI Script output</title></head><body><h1><img alt="" src="out_files/CGIlogo.gif"> CGI Script Output</h1>
+<hr>
+
+<h2>Script output</h2>
+
+The script sends its output to stdout. This output can either be a
+document generated by the script, or instructions to the server for
+retrieving the desired output. <p>
+</p><hr>
+
+<h2>Script naming conventions</h2>
+
+Normally, scripts produce output which is interpreted and sent back to
+the client. An advantage of this is that the scripts do not need to
+send a full HTTP/1.0 header for every request. <p>
+<a name="nph">
+Some scripts may want to avoid the extra overhead of the server
+parsing their output, and talk directly to the client. In order to
+distinguish these scripts from the other scripts, CGI requires that
+the script name begins with nph- if a script does not want the server
+to parse its header. In this case, it is the script's responsibility
+to return a valid HTTP/1.0 (or HTTP/0.9) response to the client. </a></p><p>
+
+</p><hr>
+<h2><a name="nph">Parsed headers</a></h2>
+
+<a name="nph">The output of scripts begins with a small header. This header consists
+of text lines, in the same format as an </a><a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/HTTP/Object_Headers.html">
+HTTP header</a>, terminated by a blank line (a line with only a
+linefeed or CR/LF). <p>
+
+Any headers which are not server directives are sent directly back to
+the client. Currently, this specification defines three server
+directives:</p><p>
+
+</p><ul>
+<li> <code>Content-type</code> <p>
+
+ This is the MIME type of the document you are returning. </p><p>
+
+</p></li><li> <code>Location</code> <p>
+
+ This is used to specify to the server that you are returning a
+ reference to a document rather than an actual document. </p><p>
+
+ If the argument to this is a URL, the server will issue a redirect
+ to the client. </p><p>
+
+ If the argument to this is a virtual path, the server will
+ retrieve the document specified as if the client had requested
+ that document originally. ? directives will work in here, but #
+ directives must be redirected back to the client.</p><p>
+
+
+</p></li><li> <a name="status"><code>Status</code></a><p>
+
+ This is used to give the server an HTTP/1.0 <a href="http://www.w3.org/hypertext/WWW/Protocols/HTTP/HTRESP.html">status
+line</a> to send to the client. The format is <code>nnn xxxxx</code>,
+where <code>nnn</code> is the 3-digit status code, and
+<code>xxxxx</code> is the reason string, such as "Forbidden".</p><p>
+
+</p></li></ul>
+
+<hr>
+<h2>Examples</h2>
+
+Let's say I have a fromgratz to HTML converter. When my converter is
+finished with its work, it will output the following on stdout (note
+that the lines beginning and ending with --- are just for illustration
+and would not be output): <p>
+
+</p><pre>--- start of output ---
+Content-type: text/html
+
+--- end of output ---
+</pre>
+
+Note the blank line after Content-type. <p>
+
+Now, let's say I have a script which, in certain instances, wants to
+return the document <code>/path/doc.txt</code> from this server just
+as if the user had actually requested
+<code>http://server:port/path/doc.txt</code> to begin with. In this
+case, the script would output: </p><p>
+</p><pre>--- start of output ---
+Location: /path/doc.txt
+
+--- end of output ---
+</pre>
+
+The server would then perform the request and send it to the client.
+<p>
+
+Let's say that I have a script which wants to reference our gopher
+server. In this case, if the script wanted to refer the user to
+<code>gopher://gopher.ncsa.uiuc.edu/</code>, it would output: </p><p>
+
+</p><pre>--- start of output ---
+Location: gopher://gopher.ncsa.uiuc.edu/
+
+--- end of output ---
+</pre>
+
+Finally, I have a script which wants to talk to the client directly.
+In this case, if the script is referenced with <a href="http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/env.html#protocol"><code>SERVER_PROTOCOL</code></a> of HTTP/1.0,
+the script would output the following HTTP/1.0 response: <p>
+
+</p><pre>--- start of output ---
+HTTP/1.0 200 OK
+Server: NCSA/1.0a6
+Content-type: text/plain
+
+This is a plaintext document generated on the fly just for you.
+
+--- end of output ---
+</pre>
+
+
+<hr>
+
+<a href="http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/interface.html"><img alt="[Back]" src="out_files/back.gif">Return to the
+interface specification</a> <p>
+
+CGI - Common Gateway Interface
+</p><address><a href="http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/cgi/mailtocgi.html">cgi@ncsa.uiuc.edu</a></address>
+</body></html> \ No newline at end of file