iTP Secure WebServer System Administrator's Guide (iTPWebSvr 5.1+)

Using Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Programs
iTP Secure WebServer System Administrator’s Guide—522659-001
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Extra Path Information
Extra Path Information
Input data can be passed to CGI programs by appending extra path information to URLs,
as follows:
URL/cgi_script/extra_path_info
where:
extra_path_info
is information to be passed to the designated CGI program (cgi_script). The
most common use of extra path information is to specify the relative pathname of a
data file.
The iTP Secure WebServer stores the contents of
extra_path_info in the
PATH_INFO variable. Using the mapping information specified in the Filemap
directive, the iTP Secure WebServer also translates the PATH_INFO pathname and
assigns the translated pathname to the variable PATH_TRANSLATED. The
PATH_INFO and PATH_TRANSLATED environment variables are both available to the
CGI program (cgi_script).
For example, if the request URL is
http://www.company.com/search.cgi/misc/images
and the server Filemap directive is
Filemap / /usr/tandem/webserver/root
the pathname /misc/images is assigned to the PATH_INFO variable. Using the
mapping in the Filemap directive, the server expands the contents of PATH_INFO to
/usr/tandem/webserver/root/misc/images
and assigns this expanded pathname to the variable PATH_TRANSLATED.
HTML Forms
Input data can be passed to CGI programs through input parameters constructed from
data items entered into HTML forms. These parameters are read by CGI programs on
standard input.
Each data item entered into an HTML form is assigned to a value-name. The resulting
names and their values then are used to construct input parameters formatted as follows:
name=value&name=value...&name=value
where:
•
A space in a value is replaced with a plus sign (+).
•
An equals sign (=) assigns a value to a specific name.
•
An ampersand (&) separates individual parameters.