Jsummers at 20:24, 12 March 2017

2017-03-12T20:24:13Z

Jsummers: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Web |extensions={{ext|cgi}}, others }} '''Common Gateway Interface''' ('''CGI''') is a protocol by which a web server uses a lo..."

2017-03-12T20:07:42Z

Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Web |extensions={{ext|cgi}}, others }} '''Common Gateway Interface''' ('''CGI''') is a protocol by which a web server uses a lo..."

New page

{{FormatInfo
|formattype=electronic
|subcat=Web
|extensions={{ext|cgi}}, others
}}
'''Common Gateway Interface''' ('''CGI''') is a protocol by which a [[web]] server uses a local executable program to handle a request from a web browser.

CGI uses a convenient, but somewhat crude, kind of inter-process communication. For each suitable request it receives, the web server runs a new instance of the CGI handler program. It pipes the body of the request, if any, to the program's ''standard input'' stream. All other parameters are communicated via ''environment variables''.

The CGI handler writes its response to its ''standard output'' stream, which is read by the web server, and relayed over the network to the web browser.

A file with a '''.cgi''' extension might be a CGI handler program (though there are no restrictions on the name of a CGI handler program, other than those imposed by the operating system). If so, it will use a standard [[Executables|executable]] file format, not some hypothetical "CGI file format". A '''.cgi''' file could also be the saved response from a CGI handler, in which case the most likely format is [[HTML]] (though there are no restrictions on the file format of a CGI response).

== FastCGI ==
A variant named '''FastCGI''' allows a single process to handle multiple requests. Some other method of inter-process communication is used, such as a Unix domain socket.

== Links ==
* RFC 3875: The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Version 1.1
* [[Wikipedia: Common Gateway Interface]]
* [[Wikipedia: FastCGI]]

[[Category:Protocols]]

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 |formattype=electronic
 |subcat=Web
-|extensions={{ext|cgi}}, others
+|extensions={{ext|cgi}}, {{ext|fcgi}}, others
 }}
 '''Common Gateway Interface''' ('''CGI''') is a protocol by which a [[web]] server uses a local executable program to handle a request from a web browser.
-CGI uses a convenient, but somewhat crude, kind of inter-process communication. For each suitable request it receives, the web server runs a new instance of the CGI handler program. It pipes the body of the request, if any, to the program's ''standard input'' stream. All other parameters are communicated via ''environment variables''.
+CGI uses a convenient, if somewhat crude, kind of inter-process communication. For each suitable request it receives, the web server runs a new instance of the CGI handler program. It pipes the body of the request, if any, to the program's ''standard input'' stream. All other parameters are communicated via ''environment variables''.
 The CGI handler writes its response to its ''standard output'' stream, which is read by the web server, and relayed over the network to the web browser.
-A file with a '''.cgi''' extension might be a CGI handler program (though there are no restrictions on the name of a CGI handler program, other than those imposed by the operating system). If so, it will use a standard [[Executables|executable]] file format, not some hypothetical "CGI file format". A '''.cgi''' file could also be the saved response from a CGI handler, in which case the most likely format is [[HTML]] (though there are no restrictions on the file format of a CGI response).
+A file with a '''.cgi''' extension might be a CGI handler program (though there are no restrictions on the name of a CGI handler program, other than those imposed by the operating system). If so, it will use a standard [[Executables|executable]] or scripting file format (such as [[Perl]]), not some hypothetical "CGI file format". A '''.cgi''' file could also be the saved response from a CGI handler, in which case the most likely format is [[HTML]] (though there are no restrictions on the file format of a CGI response).
 == FastCGI ==

Common Gateway Interface - Revision history

Jsummers at 20:24, 12 March 2017

Jsummers: Created page with "{{FormatInfo |formattype=electronic |subcat=Web |extensions={{ext|cgi}}, others }} '''Common Gateway Interface''' ('''CGI''') is a protocol by which a web server uses a lo..."