Perl CGI Programs

Web Server 7.0 bundles a Perl interpreter to run CGI programs that are written in the Perl programming language. The Perl interpreter is located at install_dir/lib/perl.

On Windows platform, file associations need to be in place for CGI programs to run. Files with a .pl filename extension need to be associated with the Perl interpreter executable before they can be executed as CGI programs. To create an association for Perl programs to run as CGI programs, perform the following steps:

• Open a command-line window from start-> run -> cmd.

• Create an association for Perl programs.

  • C:\>assoc .pl=perl

  • C:\>ftype perl="c:\WS7\lib\perl\perl.exe" "%1"

You cannot run CGIs using Perl 5.6.x with the -w flag. Instead, include the following code in the Perl script:

use warnings;

This section describes the steps to configure the server to execute Perl programs as CGI programs.

To Configure Perl Programs to Execute as CGI Programs

1. Create a simple Perl program called hello.pl.

   1. Use a text editor to create a file called hello.pl and copy the following lines into it:

      #!<server_root>/lib/perl/perl
      print "Content-type:text/html\n\n";
      print "Hello World!";

2. Create a directory for this program. By convention, this directory is named as the cgi-bin directory though you can name it whatever you like.

   It is recommended that you create the cgi-bin directory under the instance configuration directory. For example:

   mkdir /var/opt/SUNWwbsvr7/cgi-bin

3. Copy the hello.pl file into the /var/opt/SUNWwbsvr7/cgi-bin directory.

4. Select Common Tasks tab > CGI Directories from the Virtual Servers Tasks list.

   The CGI Settings window is displayed.

5. Click the New button in the CGI Directories section.

   The Add CGI Directories window is displayed.

6. Enter the Prefix and the CGI Directory path. Choose whether the program is a CGI or a ShellCGI program.

   For example (On UNIX platforms):

   Prefix: /cgi-bin

   CGI Directory: /var/opt/SUNWwbsvr7/cgi-bin

   On Windows platforms:

   Prefix: \cgi-bin

   CGI Directory: c:\sun\webserver7\cgi-bin

   ---

   Note –

   The CGI directory you specified must have execute permissions.

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7. Click Save to save the changes. Access the program from a browser window.

   Open a browser window. If your server is called acme, running on port 2222), type http://acme:2222/cgi-bin/hello.pl.

   Displays the message “Hello World” on the browser window.