Running CGI programs
--------------------

To run the 3 sample CGI programs, copy them (the helloworld.* files) to your
cgi-bin directory under your HTTP server's root and make sure they're
executable. Note that you must first compile the C program with the command:

  gcc -o helloworld helloworld.c

Then, start your web server and point your browser to the following URLs:

  - http://localhost:<your_port_number/cgi-bin/helloworld.pl
  - http://localhost:<your_port_number/cgi-bin/helloworld.sh
  - http://localhost:<your_port_number/cgi-bin/helloworld

Each CGI program generates an HTML document that the server sends to the web
browser to be displayed.

These examples are very simple and are only provided so you to check that
your server will properly execute CGI programs. The examples also show that
the language you use to write your scripts doesn't matter.

Remember to be careful with what you put in your CGI programs because
they are run with the same authority that your web server has. In this
case your web server is running with your user id, so your CGI scripts
have the same authority as you.


Trouble shooting
----------------

Some steps you can take if your CGI scripts aren't running properly:

  - First read the Trouble shooting section of the HTTP server README.

  - Is your web server running?

  - Did you type the URL correctly? Did you put the CGI programs in the right
    place?

  - Are your CGI programs executable?

  - If your scripts are interpreted (i.e. by perl, sh) did you put the correct
    path to the interpreter on the first line of the script?
    (ex. #!/local/bin/perl)

  - In some cases you may be able to run your CGI script from the command line
    to see if it's outputing the correct stuff.