Running CGIs on pages.cs.wisc.edu

HOWTO

For instructions on general web page setup and usage, see: Web Server FAQs

Scripts can be run from your webpage directory by putting an appropriately named file in ~/public/html/ along with your other webpages. The name of the file determines how the file will be handled by the server.

• Make sure that the file is executable by all users (ex: rwxr-xr-x).
• Name the file according to the following:

• If you want to make it so that only the webserver can view certain web directories instead of the default of all users (system:anyuser), you can change your acls to host:www.

fs setacl ~/public/html/<directoryname> host:www read system:anyuser none

• If your script needs the ability to write to your directory, please request a Web Hosting account.

See also: CSL Environment Web Hosting

Rules and policies

See the policies at: World Wide Web Policies

Most relevantly, all files and scripts Must Not Interfere with any other user's usage of the web server. This most importantly includes only creating responsible scripts and reasonably sized files. This is mostly describes as what not to do.

• DO NOT use too much cpu to process each script.
• DO NOT make extremely large files available for download - this ties up the cpu with io wait.
• DO NOT create scripts that attack other processes/ servers/ files/ etc.
• DO NOT create scripts that violate the security of any process/ server/ file/ other user, etc.
• DO NOT do anything in violation of the policies at: CSL Account Policies

If you have any questions on whether or not your script violates CSL policies, email lab@cs.wisc.edu.

Using Extension For Plain Text Files

If you need to serve files with one of the above extensions but do not want the web server to display them as dynamic content, you need to create a .htaccess file. This file goes in the directory containing the file in question.

For example, to serve a .pl file as static content, the .htaccess file would contain the following:

RemoveHandler .pl

Questions?

If you have any questions about these processes or functionality, please email lab@cs.wisc.edu.