Services  |  Support  |  Account Admin  |  Contact Us  |  Site Map

CGI Scripting - CGI Anywhere

• Running CGI Scripts
• Why CGI Anywhere?
• CGI Policy
• Installing and Using CGI Scripts
• Webmaster Access

Running CGI Scripts

Standard HoloWWW Webmasters can run light-weight CGI scripts, subject to HoloNet CGI Policy.

HoloNet runs many Web servers for redundancy and performance reasons. It is very easy for a scripting error to adversely effect the performance of a server. To keep HoloNet's primary web servers trouble free, we has reserved seperate servers for running CGI scripts.

If you are running your own CGI scripts, please consider that your service may be affected by other scripts. If you would like dedicated server service, please contact us about rates.

HoloNet does not recommend CGI programming for the inexperienced. HoloNet runs many web servers, therefore your scripts may run on multiple machines at once. Programmers MUST take this into account. Additionally, web features provided by HoloNet are automatically transitioned as servers are started and shutdown for maintainance. Processes may therefore be terminated at any time as systems are maintained.

For the above reasons, and to prevent any duplication of effort and to find the optimal solution for your needs, please consider discussing your CGI projects with HoloNet before implementation.

Why CGI Anywhere?

This feature is called "CGI Anywhere", because webmasters are allowed to place their web scripts anywhere on their web sites, as opposed to a particular directory such as "cgi-bin" or "htbin".

HoloNet CGI Policy

• This policy is subject to change without notice.

• The use of CGI scripts is not supported by HoloNet support staff.

  HoloNet support staff will not help determine why public domain scripts, or scripts from any other source, are not functioning.

  HoloNet does not provide consulting services.

• CGI scripting is not available for HoloWWW demo sites.

Installing and Using CGI scripts

1. In your script, you may need to modify the file path to your web site's directory. If so, use:
   • /www/sites/YOUR_SITE_NAME/http

2. You may also need to modify the file path for certain UNIX utility programs such as date, perl, and sendmail. If so, use /www/shell/bin/PROGRAM_NAME. For example:
   • #!/www/shell/bin/perl
   • /www/shell/bin/date
   • /www/shell/bin/sendmail

   Only the utility programs in /www/shell/bin can be used in your CGI scripts.

3. Your script must have a name ending in .cgi, similar to filename.cgi and must reside within your http directory heirarchy.

4. Link to your CGI scripts as you would any HTML file. For instance, if you had a script called program.cgi in your http directory, you would refer to it as:
   

   http://www.YOUR_SITE_NAME.holowww.com/program.cgi
   ---OR---
   http://www.DOMAIN_NAME.com/program.cgi

5. Advanced users, please note:
   • The directory /www/sites/YOUR_SITE_NAME is NFS mounted on the Webmaster/CGI servers.
   • Your programs may access the directories /tmp and /www/sites/YOUR_SITE_NAME/tmp for temporary usage.
   • While you may find that your scripts may work using pathnames different from those catalogued above, scripts which do not use the guidelines detailed here may break at any time.

Webmaster Access

Standard HoloWWW webmasters with at least one HoloWWW 56Kbps or faster flat-rate site have one unmeasured telnet session to "webmaster.holonet.net" for shell access. Additional sessions and sessions for webmasters without at least one HoloWWW 56Kbps or faster flat-rate site are billed at regular HoloNet Telnet rates.

For Webmaster Access please send us an authenticated request.