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c++htmlcgi

How To Use C++ CGI Script?

I am currently enrolled in a web applications class at my college and we are learning about cgi scripts. I am having a hard time learning how to implement my CGI script. When I click on my link a window pops up asking me to download my helloworld.cgi file instead of just redirecting.

HTML:

<html>
    <body>
        <a href="/user/local/apache2/cgi-bin/helloworld.cgi">click me</a>
    </body>
</html>

C++:

#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

int main(){
    cout << "Content-type: text/html" << endl;
    cout << "<html>" << endl;
    cout << "   <body>" << endl;
    cout << "       Hello World!" << endl;
    cout << "   </body>" << endl;
    cout << "</html>" << endl;

    return 0;
    }

The CGI script is stored at /user/local/apache2/cgi-bin/helloworld.cgi

Solution

  • /user/local/apache2/cgi-bin/helloworld.cgi is the physical path of the file on your hard disk. To run the script through Apache, you need to specify the path relative to your server's document root, for eg. http://localhost/cgi-bin/helloworld.cgi.