calling CGI script in CGI script

ravi_chobey · 03-18-2009, 02:10 AM

Hi All,

I am having a doubt, i have written a CGI script to enter the HOSTNAME of my PC in text box.What i want to do:as soon as i enter the hostname in that textbox and press apply,the other cgi script called should change the hostname in /etc/hostname file of my system.
Please guide me for that?

Regards,
Ravi

theNbomr · 03-18-2009, 10:48 AM

Best guidance: don't do it. If your webserver is properly set up, it should disallow this anyway. Writing to files outside the web root should normally be disallowed. Writing to any system file by any non-root user (and who would run a web server as root?) should be absolutely disallowed.
Having said all of that, your concept of a CGI within a CGI is probably incorrect. Reading between the lines, I'd say you have used a CGI to generate an HTML page containing a form. On that form is a text entry, and an action attribute that points the form to a CGI that handles the form. The form generator and the form handler can be the same script, or can be different scripts. If the handler is the same as the generator, it would generally use some information passed from the form to distinguish what action is appropriate to perform. The concept of one CGI embedding another does not apply here.
--- rod.

ravi_chobey · 03-19-2009, 04:07 AM

Thanks for your guidance. I have tried calling a CGI from HTML,but i am getting this error "File is executable but not a CGI".

When i have tried calling a CGI from CGI,it works fine.
I need your guidance for that.

Regards,
Ravi

theNbomr · 03-19-2009, 12:36 PM

What do you mean by 'calling a CGI from HTML'? HTML is markup language. A CGI is invoked by the HTTP server when an HTTP client (browser) fetches a URL prefixed with 'cgi-bin/' (or whatever directory name it has been configured to use). Where did you see the error message that you posted?
It would be useful at this juncture for you to post some code fragments (please use [CODE] tags to preserve source code) that demonstrate the problem, and also your 'solution'; calling a CGI from a CGI.
I could only speculate that your 'executable but not a CGI' is not outputting a valid HTTP header. You have said nothing about your implementation language, but a sample solution in Perl would be to use the header() method of the CGI package.

Code:

#! /usr/bin/perl -w
use strict;
use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);
use CGI qw/:all/;

    print header();
    print start_html( -title => "My Perl CGI" );

    #
    #  Your application goes here...
    #

    print end_html();

--- rod.