Cyborganic cgi Policies



If you would like to use scripts on your page, email cgi@cyborganic.net with your Cyborganic username and include a brief description of what sort of scripts you will be using. Please tell us if you will be saving user-generated data in files on the public server.

A directory will be set up for you in /www/Cyborganic/people/cgi-bin/yourusername. That is where you are to put ALL executables.

If you will be collecting user-generated data in files on the server, we will also set up a directory for you in /www/Cyborganic/posts/yourusername/. This is where all you post will be if you need to edit them also,use what ever text editor you are comfortable with

It is very important that you put all the files which save user-generated data in the /www/Cyborganic/posts/yourusername directory. Otherwise your user-generated data is at risk of being deleted when we update staging server files to the live server.

Security:
We are using a system called cgiwrap to execute scripts. Basically, the scripts run as your userid - so the only files at risk from a badly written script are your own! This should encourage you to write some good error-free code. :)

To execute a script, refer to the URL:
http://cyborganic.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/yourusername/yourscriptname

So if you are user "bozo" and your script is "clown.cgi", do
http://cyborganic.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/bozo/clown.cgi

Debugging:
cgiwrap has a nifty feature for debugging. Just replace "cgiwrap" with "cgiwrapd" in the URL and you will get a verbose output of debugging information, including where cgiwrap is looking for you script, and any error messages generated from the script. This is very handy and saves having to grovel through log files looking for the correct information.

So to debug bozo's clown script, do:
http://cyborganic.net/cgi-bin/cgiwrapd/bozo/clown.cgi

Support:
We will do all we can to make sure you have access to the necessary directories, but we do NOT offer cgi support. We do have a list of online cgi resources though.

Script Library:
We are working on having a library of easy to use, custom scripts available for Cyborganic members. The first of these is our slideshow.