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org.apache.catalina.servlets
public final class: CGIServlet [javadoc | source]
java.lang.Object
   javax.servlet.GenericServlet
      javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet
         org.apache.catalina.servlets.CGIServlet

All Implemented Interfaces:
    Serializable, Servlet, ServletConfig

CGI-invoking servlet for web applications, used to execute scripts which comply to the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) specification and are named in the path-info used to invoke this servlet.

Note: This code compiles and even works for simple CGI cases. Exhaustive testing has not been done. Please consider it beta quality. Feedback is appreciated to the author (see below).

Example:
If an instance of this servlet was mapped (using <web-app>/WEB-INF/web.xml) to:

<web-app>/cgi-bin/*

then the following request:

http://localhost:8080/<web-app>/cgi-bin/dir1/script/pathinfo1

would result in the execution of the script

<web-app-root>/WEB-INF/cgi/dir1/script

with the script's PATH_INFO set to /pathinfo1.

Recommendation: House all your CGI scripts under <webapp>/WEB-INF/cgi. This will ensure that you do not accidentally expose your cgi scripts' code to the outside world and that your cgis will be cleanly ensconced underneath the WEB-INF (i.e., non-content) area.

The default CGI location is mentioned above. You have the flexibility to put CGIs wherever you want, however:

The CGI search path will start at webAppRootDir + File.separator + cgiPathPrefix (or webAppRootDir alone if cgiPathPrefix is null).

cgiPathPrefix is defined by setting this servlet's cgiPathPrefix init parameter

CGI Specification:
derived from http://cgi-spec.golux.com. A work-in-progress & expired Internet Draft. Note no actual RFC describing the CGI specification exists. Where the behavior of this servlet differs from the specification cited above, it is either documented here, a bug, or an instance where the specification cited differs from Best Community Practice (BCP). Such instances should be well-documented here. Please email the Tomcat group [dev@tomcat.apache.org] with amendments.

Canonical metavariables:
The CGI specification defines the following canonical metavariables:
[excerpt from CGI specification]

 AUTH_TYPE
 CONTENT_LENGTH
 CONTENT_TYPE
 GATEWAY_INTERFACE
 PATH_INFO
 PATH_TRANSLATED
 QUERY_STRING
 REMOTE_ADDR
 REMOTE_HOST
 REMOTE_IDENT
 REMOTE_USER
 REQUEST_METHOD
 SCRIPT_NAME
 SERVER_NAME
 SERVER_PORT
 SERVER_PROTOCOL
 SERVER_SOFTWARE

Metavariables with names beginning with the protocol name (e.g., "HTTP_ACCEPT") are also canonical in their description of request header fields. The number and meaning of these fields may change independently of this specification. (See also section 6.1.5 [of the CGI specification].)

[end excerpt]

Implementation notes

standard input handling: If your script accepts standard input, then the client must start sending input within a certain timeout period, otherwise the servlet will assume no input is coming and carry on running the script. The script's the standard input will be closed and handling of any further input from the client is undefined. Most likely it will be ignored. If this behavior becomes undesirable, then this servlet needs to be enhanced to handle threading of the spawned process' stdin, stdout, and stderr (which should not be too hard).
If you find your cgi scripts are timing out receiving input, you can set the init parameter of your webapps' cgi-handling servlet to be

Metavariable Values: According to the CGI specificion, implementations may choose to represent both null or missing values in an implementation-specific manner, but must define that manner. This implementation chooses to always define all required metavariables, but set the value to "" for all metavariables whose value is either null or undefined. PATH_TRANSLATED is the sole exception to this rule, as per the CGI Specification.

NPH -- Non-parsed-header implementation: This implementation does not support the CGI NPH concept, whereby server ensures that the data supplied to the script are preceisely as supplied by the client and unaltered by the server.

The function of a servlet container (including Tomcat) is specifically designed to parse and possible alter CGI-specific variables, and as such makes NPH functionality difficult to support.

The CGI specification states that compliant servers MAY support NPH output. It does not state servers MUST support NPH output to be unconditionally compliant. Thus, this implementation maintains unconditional compliance with the specification though NPH support is not present.

The CGI specification is located at http://cgi-spec.golux.com.

TODO:

Nested Class Summary:
protected class  CGIServlet.CGIEnvironment  Encapsulates the CGI environment and rules to derive that environment from the servlet container and request information.

 
protected class  CGIServlet.CGIRunner  Encapsulates the knowledge of how to run a CGI script, given the script's desired environment and (optionally) input/output streams

Exposes a run method used to actually invoke the CGI.

The CGI environment and settings are derived from the information passed to the constuctor.

The input and output streams can be set by the setInput and setResponse methods, respectively.

 
protected class  CGIServlet.HTTPHeaderInputStream  This is an input stream specifically for reading HTTP headers. It reads upto and including the two blank lines terminating the headers. It allows the content to be read using bytes or characters as appropriate. 
Field Summary
static  Object expandFileLock    object used to ensure multiple threads don't try to expand same file 
static  Hashtable<String, String> shellEnv    the shell environment variables to be passed to the CGI script 
Fields inherited from javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet:
class$javax$servlet$http$HttpServlet
Method from org.apache.catalina.servlets.CGIServlet Summary:
doGet,   doPost,   init,   main,   printServletEnvironment
Methods from javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet:
class$,   doDelete,   doGet,   doHead,   doOptions,   doPost,   doPut,   doTrace,   getLastModified,   service,   service
Methods from javax.servlet.GenericServlet:
destroy,   getInitParameter,   getInitParameterNames,   getServletConfig,   getServletContext,   getServletInfo,   getServletName,   init,   init,   log,   log,   service
Methods from java.lang.Object:
clone,   equals,   finalize,   getClass,   hashCode,   notify,   notifyAll,   toString,   wait,   wait,   wait
Method from org.apache.catalina.servlets.CGIServlet Detail:
 protected  void doGet(HttpServletRequest req,
    HttpServletResponse res) throws ServletException, IOException 
    Provides CGI Gateway service
 protected  void doPost(HttpServletRequest req,
    HttpServletResponse res) throws IOException, ServletException 
    Provides CGI Gateway service -- delegates to doGet
 public  void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException 
    Sets instance variables.

    Modified from Craig R. McClanahan's InvokerServlet

 public static  void main(String[] args) 
    For future testing use only; does nothing right now
 protected  void printServletEnvironment(ServletOutputStream out,
    HttpServletRequest req,
    HttpServletResponse res) throws IOException 
    Prints out important Servlet API and container information

    Copied from SnoopAllServlet by Craig R. McClanahan