Desirable Features of a Web Server

Let us cover server extensions and features that are available on Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Red Hat Linux 7.1 Web servers. We'll note any feature that favors one platform or the other. For programming details, review Chapter 6.

CGI

CGI is the lowest common denominator of server-side Web programming facilities. CGI is not a language. It is a programming interface for writing server-side logic. We assert that any real Web server must support CGI. The well-known disadvantages of CGI are low performance and low scalability. These stem from the fact that a CGI instance runs in a process discarded at the end of each request. The advantages of CGI are that it runs on any serious Web server on any platform and that ...

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