What Is a CGI Program?
A CGI program is executed by the Web server in response to a request made by the Web browser. The Web server acts as an intermediary between the browser and the CGI program: it passes the browser’s request to the CGI program, and it sends output from the program back to the Web browser for processing. For example, a program might accept a stock ticker symbol, look up the stock price associated with that symbol and return it to the user as part of a dynamically generated Web page. Or, a program might accept a user’s comment, and send it to the site’s Webmaster in an email message. Almost any programming language can be used to write a CGI program; CGI itself is the defined interface between the Web server and the external ...
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