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-<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
- "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
-
-<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
- <head>
- <meta name="generator" content="HTML Tidy, see www.w3.org" />
-
- <title>PATH_INFO Changes in the CGI Environment</title>
- </head>
- <!-- Background white, links blue (unvisited), navy (visited), red (active) -->
-
- <body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000" link="#0000FF"
- vlink="#000080" alink="#FF0000">
- <!--#include virtual="header.html" -->
-
- <h1 align="CENTER">PATH_INFO Changes in the CGI
- Environment</h1>
- <hr />
-
- <h2><a id="over" name="over">Overview</a></h2>
-
- <p>As implemented in Apache 1.1.1 and earlier versions, the
- method Apache used to create PATH_INFO in the CGI environment
- was counterintuitive, and could result in crashes in certain
- cases. In Apache 1.2 and beyond, this behavior has changed.
- Although this results in some compatibility problems with
- certain legacy CGI applications, the Apache 1.2 behavior is
- still compatible with the CGI/1.1 specification, and CGI
- scripts can be easily modified (<a href="#compat">see
- below</a>).</p>
-
- <h2><a id="prob" name="prob">The Problem</a></h2>
-
- <p>Apache 1.1.1 and earlier implemented the PATH_INFO and
- SCRIPT_NAME environment variables by looking at the filename,
- not the URL. While this resulted in the correct values in many
- cases, when the filesystem path was overloaded to contain path
- information, it could result in errant behavior. For example,
- if the following appeared in a config file:</p>
-<pre>
- Alias /cgi-ralph /usr/local/httpd/cgi-bin/user.cgi/ralph
-</pre>
-
- <p>In this case, <code>user.cgi</code> is the CGI script, the
- "/ralph" is information to be passed onto the CGI. If this
- configuration was in place, and a request came for
- "<code>/cgi-ralph/script/</code>", the code would set PATH_INFO
- to "<code>/ralph/script</code>", and SCRIPT_NAME to
- "<code>/cgi-</code>". Obviously, the latter is incorrect. In
- certain cases, this could even cause the server to crash.</p>
-
- <h2><a id="solution" name="solution">The Solution</a></h2>
-
- <p>Apache 1.2 and later now determine SCRIPT_NAME and PATH_INFO
- by looking directly at the URL, and determining how much of the
- URL is client-modifiable, and setting PATH_INFO to it. To use
- the above example, PATH_INFO would be set to
- "<code>/script</code>", and SCRIPT_NAME to
- "<code>/cgi-ralph</code>". This makes sense and results in no
- server behavior problems. It also permits the script to be
- guaranteed that
- "<code>http://$SERVER_NAME:$SERVER_PORT$SCRIPT_NAME$PATH_INFO</code>"
- will always be an accessible URL that points to the current
- script, something which was not necessarily true with previous
- versions of Apache.</p>
-
- <p>However, the "<code>/ralph</code>" information from the
- <code>Alias</code> directive is lost. This is unfortunate, but
- we feel that using the filesystem to pass along this sort of
- information is not a recommended method, and a script making
- use of it "deserves" not to work. Apache 1.2b3 and later,
- however, do provide <a href="#compat">a workaround.</a></p>
-
- <h2><a id="compat" name="compat">Compatibility with Previous
- Servers</a></h2>
-
- <p>It may be necessary for a script that was designed for
- earlier versions of Apache or other servers to need the
- information that the old PATH_INFO variable provided. For this
- purpose, Apache 1.2 (1.2b3 and later) sets an additional
- variable, FILEPATH_INFO. This environment variable contains the
- value that PATH_INFO would have had with Apache 1.1.1.</p>
-
- <p>A script that wishes to work with both Apache 1.2 and
- earlier versions can simply test for the existence of
- FILEPATH_INFO, and use it if available. Otherwise, it can use
- PATH_INFO. For example, in Perl, one might use:</p>
-<pre>
- $path_info = $ENV{'FILEPATH_INFO'} || $ENV{'PATH_INFO'};
-</pre>
-
- <p>By doing this, a script can work with all servers supporting
- the CGI/1.1 specification, including all versions of
- Apache.</p>
- <!--#include virtual="footer.html" -->
- </body>
-</html>
-