The CGI-Module¶

Module: mod_cgi

• Table of contents
• The CGI-Module
  • Description
  • Options
  • Examples

Description¶

CGI programs allow you to enhance the functionality of the server in a very straight-forward and simple way.

Note that to see stderr output from CGI processes, you need to set

    server.breakagelog = "/var/log/lighttpd/breakage.log" 

or similar.

Options¶

cgi.execute-x-only

requires +x for cgi scripts if enabled.

cgi.assign

file-extensions that are handled by a CGI program

    cgi.assign = ( ".pl"  => "/usr/bin/perl",
                   ".cgi" => "/usr/bin/perl" )

For PHP don't forget to set cgi.fix_pathinfo = 1 in the php.ini.

To get the old cgi-bin behavior of apache:

    #Note: make sure that mod_alias is loaded if you use this:
    alias.url += ( "/cgi-bin" => server_root + "/cgi-bin" )
    $HTTP["url"] =~ "^/cgi-bin" {
        cgi.assign = ( "" => "" )
    }

cgi.x-sendfile (since 1.4.40)
If the "x-sendfile" feature is active, an X-Sendfile response header containing a fully-qualified path will cause lighttpd to send the local file found at that path instead of the generated content from the backend. See mod_fastcgi X-Sendfile

    cgi.x-sendfile = "enable"  # default "disable" 

cgi.x-sendfile-docroot (since 1.4.40)
"x-sendfile-docroot" limits the directory trees allowed in the path provided by X-Sendfile response header. See mod_fastcgi X-Sendfile

    cgi.x-sendfile-docroot = ( "/srv/www/html", "/srv/www/static" )

cgi.execute-all (1.5 (abandoned) Note: 1.5.0 release branch no longer maintained)

    $PHYSICAL["existing-path"] =~ "^/var/www/myvhost/cgi-bin/" {
      cgi.execute-all = "enable" 
    }

which does the same thing as cgi.assign = ("" => "") but is more obvious to use.

Examples¶

To setup an executable which can run on its own (e.g. binaries, scripts with a shebang line) you just don't specify a handler for the extension:

  cgi.assign = ( ".sh" => "" )

If the file has no extension keep in mind that lighttpd matches not the extension itself but the right part of the URL:

  cgi.assign = ( "/testfile" => "" )

To assign a CGI script to handle a URL path, even if that path is virtual, with the help of mod_alias:

$HTTP["url"] =~ "^/urlpath(?:/|$)" {
  alias.url = ( "/urlpath" => "/path/to/script" )
  cgi.assign = ( "" => "" )
}