Manual: cgi-fcgi

NAME
     cgi‐fcgi	‐ bridge from CGI to FastCGI

SYNOPSIS
     cgi‐fcgi ‐f cmdPath
     cgi‐fcgi ‐bind  ‐connect connName
     cgi‐fcgi ‐start ‐connect connName appPath [nServers]
     cgi‐fcgi ‐connect connName appPath [nServers]

DESCRIPTION
     cgi‐fcgi is a CGI/1.1 program that communicates with an
     already‐running  FastCGI  application in order to respond to
an
     HTTP request.   cgi‐fcgi  is  also	 capable  of  starting	a
FastCGI
     application.

     When you invoke cgi‐fcgi as

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐f cmdPath

     then cgi‐fcgi opens the file at cmdPath and reads its
     arguments from that file.	cgi‐fcgi will skip lines
     that begin with the comment character #.  The first
     non‐comment line should contain valid arguments in
     one of the other three forms.

     The ‐f form of cgi‐fcgi is designed for Unix systems
     whose  exec(2) family of system calls supports the execution
of
     command interpreter files.	 For instance, if a file with
     execute permission contains the text

	 #! /bin/cgi‐fcgi ‐f
	 ‐connect /httpd/root/sock/app /httpd/root/bin/app

     the effect is the same as executing

	 /bin/cgi‐fcgi	     ‐connect	     /httpd/root/sock/app
/httpd/root/bin/app

     When you invoke cgi‐fcgi as

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐bind ‐connect connName

     the  connName argument is either the path name of a Unix do‐
main
     listening socket or a host:port pair.  If connName contains
     a colon, it is assumed to be host:port.  cgi‐fcgi performs
     a connect(2) using connName.  If the connect succeeds,  cgi‐
fcgi
     forwards the CGI environment variables and stdin data to the
     FastCGI application, and forwards the stdout and stderr data
from
     the  application to cgi‐fcgi’s stdout (most likely connected
to
     a Web server).  When the FastCGI application signals the end
of
     its response, cgi‐fcgi flushes its buffers and
     exits, and the Web server completes the http response.

     When you invoke cgi‐fcgi as

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐start ‐connect connName appPath [nServers]

     then cgi‐fcgi performs the function of starting one or more
     FastCGI application processes.  The connName argument speci‐
fies
     either the path name of the  Unix	domain	listening  socket
that
     cgi‐fcgi will create, or is "localhost:NNN" where NNN is the
port
     number  of	 the  TCP/IP  listening socket that cgi‐fcgi will
create
     on the local machine.  (cgi‐fcgi will not create processes
     on remote machines.)  After cgi‐fcgi creates  the	listening
socket,
     it forks nServers copies of a process running the executable
file
     appPath.	If  nServers  is omitted, the effect is as if the
value "1"
     had been specified.  The processes share the single  listen‐
ing socket.

     When you invoke cgi‐fcgi as

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐connect connName appPath [nServers]

     cgi‐fcgi  performs	 ‐bind	and  then,  if necssary, performs
‐start
     and repeats the ‐bind.  That is, cgi‐fcgi first operates  as
if
     the command had been

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐bind ‐connect connName

     If the connect fails, cgi‐fcgi tries

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐start ‐connect connName appPath [nServers]

     and finally retries

	 cgi‐fcgi ‐bind ‐connect connName

     In this form, cgi‐fcgi does not support TCP/IP connections.

ENVIRONMENT VARIABLES
     The  usual	 CGI  ones,  but they are not interpreted by cgi‐
fcgi.

SEE ALSO
     FGCI_accept(3)

BUGS
     cgi‐fcgi doesn’t generate useful HTTP responses in	 case  of
error,
     and it generates no response at all when run as start‐fcgi.

     On	 Digital  UNIX 3.0 systems the implementation of Unix Do‐
main
     sockets does not work when such sockets are  stored  on  NFS
file
     systems.  Symptom: cgi‐fcgi may core dump or may exit with
     status 38.	 Work‐around: store sockets in local file systems
     (/tmp often works) or use TCP/IP.

     On AIX systems the implementation of listening sockets
     does not support socket sharing, and the standard FastCGI
     application  libraries  can’t synchronize access to AIX lis‐
tening
     sockets.  Work‐around: Don’t use the  nServers  argument  on
AIX.

HISTORY
     Copyright (c) 1996 Open Market, Inc.
     See  the  file "LICENSE" for information on usage and redis‐
tribution
     of this file, and for a DISCLAIMER OF ALL WARRANTIES.
     $Id: cgi‐fcgi.1,v 1.1.1.1 1997/09/16 15:36:26 stanleyg Exp $