[ Thanks to BeOpen
for this link. ]
“Apache is the most widely used World Wide Web server software
on the Internet. It is a powerful platform that allows for quick,
easy, and secure transactions to take place, in addition to simply
serving Web pages. The advantages of running your Web applications
on this platform are obvious: quick execution, efficient and
complete logging, and a secure environment. Perl/CGI is the most
widely used Web applications language, which provides a powerful
manipulative language glued to the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol
(HTTP), by the means of CGI, or the Common Gateway Interface.
Learning how to program Web applications with Perl/CGI is
relatively easy. We’ll start with a brief overview of Perl and the
HTTP protocol, and how CGI provides the interface between these two
technologies. In the following tutorials, we will dive deeply into
Perl and accomplishing specific tasks with CGI.”
“For this tutorial, you will need access to an Apache
server, running preferably on a UNIX or UNIX variant, such as Linux
or FreeBSD. You will need an FTP account on that server, and
permission to use the Web services. This is standard for most Web
servers. If you are on a free Web host, such as GeoCities or
Hypermart, you need to ensure that they allow CGI program execution
on their servers. For large hosts such as these, allowing CGI
programs to reside and execute on their servers is a security risk,
so many free servers disallow or limit CGI execution. Check your
host’s FAQ to check for further details on their policies.”