DirectoryIndex including index.cgi with CGI PATH_INFO

Hi everyone,

I can't find a clear statement in the Apache 2.2 documentation about the
following scenario:

I have the following configuration for index files:

DirectoryIndex index.cgi


The request

domain.tld/dir_containing_index_cgi/

works as expected.

Now, since CGI defines the PATH_INFO mechanism,
(See section 4.1.5. in http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3875)
the request

domain.tld/dir_containing_index_cgi/index.cgi/foo

results in execution of index.cgi with the meta-variable

PATH_INFO set to "foo".

*The question now is*:

Is Apache 2.2 supposed to evaluate requests like

domain.tld/dir_containing_index_cgi/foo

so that the index.cgi is executed with the meta-variable

PATH_INFO set to "foo"?

Here it gives me a 404 error, saying it cannot find the specified
resource. I just want to be sure, that it is not a configuration
mistake, that prevents requests like that to function.

For me the PATH_INFO mechanism is stupid anyway since I don't see any
advantage over the QUERY_STRING mechanism which is defined too.

But nevertheless it is defined and used.

With warm regards,
Jan Sievers

--
Jan Sievers |
Freie Universität Berlin | sievers@zedat.fu-berlin.de
Zentraleinrichtung für Datenverarbeitung | http://www.zedat.fu-berlin.de

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On Tue, 2008-11-11 at 13:24 +0100, Jan Sievers wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> I can't find a clear statement in the Apache 2.2 documentation about the
> following scenario:
>
> I have the following configuration for index files:
>
> DirectoryIndex index.cgi
>
>
> The request
>
> domain.tld/dir_containing_index_cgi/
>
> works as expected.
>
> Now, since CGI defines the PATH_INFO mechanism,
> (See section 4.1.5. in http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc3875)
> the request
>
> domain.tld/dir_containing_index_cgi/index.cgi/foo
>
> results in execution of index.cgi with the meta-variable
>
> PATH_INFO set to "foo".
>
> *The question now is*:
>
> Is Apache 2.2 supposed to evaluate requests like
>
> domain.tld/dir_containing_index_cgi/foo
>
> so that the index.cgi is executed with the meta-variable
>
> PATH_INFO set to "foo"?

No, apache will see that as a request for the entity
at /dir_containing_index_cgi/foo. If you wanted that behaviour, you
could alias the actual CGI. Eg, if your CGI file was /cgi-bin/foo.cgi,
you could
Alias /cgi-bin/foo.cgi /my-app

Then requests for /my-app/foo would have the PATH_INFO set as you would
imagine.

>
> Here it gives me a 404 error, saying it cannot find the specified
> resource. I just want to be sure, that it is not a configuration
> mistake, that prevents requests like that to function.
>
> For me the PATH_INFO mechanism is stupid anyway since I don't see any
> advantage over the QUERY_STRING mechanism which is defined too.
>
> But nevertheless it is defined and used.

Well, if you followed my example, you could also have a request
for /my-app/foo/bar/quuz?wibble=yes, which would have
PATH_INFO="/bar/quuz" and QUERY_STRING="wibble=yes" (roughly speaking!)

>
> With warm regards,
> Jan Sievers
>

Cheers

Tom


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