CGI scripts

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a standard protocol that defines how a web server communicates with an external program to generate dynamic web content. It acts as an interface between a web server and a program (a 'CGI script'), allowing the script to process user requests, access data,…

Key facts

First appeared: 1993
Category: technology
Problem solved: CGI scripts were created to enable web servers to deliver dynamic content beyond static HTML files, allowing for interactive web applications, processing user input from forms, querying databases, and generating personalized responses.
Platforms: Unix-like operating systems (Linux, macOS, BSD), Microsoft Windows

Related technologies

Perl
Shell scripting (Bash, Sh)
Web Servers (e.g., Apache HTTP Server, NCSA httpd, Microsoft IIS)
Databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle)
Python
Ruby
C/C++

Notable users

Early internet service providers (ISPs)
Small to medium-sized businesses (in the 1990s)
Academic institutions (universities, research labs)
Early e-commerce sites