Lighttpd howto setup cgi-bin access for perl programs

Posted by Vivek Gite [Last updated: December 27, 2006]

Lighttpd has mod_cgi module that allows you running perl and other server side programs (cgi-bin).

Step #1: Create a cgi-bin directory

First create cgi-bin directory for your domain.
# mkdir -p /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http/cgi-bin

Step # 2: Load mod_cgi module

Open lighttpd configuration file using text editor such as vi:
# vi /etc/lighttpd/ligttpd.conf

Now append or modify text as follows so that support for mod_cgi get loaded:
server.modules += ( "mod_cgi" )

Find out your virtual server configuration and append following text:

$HTTP["url"] =~ "/cgi-bin/" {
      cgi.assign = ( ".pl" => "/usr/bin/perl" )
  }

Here is complete my config code:

$HTTP["host"]  =~ "theos.in" {
  server.document-root = "/home/lighttpd/theos.in/http"
  server.errorlog            = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/error.log"
  accesslog.filename         = "/var/log/lighttpd/theos.in/access.log"
  $HTTP["url"] =~ "/cgi-bin/" {
      cgi.assign = ( ".pl" => "/usr/bin/perl" )
  }
}

Step # 3:Restart lighttpd

Restart lighttpd webserver
# /etc/init.d/lighttpd restart

Step # 4:Sample perl program

Create file/perl program /home/lighttpd/theos.in/http/cgi-bin/sample.pl:
#!/usr/bin/perl print "Content-Type: text/plain", "\n\n"; print "Hi there! This is a sample perl program!!!", "\n";

Save and execute the program (http://yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/sample.pl).

Want to stay up to date with the latest Linux tips, news and announcements? Subscribe to our free e-mail newsletter or RSS feed to get all updates. You can Email this page to a friend.