howto run a cgi that is compiled as a linux binary on a linux web-host

Question

All,

My host supports Perl CGI scripts, how do I use a compiled CGI script on the host?

I tried setting execute permissions via chmod, but when I try and run it via the browser, I get a server error.

Thanks in advance for all help.

Answer 1

It's possible with a few restrictions:

1. You're compiling statically or don't have any external dependencies
2. You're using a glibc that's no newer than theirs

If you're compiling under gcc, you might also need to provide libgcc_s.so which might mean you need a LD_LIBRARY_PATH in which case you'd probably run your binary through a shell script.

You can check the dependencies on your binary with ldd. My recommendation is to compile statically with no dependencies on a system with a glibc at least as old as theirs.

NOTE: (1) above isn't strictly a requirement if you can set LD_LIBRARY_PATH and can run everything through a wrapper script, but things get much more complicated if you need such functionality.

Answer 2

perhaps i'm missing something, but the fact that your host supports "perl cgi" doesn't mean that they support "compiled cgi" (which i would presume is a C CGI program).

Some details about what the server error was would be helpful.