CGI
stands for
Common Gateway Interface
. CGI allows your Web pages to interact with applications (or "scripts") that exist on, or that you upload to, your Web server. CGI programs are useful for creating dynamic Web pages that offer features such as page counters, Web-based bulletin boards, and sophisticated Web form handling.
CGIs allow your Web site to incorporate elements that are calculated at the time the Web page is loaded. However, CGIs can be quite complex, and are therefore not recommended for novices.
EarthLink's Web servers use the directory
/cgi-bin to hold your CGI scripts.You may program your own CGI scripts from scratch or download and install pre-made CGI applications from the Web.
The majority of CGI programs are written in the
Perl
scripting language. However, CGIs can be written in another language such as C and compiled into a binary executable.
