Commonly Needed Information
Operating System
Linux 2.6.32.45-grsec-2.2.2-r3
Web Server Software
Apache
HTTP Host
www.naturalbornbitch.com
Document Root
/home/natural7/naturalbornbitch.com
Current Directory
/home/natural7/naturalbornbitch.com/cgi-bin/top
Sendmail Location
/usr/sbin/sendmail
Running As User
natural7
Running As Group
pg103593
Perl Version
5.010001
DBI Module
Found [Version 1.612]
DBD::mysql Module
Found [Version 4.016]
GD Module
Found [Version 2.39]
ImageMagick Module
Found [Version 6.6.0]
Local Server Time
Sat Feb 4 10:57:36 PST 2012


Descriptions
Document Root: This is the base directory where your HTML files are served from. When you bring up your site in your browser (ie http://www.domain.com/index.html), the index.html file is served from this directory. This is a full path, and can be used when setting up CGI scripts that require full paths to directories on your server.

Current Directory: This is the directory that the server.cgi file is currently located in. This too can be useful when setting up CGI scripts that require full paths to directories on your server. If this value looks different than the document root, you should probably use this value over that one.

Sendmail Location: This is the full path and filename of the sendmail executable on your server. Sendmail is often used for sending e-mails from CGI scripts, so if you are ever asked for a path to sendmail on your server, this is the value you would use.

User/Group: The user and group that the script is running as can be useful in determining what file permissions are required on your server. If the user does not match the username that you use to login to the server, you will need to use more liberal file permissions (777 for directories, 666 for files that need to be written to). If it is running as the same user that you login to the server as, you can use more conservative file permissions (755 for directories, and 644 for files that need to be written to). In either case, CGI scripts should be set to 755 for permissions.

DBI and DBD modules: These are Perl modules which are required for scripts which connect to an SQL database. The DBI module is a general module that works with most SQL databases, and the DBD module provides the specific information needed for a specific SQL database type.

GD module: This is a Perl module which is used to manipulate and create images. It can be used to resize and edit existing images, or to create images from scratch. Many times it is used to display graphs for statistical programs.

ImageMagick module: This is a Perl module which is used to manipulate images. It can be used to perform all types of transformations and affects on images.

Other Information: The other information listed above can be useful for other reasons. When you are reporting a problem to the creator of the CGI software, it will often be helpful to the programmer to know the OS, Perl version, and server software being used.