Frequently Asked Questions
- Can you clarify the * option for the filename? If someone
enters "a*", do we return all files whose names contain an a
followed by anything?
No. If someone enters "a*", you return all files whose
names contain literally "a*". The only thing special about
the asterisk happens if someone enters EXACTLY "*". The
lone asterisk simply means "all files", and you are then to
return all files of the selected type(s).
- I ( don't know | can't remember | forgot | never knew ) my CS
Account password. What do I do?
Email labstaff@cs.rpi.edu and request a password reset.
- Can we create a static HTML page for the form?
No. You must have one single CGI script that generates all output,
including the form and the search results.
- Why am I getting HTTP 500 Internal Server Error when I click on
the links my program generated?
Most likely because you generated a link that goes to
cgi2.cs.rpi.edu. cgi2.cs.rpi.edu attempts to execute any file located
in cgi-bin/ (or its subdirectories), rather than simply display them.
You need to instead generate absolute links to www.cs.rpi.edu.
- Is the extention part of the filename? ie, if the user
searches for "mp", should all MP3 files be returned, since they end
with .mp3?
Yes, assuming the user also selects Audio as one of the file types to
search for.
- After making the file user-executable, I'm still getting HTTP
500. When I run it on the command line by typing `perl file.cgi`, it
seems to work fine. If I just type the file name, I get this message:
"/usr/bin/env: No such file or directory". What's
wrong?
Two possibilities: either your shebang is wrong, or you saved the
file in windows before transferring it to your CS account, and forgot
to run dos2unix. At the command line, type `dos2unix file.cgi file.cgi`