An HTTP server is often used as a gateway to a legacy information system; for example, an existing body of documents or an existing database application. The Common Gateway Interface is an agreement between HTTP server implementors about how to integrate such gateway scripts and programs.It is typically used in conjunction with HTML forms to build database applications.

Support module for Common Gateway Interface (CGI) scripts. This module defines a number of utilities for use by CGI scripts written in Python. ...Most often, CGI scripts live in the server's special cgi-bin directory. The HTTP server places all sorts of information about the request (such as the client's hostname, the requested URL, the query string, and lots of other goodies) in the script's shell environment, executes the script, and sends the script's output back to the client.

Books related to the various topics found in CGI programming.

Disclaimer: This book was published about seven years ago and details technologies that, while cutting-edge in their day, have become partially outdated now.

If you are looking for the most recent technology documentation, try reading Instant CGI/Perl.

That said, there is a lot of interesting and useful information contained here that might be fascinating from a historical perspective or from a general software engineering perspective. So if you keep this in mind and are still interested in the content, feel free to read further.

CGI Programming 101will show you how to add guestbooks, page counters, shopping carts and other interactive elements to your website. CGI programming is easy to learn; if you know HTML, you can learn CGI. You don't need any prior programming experience.