Re: cgi.ss, fastcgi.scm, and environment variables

[Shriram Krishnamurthi <shriram@cs.rice.edu>]

Francisco Solsona wrote:

> Every word you say here is true, but I bet that most people who will
> try to use fastcgi.ss will also want to use the CGI collection. And
> WIBNI the README accompanying fastcgi had a warning message or
> something? or even better: WIBNI there were a "PLT Scheme: contributed
> code FAQ" answering most of the questions people find when using
> non-standard extensions? :-)

It would indeed all be nice.  For now, I have added the following
blurb to the CGI library's documentation:

  INTERACTIONS ---------------------------------------------------------

  The CGI library expects to be run in a certain context as defined by
  the CGI standard.  This means, for instance, that certain environment
  variables will be bound.  Unfortunately, not all CGI environments
  provide this.  For instance, the FastCGI library, despite its name,
  does not bind the environment variables required of the standard.
  Users of FastCGI will need to bind REQUEST_METHOD and possibly also
  QUERY_STRING to successfully employ the CGI library.  The FastCGI
  library ought to provide a way to extract the values bound to
  these variables; the user can then put these into the CGI program's
  environment using PLT Scheme's `putenv' function.

It's not much, but I hope it helps.

You should probably write to the authors of FastCGI and complain about
their documentation ...

'shriram