Download to client from a cgi script?

[Øystein Johansen]

Hi,

(This question may be stupid, but I just can't find the answer...)

How can I make the browser downlaod a cgi script from /cgi-bin/.
Obviously I can't make a link to it with <a=href="/cgi-bin/script.cgi>,
since tha script will be executed then.

I see how Lutz in PP2E prints the script on the screen, but I want the
user to get the "save file" message box?

Same thing. What about a binary file? Printing a binary file with
getfile.cgi from PP2E is just silly. The surfer must be promped to save.
So, what I want is a script like getfile.cgi, that downloads insted of
prints the file.


(Maybe this is more a HTTP/HTML question than a Python question...)

Clueless,
-Øystein

[John J. Lee]

Re: Download to client from a cgi script?

Øystein Johansen <oystein@gnubg. org> writes:
[...][color=blue]
> How can I make the browser downlaod a cgi script from
> /cgi-bin/. Obviously I can't make a link to it with
> <a=href="/cgi-bin/script.cgi>, since tha script will be executed then.
>
> I see how Lutz in PP2E prints the script on the screen, but I want the
> user to get the "save file" message box?[/color]

Don't put it in the cgi-bin? There will be other ways, too, all of
which are entirely dependent on your web server and its configuration.
Anything regarded by your server as a cgi-script *shouldn't* be
downloadable, because that would risk security problems. Some servers
will always regard anything ending in ".cgi" or ".py" or whatever as
CGI scripts, some will regard anything in a particular directory as
CGI scripts, some will do other things.

[color=blue]
> Same thing. What about a binary file? Printing a binary file with
> getfile.cgi from PP2E is just silly. The surfer must be promped to
> save. So, what I want is a script like getfile.cgi, that downloads
> insted of prints the file.[/color]

I don't understand any of this paragraph.

[color=blue]
> (Maybe this is more a HTTP/HTML question than a Python question...)[/color]

None of the above: entirely a web server question.


John

[Matthew Wilson]

Re: Download to client from a cgi script?

If you want to trigger the browser to ask 'save this file?' then you
gotta pass it a Content-Type that will trigger that.

At the top of your cgi script, get rid of 'Content-Type: text/html\n\n'
and replace it with 'Content-Type: application/octet-stream' or
something like that.

This page:

http://ppewww.ph.gla.ac.uk/~flavell/www/content-type.html

describes some IE bugs. Good luck! If you figure it all out, can you
post a message back here for future reference?




On Sun, 21 Sep 2003 21:28:46 +0200
Øystein Johansen <oystein@gnubg. org> wrote:
[color=blue]
> Hi,
>
> (This question may be stupid, but I just can't find the answer...)
>
> How can I make the browser downlaod a cgi script from /cgi-bin/.
> Obviously I can't make a link to it with <a=href="/cgi-bin/script.cgi>,
> since tha script will be executed then.
>
> I see how Lutz in PP2E prints the script on the screen, but I want the
> user to get the "save file" message box?
>
> Same thing. What about a binary file? Printing a binary file with
> getfile.cgi from PP2E is just silly. The surfer must be promped to save.
> So, what I want is a script like getfile.cgi, that downloads insted of
> prints the file.
>
>
> (Maybe this is more a HTTP/HTML question than a Python question...)
>
> Clueless,
> -Øystein
>
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list[/color]