How to obtain user input from perl script running in apache web server?

Question

I have a raspberry pi running the latest Raspbian image with apache2 installed. I have a perl script in my /usr/lib/cgi-bin directory that I am using on a local, ad-hoc network without internet access.

Here is my perl file:

#!/usr/bin/perl
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
$config=`cat /home/pi/Desktop/AutoPi/AutoPi.config`;
print <<"EOF";
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Hello, world!</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<H1>Hello, world!</H1>
<br><br>
</BODY>
</HTML>
EOF

This works great, and I can use perl system commands, like:

$my_dir=`pwd`;

...and pass them to the webpage that the user sees. This is great. However, I need to be able to have the user click a button and execute code as well.

I am comfortable using perl, and want to keep everything in the perl file if possible. If I can just program a simple button that, upon being pressed, can execute a simple command server side, I can do the rest.

Can you create a form that POSTs to your script?

Matt Jacob
– Matt Jacob

2015-12-17 04:45:59 +00:00
Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 4:45 — Matt Jacob
– Matt Jacob, Commented Dec 17, 2015 at 4:45

Grant McLean · Accepted Answer · 2015-12-17 06:30:06Z

2

Here's a script to get you started using CGI.pm to access parameters from the submitted form.

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;

use CGI qw(escapeHTML);
#use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser);

my $q = CGI->new;

my $text = $q->param('text') || '';

print $q->header('text/html; charset=utf-8');

my $safe_text = escapeHTML($text);

print <<"EOF";
<html>
<head>
  <title>Hello, world!</title>
</head>
<body>

  <h1>Hello, world!</h1>
  <div>$safe_text</div>

  <form method="post">
    <textarea name="text" rows="5" cols="40">$safe_text</textarea><br>
    <input type="submit" value="Submit">
  </form>

</body>
</html>
EOF

CGI.pm is not really a recommended way to build a web application but it sounds like you're having fun so go for it. Try removing the '#' on the use CGI::Carp line. If the script still runs then leave it that way so you'll get some error messages in the browser. You'll also want to run this command to look for errors:

tail -f /var/log/apache2/error.log

answered Dec 17, 2015 at 6:30

Grant McLean

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1 Comment

jake9115 Over a year ago

That is fantastic, thanks a lot. This is exactly what I needed!

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