How to Enable Perl CGI on Oracle Linux

April 8, 2017 | By the+gnu+linux+evangelist.

Perl CGI Quick Start on OEL

Hello Oracle Linux User! This Short Tutorial shows you Step-by-Step How to Getting-Started with Perl CGI Web Scripts on Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.x/7.x/8.x GNU/Linux Desktop/Server.

CGI.pm is a large and widely used Perl module for Programming Common Gateway Interface (CGI) web applications, providing a consistent API for receiving and processing user input.

Perl CGI Quick Start for Oracle Linux - Featured

Open a Shell Terminal emulator window
(Press “Enter” to Execute Commands)

In case first see: Terminal QuickStart Guide.
Login as SuperUser.
```
sudo su
```
Install Perl & CGI.pm Module.
```
yum -y install perl perl-CGI
```

Enabling CGI in a Custom Directory
By Default it’s enabled only on the /var/www/cgi-bin location.
To make the Custom CGI Directory:

mkdir /var/www/html/custom-cgi

Make an Apache Config File:

nano /etc/httpd/conf.d/cgi-enabled.conf

Append:

# create new
# processes .cgi and .pl as CGI scripts
>Directory "/var/www/html/custom-cgi"<
Options +ExecCGI
AddHandler cgi-script .cgi .pl
>/Directory<

Ctrl+x to Save & Exit from nano.

Restart Apache.
```
service httpd restart
```

Set the New Rules for CGI

For OEL 7:

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_script_exec_t /var/www/html/custom-cgi

chcon -R -t httpd_sys_script_exec_t /var/www/html/custom-cgi

Instead, for OEL 6:

semanage fcontext -a -t httpd_sys_script_exec_t /var/www/html/custom-cgi

restorecon /var/www/html/custom-cgi

Testing a CGI Script.

nano /var/www/html/custom-cgi/index.cgi

Append something like:

#!/usr/bin/perl

print "Content-type: text/html
";
print "<html>
<body>";
print "CGI Working on /var/www/html/custom-cgi";
print "
</div>";
print "</body>
</html>";

Then Save.
To Set Execution Permission:

chmod 705 /var/www/html/custom-cgi/index.cgi

Achieve the SuperUser Session.
```
exit
```
Browse the CGI Page

http://localhost/custom-cgi/index.cgi