About Perl and CGI

Perl

• Practical Extraction and Reporting Language is an open source server side programming language extensively used for web scripts
• Perl scripts are used to process data passed via the Common Gateway Interface from HTML forms (web forms)
• Perl scripts are not embedded within HTML pages and do not download to the web browser but reside on the server
• They execute by being triggered from commands within HTML pages or other scripts

CGI

• CGI or Common Gateway Interface allows HTML pages to interact with programming applications
• Defines how data is passed and serves to connect the web with other software and databases
• CGI permits communication and interaction from the client to the server for two-way, dynamic web pages