Goals for this Hour

In this hour, you will learn about

• Exploring Apache configuration files

• Creating a simple CGI program

• A server-side include program

• Understanding Apache log files

In the preceding hour we explored exchange, a short Perl program that offered direct currency conversion. This time we create a couple of simple UNIX CGI scripts, expand the program to become a Web-based currency exchange translator, look at a simple program to automate adding a last-modified date and time on your pages, and finally produce a shell script that analyzes Apache log files.

Apache is well distributed and is included with all versions of Linux, among others, but you might not have it on your system. If not, go to http://www.apache.org/ and download a copy. If you have a different server, rest assured that 90% of what's discussed in this lesson will be true for your setup too.