>>>> - Finding a web hosting company that allows arbitrary CGI /binaries/ is
>>>> seemingly impossible.
>>>>
>>>
>>> for this one, it's easier to look for the actual httpd.conf commands
>>> that tell Apache to use your custom CGI binary.
>>>
>>> "web hosting" "option +execCGI" "addHandler"
>>
>> I don't think I've come across a web host that lets you actually touch
>> the Apache configuration files. (And not all hosts even use Apache in
>> the first place, of course...)
>
> Then how do you plan on having said web hosting service run your binary?

I *said* it was a hard problem. ;-)

Typically the host sets up a special folder, and any files within it are 
considered to be CGI scripts in whatever language the server is 
hard-coded to accept. (Or /maybe/ based on the filename.) Presumably 
you'd have to find a host that allows executable binaries...

(And yes, you'd need to know whether the host runs Windows or Linux, in 
order to compile the correct binary.)

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On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 09:03:02 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> On 16/07/2012 03:41 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Mon, 16 Jul 2012 10:50:12 +0100, Invisible wrote:
>>
>>> I literally can't think of any way to get Google to figure this out
>>> automatically.
>>
>> It's a good thing you aren't having a problem working it out
>> figuratively, then.
>>
>> But a generic example is difficult to help you with.  Can you be
>> specific about what you're trying to find, and then someone maybe can
>> help you phrase it so it works?
> 
> OK, try this:
> 
> - Finding a web hosting company is easy.

"hosting"

> - Finding a web hosting company that allows you to run your own custom
> CGI scripts is harder. I'm not even sure how to do that with Google.

"hosting cgi"

> - Finding a web hosting company that allows arbitrary CGI /binaries/ is
> seemingly impossible.

'hosting :binary cgi"' turned up discussions on this topic that look like 
they include recommendations.

Jim

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On Tue, 17 Jul 2012 15:13:07 +0100, Invisible wrote:

> I don't think I've come across a web host that lets you actually touch
> the Apache configuration files. (And not all hosts even use Apache in
> the first place, of course...)

Options can be put in .htaccess as well, and that often is permitted.

Jim

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>> - Finding a web hosting company that allows arbitrary CGI /binaries/ is
>> seemingly impossible.
>
> 'hosting :binary cgi"' turned up discussions on this topic that look like
> they include recommendations.

I don't even know what that syntax /means/. (I guess I could Google it...)

Most of the discussions appear to be /very/ old. The websites mentioned 
do offer web hosting, but most of them seem more keen to ram in your 
face just how many FREE Exchange mailboxes you could get, or that you 
can have UNLIMITED MySQL databases. (Um, who cares? It's not like you 
can't put more than one lot of data into a single "database"...) I can't 
find any that really give any technical detail about their CGI capabilities.

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Le 2012-07-17 10:34, Invisible a écrit :
> Typically the host sets up a special folder, and any files within it are
> considered to be CGI scripts in whatever language the server is
> hard-coded to accept. (Or /maybe/ based on the filename.) Presumably
> you'd have to find a host that allows executable binaries...

On Apache, it _is_ done by filename.  Since the host has to "chmod" the 
files to make them executable (on *NIX), it probably automagically does 
this on a specific set of file extensions.  so you need to find out what 
extensions are supported.

I am not telling you to do this, but you could theoretically upload an 
executable binary called andy.pl

>
> (And yes, you'd need to know whether the host runs Windows or Linux, in
> order to compile the correct binary.)

Or BSD, or Solaris, or AIX... and the CPU architecture.

-- 
/*Francois Labreque*/#local a=x+y;#local b=x+a;#local c=a+b;#macro P(F//
/*    flabreque    */L)polygon{5,F,F+z,L+z,L,F pigment{rgb 9}}#end union
/*        @        */{P(0,a)P(a,b)P(b,c)P(2*a,2*b)P(2*b,b+c)P(b+c,<2,3>)
/*   gmail.com     */}camera{orthographic location<6,1.25,-6>look_at a }

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Am 18.07.2012 16:28, schrieb Francois Labreque:
> Le 2012-07-17 10:34, Invisible a écrit :
>> Typically the host sets up a special folder, and any files within it are
>> considered to be CGI scripts in whatever language the server is
>> hard-coded to accept. (Or /maybe/ based on the filename.) Presumably
>> you'd have to find a host that allows executable binaries...
>
> On Apache, it _is_ done by filename.  Since the host has to "chmod" the
> files to make them executable (on *NIX), it probably automagically does
> this on a specific set of file extensions.  so you need to find out what
> extensions are supported.

Comes as a surprise to me, given that it's Unix customary practice to 
identify file types by signatures.

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On Wed, 18 Jul 2012 10:43:48 +0100, Invisible wrote:

>>> - Finding a web hosting company that allows arbitrary CGI /binaries/
>>> is seemingly impossible.
>>
>> 'hosting :binary cgi"' turned up discussions on this topic that look
>> like they include recommendations.
> 
> I don't even know what that syntax /means/. (I guess I could Google
> it...)

It means I couldn't type.

'hosting "binary cgi"'

(the outer quotes are not necessary - they're there because I am quoting 
what I typed in)

> Most of the discussions appear to be /very/ old. The websites mentioned
> do offer web hosting, but most of them seem more keen to ram in your
> face just how many FREE Exchange mailboxes you could get, or that you
> can have UNLIMITED MySQL databases. (Um, who cares? It's not like you
> can't put more than one lot of data into a single "database"...) I can't
> find any that really give any technical detail about their CGI
> capabilities.

It's an example of how to do a search.  Use the search tools to constrain 
the results to a more recent timeframe.

Jim

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>> Most of the discussions appear to be /very/ old.
>
> It's an example of how to do a search.  Use the search tools to constrain
> the results to a more recent timeframe.

One of the discussions suggests that the correct search term is "shell 
host". This does indeed appear to generate a lot of hits...

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On 17/07/2012 09:03 AM, Invisible wrote:
> - Finding a web hosting company that allows arbitrary CGI /binaries/ is
> seemingly impossible.

Apparently my /current/ web host offers arbitrary CGI using PHP. (And a 
MySQL database, if I want one.)

According to the manual, any file ending *.php4 or *.php5 is considered 
to be a PHP file. Anything ending *.cgi is assumed to be a CGI script. 
(I think it supports one other language - maybe Perl.)



First attempt: Write a small C program, compile it on Linux, upload it 
to the server, name it HelloWorld.cgi, try to access it.

Oh dears: HTTP 500. No way of accessing the logs to find out what failed.



Second attempt: PHP apparently contains a passthru() function which lets 
you run an arbitrary command and pipe its output to the HTTP client. So 
if I just run ./HelloWorld.cgi, I'm golden.

No good. Statements before passthru() execute fine. Statements after 
passthru() execute fine. passthru() itself appears to generate no 
output. Again, this is a scripting language, so there's no way of 
knowing why it failed.



I know for a fact that my host runs Linux, and the web server is Apache. 
It seems a reasonable assumption that it's AMD64, but the documentation 
does not specify. Nor does it state which Linux distro. I had hoped that 
PHP might offer some function to query this information... but no, it 
doesn't.

If I scheme hard enough, perhaps I can trick my existing web host into 
doing what I actually want, without having to upgrade to their dedicated 
server product at 15x the price...

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On 19/07/2012 09:36 AM, Invisible wrote:

> If I scheme hard enough, perhaps I can trick my existing web host into
> doing what I actually want, without having to upgrade to their dedicated
> server product at 15x the price...

Apparently PHP has a phpinfo() function which dumps a whole bunch of data.

According to this,

   System: Linux infong 2.4 #1 SMP Tue Jan 17 02:58:41 UTC 2012 i686 
GNU/Linux

So perhaps I should try compiling a 32-bit ELF binary and see if that 
works? (Man, is there even a way to do that with a 64-bit Linux distro? 
I'm sure there is, but finding it...)

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