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CGI programs and the gemini protocol

Sean Conner sean at conman.org

Fri Mar 19 23:14:39 GMT 2021

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It was thus said that the Great Frank Jüdes once stated:

Hi fellow Geminauts,

i am fairly new to the gemini protocol, but already like the simplicity

of everything, compared to the complexity of "modern" websites.

Currently i am using the Jetforce server and several clients (Kristal,

Lagrange, Geminaut) and trying to wrap my head around the /input/

status-code:

* Upon first invocation my cgi-script figures out that the

/QUERY_STRING/ is empty and responds with /10 Please enter some data/

* The client is prompting for some data and re-requesting the URL with

the data attached: [URL]?Some Data

* My CGI program detects that there is some data in the URL and

responds with /10 Please enter some more data/

* Upon which the client asks me to enter some more data and

re-requests the URL, but only with the /some more data/ attached to

the URL

The data that was already attached to the URL will be replaced with

the new data.

Is that the intended functionality?

It is only possible to use one parameter?

It's underspecified, and it's a current issue:

https://gitlab.com/gemini-specification/protocol/-/issues/19

That definitely would make parsing the URL somewhat easier, but would

require some creativity in the CGI if more than one parameter is needed.

Yes, and it depends upon the quality of implementation of the CGI spec.

Can somebody please explain this to me in a nutshell? Thank you very

much in advance for your help.

Unfortunately, it's an open issue. I'm [1] leaning towards appending thenew output (option #2 on the issue) but the spec needs to be updated first.

-spc

[1] Disclaimer: speaking with my BDFLA [2] hat here.

[2] Benevelent Dictator For Life's Assistant.