Fossil

Artifact [b32ece4cc6]
Login

Artifact [b32ece4cc6]

Check-ins Using Download Text

Artifact b32ece4cc661f45d25fecab9baebecf727d63ca837662a8c7abdbcd3ed352042:

CGI Server Extensions

If you choose to have a central server for your Fossil-based project (which is entirely optional - Fossil can be use an a pure peer-to-peer mode) then you can also add CGI extensions to the Fossil websiteite d. These extensions work like any other CGI program, except that they also have access to the Fossil login information, so that they can restrict access based on the currently logged in user. The CGI output can be a stand-alone webpage, or it can be incorporated into the Fossil site using the standard Fossil header and footer.

An example of where this is useful is the checklist application(https://sqlite.org/src/ext/checklist) on the SQLite(https://sqlite.org/) project. The checklist helps the SQLite developers track which release tests have passed, or failed, or are still to be done. The checklist used to be a stand-alone CGI which kept its own private user database and implemented its on permissions and login system. By converting checklist into a Fossil extension, the same login that works for the main SQLite source repository(https://sqlite.org/src) also works for the checklist. And permission to change elements of the checklist is based on permission to check-in to the main source repository.

How It Works

Extensions are off by default. An administrator activates the CGI extension mechanism by specifying an "Extension Root Directory" or "extroot" as part of the server setup. If the Fossil server is itself run as CGI, then add a line to the CGI script file that says: 

extroot: DIRECTORY

Or, if the Fossil server is begin run as using the "fossil server" or "fossil ui" or "fossil http" commands, then add an extra "--extroot DIRECTORY" option to that command.

The DIRECTORY thus specified becomes the DOCUMENT_ROOT for the CGI. Files in the DOCUMENT_ROOT are accessed via URLs like this:

https://example-project.org/ext/FILENAME

In other words, access files in DOCUMENT_ROOT by appending the filename relative to DOCUMENT_ROOT to the /ext page of the Fossil server. Files that are readable but not executable are returned as static content. Files that are executable are run as CGI.