Bug#32263: Splitting CGI-BIN

[Brian White <bcwhite@precidia.com>]

(First I get one address wrong, then the other.  <sigh>  3rd time...)

What is the next step in moving this in to being official policy?  I was
told I couldn't request any changes to the various webservers until it
was accepted as such.

===============================================================================
--- policy.sgml.orig    Fri Nov  3 00:02:17 2000
+++ policy.sgml Fri Nov  3 00:18:45 2000
@@ -2949,9 +2949,20 @@
                </example>
                and can be referred to as
                <example>
-                 http://localhost/cgi-bin/&lt;cgi-bin-name&gt;
-               </example></p></item>
+                 http://localhost/cgi-lib/&lt;cgi-bin-name&gt;
+               </example></p>
                
+             <p>The purpose of using <tt>cgi-lib</tt> instead of
+             <tt>cgi-bin</tt> is that most webmasters are used to having
+             <tt>cgi-bin</tt> available for their own local use, much like
+             <tt>/usr/local</tt>.  Having packages use <tt>cgi-lib</tt>
+             means that no changes need to be made by the webmaster to both
+             keep what they are used to and still have access to Debian
+             packages.</p>
+
+             <p>Web servers should include <tt>/cgi-lib/</tt> as a standard
+             ScriptAlias of <tt>/usr/lib/cgi-bin/</tt>.</p></item>
+
                
            <item><p>Access to html documents</p>
===============================================================================


Here was the draft mail I was going to use in reported bugs...

===============================================================================
There is new Debian policy regarding the use of "cgi-bin" in web servers.
The basic issue is that many webmasters expect to have this directory
available for their own use and not have it taken over by the system to be
used by the various Debian packages.  This new policy should be in complete
effect by the next release of Debian.

I've started the change by reporting bugs against the various web servers
and then later, after they've had a chance to address it, I'll report bugs
against those packages that still use the old location.

To address this, we are creating a new ScriptAlias "cgi-lib" that points to
/usr/lib/cgi-bin.  All Debian packages should eventually use that new
"/cgi-lib/" path in their URLs instead of the older "/cgi-bin/".  This
mechanism does allow for an easy upgrade path.

When updating a web server, the new "cgi-lib" needs to be added, but any
existing definition of "cgi-bin" should be left untouched.  (New installs
should set "cgi-bin" to point to <webroot>/cgi-bin.)  Systems with upgraded
web-servers will continue to work with the older packages (since both
"cgi-bin" and "cgi-lib" point to the same place), thus providing a
hopefully-transparent conversion.

For more information, please see the original bug report:

  http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=32263&repeatmerged=yes
===============================================================================

                                          Brian
                                 ( bcwhite@precidia.com )

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
                  Do, or do not.  There is no "try".  -- Yoda