# 21.2. `cgi` — 通用网关接口支持

源代码： Lib/cgi.py

通用网关接口 (CGI) 脚本的支持模块

本模块定义了一些工具供以 Python 编写的 CGI 脚本使用。

## 21.2.1. 概述

CGI 脚本是由 HTTP 服务器发起调用，通常用来处理通过 HTML `<FORM>` 或 `<ISINDEX>` 元素提交的用户输入。

在大多数情况下，CGI 脚本存放在服务器的 `cgi-bin` 特殊目录下。 HTTP 服务器将有关请求的各种信息（例如客户端的主机名、所请求的 URL、查询字符串以及许多其他内容）放在脚本的 shell 环境中，然后执行脚本，并将脚本的输出发回到客户端。

脚本的输入也会被连接到客户端，并且有时表单数据也会以此方式来读取；在其他时候表单数据会通过 URL 的“查询字符串”部分来传递。 本模块的目标是处理不同的应用场景并向 Python 脚本提供一个更为简单的接口。 它还提供了一些工具为脚本调试提供帮助，而最近增加的还有对通过表单上传文件的支持（如果你的浏览器支持该功能的话）。

CGI 脚本的输出应当由两部分组成，并由一个空行分隔。 前一部分包含一些标头，它们告诉客户端后面会提供何种数据。 生成一个最小化标头部分的 Python 代码如下所示:

    print("Content-Type: text/html")    # HTML is following
    print()                             # blank line, end of headers

后一部分通常为 HTML，提供给客户端软件来显示格式良好包含标题的文本、内联图片等内容。 下面是打印一段简单 HTML 的 Python 代码:

    print("<TITLE>CGI script output</TITLE>")
    print("<H1>This is my first CGI script</H1>")
    print("Hello, world!")

## 21.2.2. 使用cgi模块。

通过敲下 `import cgi` 来开始。

当你在写一个新脚本时，考虑加上这些语句:

    import cgitb
    cgitb.enable()

This activates a special exception handler that will display detailed reports in the Web browser if any errors occur. If you’d rather not show the guts of your program to users of your script, you can have the reports saved to files instead, with code like this:

    import cgitb
    cgitb.enable(display=0, logdir="/path/to/logdir")

在脚本开发期间使用此特性会很有帮助。 `cgitb` 所产生的报告提供了在追踪程序问题时能为你节省大量时间的信息。 你可以在完成测试你的脚本并确信它能正确工作之后再移除 `cgitb` 行。

要获取提交的表单数据，请使用 `FieldStorage` 类。 如果表单包含非 ASCII 字符，请使用 encoding 关键字参数并设置为文档所定义的编码格式值。 它通常包含在 HTML 文档的 HEAD 部分的 META 标签中或者由 Content-Type 标头所指明。 这会从标准输入或环境读取表单内容（取决于根据 CGI 标准设置的多个环境变量的值）。 由于它可能会消耗标准输入，它应当只被实例化一次。

`FieldStorage` 实例可以像 Python 字典一样来检索。 它允许通过 `in` 运算符进行成员检测，也支持标准字典方法 `keys()` 和内置函数 `len()`。 包含空字符串的表单字段会被忽略而不会出现在字典中；要保留这样的值，请在创建 `FieldStorage` 实例时为可选的 keep_blank_values 关键字形参提供一个真值。

举例来说，下面的代码（假定 Content-Type 标头和空行已经被打印）会检查字段 `name` 和 `addr` 是否均被设为非空字符串:

    form = cgi.FieldStorage()
    if "name" not in form or "addr" not in form:
        print("<H1>Error</H1>")
        print("Please fill in the name and addr fields.")
        return
    print("<p>name:", form["name"].value)
    print("<p>addr:", form["addr"].value)
    ...further form processing here...

在这里的字段通过 `form[key]` 来访问，它们本身就是 `FieldStorage` (或 `MiniFieldStorage`，取决于表单的编码格式) 的实例。 实例的 `value` 属性会产生字段的字符串值。 `getvalue()` 方法直接返回这个字符串；它还接受可选的第二个参数作为当请求的键不存在时要返回的默认值。

如果提交的表单数据包含一个以上的同名字段，由 `form[key]` 所提取的对象将不是一个 `FieldStorage` 或 `MiniFieldStorage` 实例而是由这种实例组成的列表。 类似地，在这种情况下，`form.getvalue(key)` 将会返回一个字符串列表。 如果你预计到这种可能性（当你的 HTML 表单包含多个同名字段时），请使用 `getlist()` 方法，它总是返回一个值的列表（这样你就不需要对只有单个项的情况进行特别处理）。 例如，这段代码拼接了任意数量的 username 字段，以逗号进行分隔:

    value = form.getlist("username")
    usernames = ",".join(value)

如果一个字段是代表上传的文件，请通过 `value` 属性访问该值或是通过 `getvalue()` 方法以字节形式将整个文件读入内存。 这可能不是你想要的结果。 你可以通过测试 `filename` 属性或 `file` 属性来检测上传的文件。 然后你可以从 `file` 属性读取数据，直到它作为 `FieldStorage` 实例的垃圾回收的一部分被自动关闭 (`read()` 和 `readline()` 方法将返回字节数据):

    fileitem = form["userfile"]
    if fileitem.file:
        # It's an uploaded file; count lines
        linecount = 0
        while True:
            line = fileitem.file.readline()
            if not line: break
            linecount = linecount + 1

`FieldStorage` 对象还支持在 `with` 语句中使用，该语句结束时将自动关闭它们。

如果在获取上传文件的内容时遇到错误（例如，当用户点击回退或取消按钮中断表单提交时）该字段中对象的 `done` 属性值将被设为 -1。

文件上传标准草案考虑到了从一个字段上传多个文件的可能性（使用递归的 multipart/* 编码格式）。 当这种情况发生时，该条目将是一个类似字典的 `FieldStorage` 条目。 这可以通过检测它的 `type` 属性来确定，该属性应当是 multipart/form-data (或者可能是匹配 multipart/* 的其他 MIME 类型)。 在这种情况下，它可以像最高层级的表单对象一样被递归地迭代处理。

当一个表单按“旧”格式提交时（即以查询字符串或是单个 application/x-www-form-urlencoded 类型的数据部分的形式），这些条目实际上将是 `MiniFieldStorage` 类的实例。 在这种情况下，`list`, `file` 和 `filename` 属性将总是为 `None`。

通过 POST 方式提交并且也带有查询字符串的表单将同时包含 `FieldStorage` 和 `MiniFieldStorage` 条目。

在 3.4 版更改: `file` 属性会在创建 `FieldStorage` 实例的垃圾回收操作中被自动关闭。

在 3.5 版更改: 为 `FieldStorage` 类增加了上下文管理协议支持。

## 21.2.3. 更高层级的接口

The previous section explains how to read CGI form data using the `FieldStorage` class. This section describes a higher level interface which was added to this class to allow one to do it in a more readable and intuitive way. The interface doesn’t make the techniques described in previous sections obsolete — they are still useful to process file uploads efficiently, for example.

The interface consists of two simple methods. Using the methods you can process form data in a generic way, without the need to worry whether only one or more values were posted under one name.

In the previous section, you learned to write following code anytime you expected a user to post more than one value under one name:

    item = form.getvalue("item")
    if isinstance(item, list):
        # The user is requesting more than one item.
    else:
        # The user is requesting only one item.

This situation is common for example when a form contains a group of multiple checkboxes with the same name:

    <input type="checkbox" name="item" value="1" />
    <input type="checkbox" name="item" value="2" />

In most situations, however, there’s only one form control with a particular name in a form and then you expect and need only one value associated with this name. So you write a script containing for example this code:

    user = form.getvalue("user").upper()

The problem with the code is that you should never expect that a client will provide valid input to your scripts. For example, if a curious user appends another `user=foo` pair to the query string, then the script would crash, because in this situation the `getvalue("user")` method call returns a list instead of a string. Calling the `upper()` method on a list is not valid (since lists do not have a method of this name) and results in an `AttributeError` exception.

Therefore, the appropriate way to read form data values was to always use the code which checks whether the obtained value is a single value or a list of values. That’s annoying and leads to less readable scripts.

A more convenient approach is to use the methods `getfirst()` and `getlist()` provided by this higher level interface.

`FieldStorage.``getfirst`(name, default=None)

  This method always returns only one value associated with form field name. The method returns only the first value in case that more values were posted under such name. Please note that the order in which the values are received may vary from browser to browser and should not be counted on. 1 If no such form field or value exists then the method returns the value specified by the optional parameter default. This parameter defaults to `None` if not specified.

`FieldStorage.``getlist`(name)

  This method always returns a list of values associated with form field name. The method returns an empty list if no such form field or value exists for name. It returns a list consisting of one item if only one such value exists.

Using these methods you can write nice compact code:

    import cgi
    form = cgi.FieldStorage()
    user = form.getfirst("user", "").upper()    # This way it's safe.
    for item in form.getlist("item"):
        do_something(item)

## 21.2.4. 函数

These are useful if you want more control, or if you want to employ some of the algorithms implemented in this module in other circumstances.

`cgi.``parse`(fp=None, environ=os.environ, keep_blank_values=False, strict_parsing=False, separator="&")

  Parse a query in the environment or from a file (the file defaults to `sys.stdin`). The keep_blank_values, strict_parsing and separator parameters are passed to `urllib.parse.parse_qs()` unchanged.

`cgi.``parse_qs`(qs, keep_blank_values=False, strict_parsing=False)

  This function is deprecated in this module. Use `urllib.parse.parse_qs()` instead. It is maintained here only for backward compatibility.

`cgi.``parse_qsl`(qs, keep_blank_values=False, strict_parsing=False)

  This function is deprecated in this module. Use `urllib.parse.parse_qsl()` instead. It is maintained here only for backward compatibility.

`cgi.``parse_multipart`(fp, pdict)

  Parse input of type multipart/form-data (for file uploads). Arguments are fp for the input file and pdict for a dictionary containing other parameters in the Content-Type header.

  Returns a dictionary just like `urllib.parse.parse_qs()` keys are the field names, each value is a list of values for that field. This is easy to use but not much good if you are expecting megabytes to be uploaded — in that case, use the `FieldStorage` class instead which is much more flexible.

  Note that this does not parse nested multipart parts — use `FieldStorage` for that.

  在 3.6.13 版更改: Added the separator parameter.

`cgi.``parse_header`(string)

  Parse a MIME header (such as Content-Type) into a main value and a dictionary of parameters.

`cgi.``test`()

  Robust test CGI script, usable as main program. Writes minimal HTTP headers and formats all information provided to the script in HTML form.

`cgi.``print_environ`()

  Format the shell environment in HTML.

`cgi.``print_form`(form)

  Format a form in HTML.

`cgi.``print_directory`()

  Format the current directory in HTML.

`cgi.``print_environ_usage`()

  Print a list of useful (used by CGI) environment variables in HTML.

`cgi.``escape`(s, quote=False)

  Convert the characters `'&'`, `'<'` and `'>'` in string s to HTML-safe sequences. Use this if you need to display text that might contain such characters in HTML. If the optional flag quote is true, the quotation mark character (`"`) is also translated; this helps for inclusion in an HTML attribute value delimited by double quotes, as in `<a href="...">`. Note that single quotes are never translated.

  3.2 版后已移除: This function is unsafe because quote is false by default, and therefore deprecated. Use `html.escape()` instead.

## 21.2.5. Caring about security

There’s one important rule: if you invoke an external program (via the `os.system()` or `os.popen()` functions. or others with similar functionality), make very sure you don’t pass arbitrary strings received from the client to the shell. This is a well-known security hole whereby clever hackers anywhere on the Web can exploit a gullible CGI script to invoke arbitrary shell commands. Even parts of the URL or field names cannot be trusted, since the request doesn’t have to come from your form!

To be on the safe side, if you must pass a string gotten from a form to a shell command, you should make sure the string contains only alphanumeric characters, dashes, underscores, and periods.

## 21.2.6. Installing your CGI script on a Unix system

Read the documentation for your HTTP server and check with your local system administrator to find the directory where CGI scripts should be installed; usually this is in a directory `cgi-bin` in the server tree.

Make sure that your script is readable and executable by “others”; the Unix file mode should be `0o755` octal (use `chmod 0755 filename`). Make sure that the first line of the script contains `#!` starting in column 1 followed by the pathname of the Python interpreter, for instance:

    #!/usr/local/bin/python

Make sure the Python interpreter exists and is executable by “others”.

Make sure that any files your script needs to read or write are readable or writable, respectively, by “others” — their mode should be `0o644` for readable and `0o666` for writable. This is because, for security reasons, the HTTP server executes your script as user “nobody”, without any special privileges. It can only read (write, execute) files that everybody can read (write, execute). The current directory at execution time is also different (it is usually the server’s cgi-bin directory) and the set of environment variables is also different from what you get when you log in. In particular, don’t count on the shell’s search path for executables (`PATH`) or the Python module search path (`PYTHONPATH`) to be set to anything interesting.

If you need to load modules from a directory which is not on Python’s default module search path, you can change the path in your script, before importing other modules. For example:

    import sys
    sys.path.insert(0, "/usr/home/joe/lib/python")
    sys.path.insert(0, "/usr/local/lib/python")

(This way, the directory inserted last will be searched first!)

Instructions for non-Unix systems will vary; check your HTTP server’s documentation (it will usually have a section on CGI scripts).

## 21.2.7. Testing your CGI script

Unfortunately, a CGI script will generally not run when you try it from the command line, and a script that works perfectly from the command line may fail mysteriously when run from the server. There’s one reason why you should still test your script from the command line: if it contains a syntax error, the Python interpreter won’t execute it at all, and the HTTP server will most likely send a cryptic error to the client.

Assuming your script has no syntax errors, yet it does not work, you have no choice but to read the next section.

## 21.2.8. Debugging CGI scripts

First of all, check for trivial installation errors — reading the section above on installing your CGI script carefully can save you a lot of time. If you wonder whether you have understood the installation procedure correctly, try installing a copy of this module file (`cgi.py`) as a CGI script. When invoked as a script, the file will dump its environment and the contents of the form in HTML form. Give it the right mode etc, and send it a request. If it’s installed in the standard `cgi-bin` directory, it should be possible to send it a request by entering a URL into your browser of the form:

    http://yourhostname/cgi-bin/cgi.py?name=Joe+Blow&addr=At+Home

If this gives an error of type 404, the server cannot find the script – perhaps you need to install it in a different directory. If it gives another error, there’s an installation problem that you should fix before trying to go any further. If you get a nicely formatted listing of the environment and form content (in this example, the fields should be listed as “addr” with value “At Home” and “name” with value “Joe Blow”), the `cgi.py` script has been installed correctly. If you follow the same procedure for your own script, you should now be able to debug it.

The next step could be to call the `cgi` module’s `test()` function from your script: replace its main code with the single statement

    cgi.test()

This should produce the same results as those gotten from installing the `cgi.py` file itself.

When an ordinary Python script raises an unhandled exception (for whatever reason: of a typo in a module name, a file that can’t be opened, etc.), the Python interpreter prints a nice traceback and exits. While the Python interpreter will still do this when your CGI script raises an exception, most likely the traceback will end up in one of the HTTP server’s log files, or be discarded altogether.

Fortunately, once you have managed to get your script to execute some code, you can easily send tracebacks to the Web browser using the `cgitb` module. If you haven’t done so already, just add the lines:

    import cgitb
    cgitb.enable()

to the top of your script. Then try running it again; when a problem occurs, you should see a detailed report that will likely make apparent the cause of the crash.

If you suspect that there may be a problem in importing the `cgitb` module, you can use an even more robust approach (which only uses built-in modules):

    import sys
    sys.stderr = sys.stdout
    print("Content-Type: text/plain")
    print()
    ...your code here...

This relies on the Python interpreter to print the traceback. The content type of the output is set to plain text, which disables all HTML processing. If your script works, the raw HTML will be displayed by your client. If it raises an exception, most likely after the first two lines have been printed, a traceback will be displayed. Because no HTML interpretation is going on, the traceback will be readable.

## 21.2.9. Common problems and solutions

- Most HTTP servers buffer the output from CGI scripts until the script is completed. This means that it is not possible to display a progress report on the client’s display while the script is running.

- Check the installation instructions above.

- Check the HTTP server’s log files. (`tail -f logfile` in a separate window may be useful!)

- Always check a script for syntax errors first, by doing something like `python script.py`.

- If your script does not have any syntax errors, try adding `import cgitb; cgitb.enable()` to the top of the script.

- When invoking external programs, make sure they can be found. Usually, this means using absolute path names — `PATH` is usually not set to a very useful value in a CGI script.

- When reading or writing external files, make sure they can be read or written by the userid under which your CGI script will be running: this is typically the userid under which the web server is running, or some explicitly specified userid for a web server’s `suexec` feature.

- Don’t try to give a CGI script a set-uid mode. This doesn’t work on most systems, and is a security liability as well.

备注

1

  Note that some recent versions of the HTML specification do state what order the field values should be supplied in, but knowing whether a request was received from a conforming browser, or even from a browser at all, is tedious and error-prone.