That's correct Rafal, All I want is a save dialog to come up asking if or where they want to save the text file, instead of viewing it. I'm sure download.com and versiontracker.com both use some sort of auto-download initiator script...
Thanks, -Shannon > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Rafal Pocztarski) > Newsgroups: perl.beginners.cgi > Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2001 16:01:18 +0200 > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: Auto-initialising a client-side download > > Brent Michalski wrote: > >> This cannot be done. It would be a HUGE security hole if it was possible! >> You may have the best intentions in the world with your application, but >> there are many others out there who like to damage other people's >> computers... > > I don't think Shannon wanted to automatically and silently download > files to user's filesystem and add them to autoexec script. It looks for > me more like an idea to invoke a save dialog in user's browser instead > of showing file content on the screen, when he clicks the link to a text > file. > > Shannon Murdoch wrote: > >>> I'm writing a script that will require a text file on my http server to be >>> downloaded (*not viewed in browser window*) by the script's activator. >>> >>> Let's say the text file is called 'bobby.txt' and is located in the same >>> directory as the cgi script. ( The full URL that will end up being used >>> will be http://www.domainname.com/cgi-bin/bobby.txt ) >>> >>> Does anyone know what HTTP/perl command to send to the client's browser >>> which will auto-initiate the download? > > Try sending a different MIME type, like application/x-foobar instead of > text/plain. When a browser don't know the content type and so can't > render it, it should ask the user if he wants to save the file. However > I don't know how MSIE would behave, as it's known to ignore the most > important HTTP headers (like Content-Type) for some reasons. > > You can write a script named download and use URL: > > http://www.domainname.com/cgi-bin/download/bobby.txt > > Then your script should get a filename bobby.txt from $ENV{PATH_INFO} or > path_info() using CGI.pm, print Content-Type header, empty line, and > print content of the file bobby.txt, or whatever you find in PATH_INFO - > but remember to remove any suspicious characters, like slashes etc. for > security reasons, e.g.: > > $file = $ENV{PATH_INFO}; > $file =~ s/[^\w.-]+//g; > > And use -T switch in the shebang line. > >>> I think it would be good to have an online searchable database of this >>> newsgroup, so you don't have to download every message to see if your >>> question has already been answered a few days or weeks ago! =) > > There is archive of this mailing list here: > http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/ > > - RaFaL Pocztarski, [EMAIL PROTECTED] -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
