Script headers

When your script finishes execution, it must output two things. The first is a short header to tell the server some information about the contents. After the header, separated by a blank line, is the document your script has generated.

Header contents

The header is similar to MIME or mail headers. It consists of a series of lines, each with an item, followed by a colon, followed by its argument. The header is terminated by a linefeed on a line by itself.

Currently recognized header items:

Content-type: type/subtype
The MIME-like type of document your script is returning, e.g. text/html.
Location: where
This item be used for two purposes, depending on what where is.
- A full URL
  If where is a full URL, the server will issue the client a redirect which will then point them to the URL you specify.
- A pathname
  The server will perform access control, and send the client either the file or an error message. Note that any relative links an HTML document returned this way will not work. Also note that the pathname is "virtual", that is, subject to DocumentRoot referencing and aliasing.

Return to GET script overview

Robert B. Denny <rdenny@netcom.com>