How to tell whetehr Python script called as CGI or from command line?

rowan

I'm writing a Python script that can either be called as a Cron job or
as a web page (i.e. as a CGI in response to an HTTP request). This is
to process the mailboxes on my web server (to which I don't have
command line access) to remove old messages. How do I find out whether
the script has been called as a Cron job or as a CGI? I need to know
this so I can format the output correctly, e.g. if this is a web
request I need to start the output with "Content-type: text/html\n
\n<html>", to do newlines by "<p>" or "<br>" etc.

Can I just access some header line which will always have a value in a
web request, but which will be None if running from the command line
or as a Cron job, or something similar? How?

Thanks - Rowan

Apr 16 '07 #1

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1559

Steve Holden

ro***@sylvester-bradley.org wrote:

I'm writing a Python script that can either be called as a Cron job or
as a web page (i.e. as a CGI in response to an HTTP request). This is
to process the mailboxes on my web server (to which I don't have
command line access) to remove old messages. How do I find out whether
the script has been called as a Cron job or as a CGI? I need to know
this so I can format the output correctly, e.g. if this is a web
request I need to start the output with "Content-type: text/html\n
\n<html>", to do newlines by "<p>" or "<br>" etc.

Can I just access some header line which will always have a value in a
web request, but which will be None if running from the command line
or as a Cron job, or something similar? How?

Thanks - Rowan

The CGI standard requires that the calling server sets several
environment variables, so you could test for the presence of one or more
of those - this is only going to be indicative, though, since any shell
could have the same variables set in its environment.

import os
if "QUERY_STRING" in os.environ:
# CGI script

might work.

regards
Steve
--
Steve Holden +44 150 684 7255 +1 800 494 3119
Holden Web LLC/Ltd http://www.holdenweb.com
Skype: holdenweb http://del.icio.us/steve.holden
Recent Ramblings http://holdenweb.blogspot.com

Apr 16 '07 #2

rowan

import os

if "QUERY_STRING" in os.environ:
# CGI script

might work.

Thanks Steve for this suggestion. I did something similar:
import os
req = os.getenv('REQUEST_URI')
if (not req is None) and len(req) 0:
web = True

which seemed to work for me.

Rowan

May 11 '07 #3

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