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Access CGI Environment Variables

Access CGI Environment Variables

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Question:
Can JavaScript access CGI environment variables? Once a user has logged into my site, I would like to retrieve the user name from the “REMOTE_USER” variable.

Answer:
No, there is no straightforward way to make this happen because JavaScript runs within your browser on the client, whereas CGI scripts (and environment variables) are on the server. The only way to accomplish what you’re after is to use your CGI script to dynamically output the values of the CGI variables you’re interested in when creating your HTML page. You can use CGI to save the environment variables into hidden form variables or even generate client-side JavaScript dynamically. But, either way, this is not quick and easy.

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