Assuming that we're referring to the same code, you do not want to to use cgi_handlers.pl. Here's the relevant code section (comments removed):

sub get_request {
    if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST") {
    read(STDIN, $request, $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'});
    } elsif ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "GET" ) {
    $request = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
    }

    %rqpairs = &url_decode(split(/[&=]/, $request));
}

sub url_decode {
    foreach (@_) {
    tr/+/ /;
    s/%(..)/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;
    }
    @_;
}
[download]

This code has virtually all of the bugs one is likely to find in most hand-rolled code, plus some extras.

• Since it doesn't use strict or have a package declaration, it's going to overwrite any global %rqpairs or $request variables you have in the namespace of the package that requires this code (unlikely, but it's possible).
• This doesn't allow for multiple values in a query string (color=red&color=blue is perfectly legal).
• What happens if your $ENV{CONTENT_LENGTH} doesn't match the length of data read from STDIN: you get corrupted data, but you'll never know it.
• Newer clients are supposed to separate name/value pairs with semi-colons instead of ampersands. This will break cgi_handlers.pl.

There are a variety of other issues with this code, but this is a good start. See use CGI or die; for more information.

Cheers,
Ovid

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