I hope you're not trying to be offensive. There is a difference between not hearing and not seeing that which has not been clearly stated.

Please allow me to clarify in an attempt to prevent this conversation from devolving into inflammatory rhetoric.

I am aware of the nature of the HTTP communication process, though I did not clearly say so. O'Reilly's "CGI Programming with Perl" provides a pretty clear explanation.

I believe chipmunk has sensed the same possibilities that I have, though I'm not completely convinced that non-parsed headers are the right approach.

Though I have not tested this, I presume that scripts implemented using CGI.pm do not fire until the server has fully received the client's submission, including the file being uploaded--which means it's too late.

However, the book I mentioned goes into great detail about the HTTP and CGI processes, discussing error codes, proxies, content negotiation, and so on.

I wonder many things; I wonder if:

• One can submit a form using "HEAD" as the request method and, if so, if that would include the size of the file attempting to be uploaded.
• A creative use of HTTP 1.1's capabilities can lead to a workable solution without requiring plug-in's, browser specific code, or the introduction of new tools (and their requisite expenses/learning curves).
• Query something within Apache itself to detect incoming requests that have not been completed. If so, is it possible to get enough information that can help solve this?
• Combine error codes, redirects, multiple scripts, links, and other standard tools to achieve this effect, perhaps even a carefully controlled proxy request.
• There is an "outside of the box" solution that will unravel this Gordian knot as effectively as Alexander's approach.
• Anyone's already done this and documented it.

A friend of mine likes to say, "Programmers use absolutes like 'It's impossible' or 'It can't be done' when they mean 'I don't know how to do that and haven't the slightest idea how (or desire) to learn how to do it.' Let's look at impossibilities as challenges and see what we learn while doing so."

In responses to other comments and replies:

• cajun's links are helpful, though it seems overkill to use TCL for just this. If that's the easiest way to do it, though, then so be it.
• I said nothing about resumeable uploads.
• I realize that I'm asking an unusual question, one that will add time to the process. Given the nature of the my intended users (who do not look at the existing feedback devices) and the size of the files being uploaded (2-5MB), I am perfectly willing to spend a few more cycles obtaining those files if it keeps my users from rebooting or stopping the upload.
• baku's approach may be doable, though I would prefer to avoid client-side scripting if possible.
• epoptai post is suggestive, but I wonder if there is a missing link and one or more incomplete sentences.

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