Installing a cgi app with cgi

banjo has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

Im writing a perl CMS, whose two main requirements are that it must be installed, configured and run by people with no technical skills, and that they have a simple way to add new modules for new features. I was hoping to have an web-based install/update system similar to debians apt-get.

Most of these people have no command line access, no technical support, and no technical skills.

Ive got a nice cgi based installer, but this will only be secure if the web-server is running suexec. So I shall also have to write...

a command line installer (similar to how kwiki does it)
a scary install script to guide the user to, upack files locally, ftp upload these files, ftp chmod these files with these magic numbers...
maybe a tk app that, does all of the above for you.

My Question, for websites not running suexec, are there any better ways a complete non-techie could do a secure install?

Comment on Installing a cgi app with cgi

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Re: Installing a cgi app with cgi by stonecolddevin (Parson) on Aug 19, 2006 at 05:28 UTC
what's your definition of a "secure install"? in my opinion, if you can password up what needs to be secure, and anyone who's not allowed in there doesn't have the password (among other standard security precautions), you have yourself a secure install. are you talking about installing it securely on the system so as to say nothing is corrupted, etc.? if so, you may have to delve into your respective server's docs (i'm assuming apache since you're talking about suexec, although i'm not sure that's limited to apache) to find out other user ID systems for the server to run under hope this helps. UPDATEHere's a link to the Apache suEXEC docs: http://httpd.apache.org/docs/trunk/suexec.html. It should cover all that you need to know about suEXEC. meh.	[reply]
Re^2: Installing a cgi app with cgi by banjo (Initiate) on Aug 19, 2006 at 09:13 UTC
By 'Secure Install', i mean one where the files are owned by the user and not some 'nobody' uid that the server is running as. My problem is that there are so many varieties of server setups, that each need to be handled differently. I can handle it if i am overseeing the install myself, but with so many nontechnical people needing help, i'd like to automate the process as much as possible.	[reply]
Re: Installing a cgi app with cgi by derby (Abbot) on Aug 19, 2006 at 12:29 UTC
it must be installed, configured and run by people with no technical skills, and that they have a simple way to add new modules for new features You could try this Customer Friendly System. -derby	[reply]