CGI Timeout

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

I am running a CGI script that essentially gathers input from database records and uses those as variables to open a Net::Telnet::Cisco session to a switch and configure access points. At one point, the APs need to reboot, and then continue configuration. The reboot process is at a minimum 1.5 minutes. When I process a smaller amount of APs (1-10) they all come out ok. When I start to process larger numbers of APs, some end up with incomplete configurations. So my question is whether or not there is a timeout value of a CGI script? Would running this as a *.pl file work as well? Can I call a *.pl script from a web page? My thoughts at this point are to split the process into two different scripts while the APs reboot.

Thanks,
Scott

Update: Also, if this is run as a *.pl file, can I still provide real time feedback to the user via a web page? Is there a way to see the real time output of the telnet session via a web page?

Comment on CGI Timeout

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Re: CGI Timeout by jettero (Monsignor) on Aug 12, 2008 at 01:42 UTC
This is one of the articles I don't mind linking too off site, because it's awesome: Watching long processes through CGI. Might help. UPDATE: I've personally linked to it three times. I've seen merlyn link to it also, which is where I learned of it. I'm not sure it needs more ++s, but I'll take 'em if you're clicking my node. -Paul	[reply]
Re^2: CGI Timeout by wol (Hermit) on Aug 12, 2008 at 09:48 UTC
Ooh - mod that up! Either here or on stonehenge.com I've bookmakred it - it's just what I'm in need of too. Thinking about some of the CGI processes I'm working with, and the hoops that I've jumped through to avoid IE/Apache timing out, I've been aware that I really ought to get round to doing it "properly". I think the link above covers all the "research" I'd need for that.	[reply]
Re: CGI Timeout by alexm (Chaplain) on Aug 12, 2008 at 15:11 UTC
Apache has a default timeout of 300 seconds, meaning that your CGI would be aborted after that. Since you didn't mention which HTTP server are you running, YMMV.	[reply]