SSI - Server Side Includes

A small tutorial about Server Side Includes commands by me, Martin Stehle. I hope you find it useful. You can send me email to pewtah@snafu.de. For more information about my person visit my homepage (in german!).

SSI-Commands for Apache: config echo exec flastmod fsize if-elif-else-endif include printenv set
You came from: ">
Your Browser is:
My Server Software is:
Time on my Host is:

To execute SSI commands, your web server must support SSI and your html-files' extension must be '.shtml' or '.ssi'. The server can also set to parse html-files for SSIs.

Overview

config - set some configuration elements
echo - print variables on screen
exec - execute CGI-scripts
flastmod - print last-modified time of a specific file on screen
fsize - print size of a specific file on screen
if-elif-else-endif - control output by comparing variables
include - build in external files
printenv - print all environment variables on screen
set - set variables

config

errmsg

Command: 
Normal Output:: [an error occured while processing this directive]

(Not so nice, eh? So I will set a more natural message as shown in the next line.)
Command: 
Nice Output:: Unfortunately an error occured. Please inform me via my mail-adress pewtah@snafu.de and I will fix the problem. Thank you in advance.

sizefmt

Command: 
Output::

Command: 
Output::

Commands which can be effected by sizefmt

fsize

timefmt

Command: 
Output::

Command: 
Output::

All Time Formats

timefmt="%a" :
timefmt="%A" :
timefmt="%b" :
timefmt="%B" :
timefmt="%c" :
timefmt="%C" :
timefmt="%d" :
timefmt="%D" :
timefmt="%e" :
timefmt="%E" :
timefmt="%f" :
timefmt="%F" :
timefmt="%g" :
timefmt="%G" :
timefmt="%h" :
timefmt="%H" :
timefmt="%i" :
timefmt="%I" :
timefmt="%j" :
timefmt="%J" :
timefmt="%k" :
timefmt="%K" :
timefmt="%l" :
timefmt="%L" :
timefmt="%m" :
timefmt="%M" :
timefmt="%n" :
timefmt="%N" :
timefmt="%o" :
timefmt="%O" :
timefmt="%p" :
timefmt="%P" :
timefmt="%q" :
timefmt="%Q" :
timefmt="%r" :
timefmt="%R" :
timefmt="%s" :
timefmt="%S" :
timefmt="%t" :
timefmt="%T" :
timefmt="%u" :
timefmt="%U" :
timefmt="%v" :
timefmt="%V" :
timefmt="%w" :
timefmt="%W" :
timefmt="%x" :
timefmt="%X" :
timefmt="%y" :
timefmt="%Y" :
timefmt="%z" :
timefmt="%Z" :

Set back Time Format

Command: 
Output::

Commands which can be effected by timefmt

flastmod
echo var="DATE_LOCAL"
echo var="DATE_GMT"
echo var="LAST_MODIFIED"

Overview

echo

Printing Variables

Command (example): 
Output:

Any Environment Variables which can be found via printenv can be accessed this way. E.g.
Command:  (the ip of your host)
Output: (the ip of your host)

Overview

exec

With 'exec' you can call CGI-scripts via SSI. E.g. text-only counters, random images or links or text, browser-dependent content etc. It is very powerful by using comparisons. This feature is also a security hole and can be disabled. Sorry, I cannot offer you an example.

Overview

fsize

Command: 
Output::

Command: 
Output::

Overview

flastmod

Command: 
Output::

The time format depends on settings via timefmt.

Overview

include

Command: 
Content of somestuff.shtml:
<b>Hello!</b><br>
You came from  and the URL of this document is .
Output:

To access a file in another directory, use 'virtual' instead of 'file'. E.g.:
Command: 

Overview

if-elif-else-endif

Command:

1 = 2

1 != 2

no match


Output:
1 = 2
1 != 2
no match

Comparison Operators

e is true if e is true or not an empty string
!e is true if e is false or an empty string
e1 && e2 is true if e1 and e2 are true
e1 || e2 is true if e1 or e2 or both are true
e1 = e2 is true if e1 is equal e2
e1 != e2 is true if e1 not is equal e2

Overview

printenv

Command: <pre><pre>
Output: not called due to security reasons

Each single variable printed by printenv can be also printed with echo.

Overview

set

Command: 
Variable 'topic' was set to 'Server Side Includes' and can be used e.g. for printing or comparisons.

Overview