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: (none)
Your Browser is: CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)
My Server Software is: Apache/2.0.63 (FreeBSD)
Time on my Host is: Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 12:26:59 CET

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:: 14,455

Command: 
Output:: 14K

Commands which can be effected by sizefmt

fsize

timefmt

Command: 
Output:: 09.02.2010

Command: 
Output:: February

All Time Formats

timefmt="%a" : Tue
timefmt="%A" : Tuesday
timefmt="%b" : Feb
timefmt="%B" : February
timefmt="%c" : Tue Feb 9 12:26:59 2010
timefmt="%C" : 20
timefmt="%d" : 09
timefmt="%D" : 02/09/10
timefmt="%e" : 9
timefmt="%E" : E
timefmt="%f" : f
timefmt="%F" : 2010-02-09
timefmt="%g" : 10
timefmt="%G" : 2010
timefmt="%h" : Feb
timefmt="%H" : 12
timefmt="%i" : i
timefmt="%I" : 12
timefmt="%j" : 040
timefmt="%J" : J
timefmt="%k" : 12
timefmt="%K" : K
timefmt="%l" : 12
timefmt="%L" : L
timefmt="%m" : 02
timefmt="%M" : 26
timefmt="%n" :
timefmt="%N" : N
timefmt="%o" : o
timefmt="%O" : O
timefmt="%p" : PM
timefmt="%P" : P
timefmt="%q" : q
timefmt="%Q" : Q
timefmt="%r" : 12:26:59 PM
timefmt="%R" : 12:26
timefmt="%s" : 1265714819
timefmt="%S" : 59
timefmt="%t" :
timefmt="%T" : 12:26:59
timefmt="%u" : 2
timefmt="%U" : 06
timefmt="%v" : 9-Feb-2010
timefmt="%V" : 06
timefmt="%w" : 2
timefmt="%W" : 06
timefmt="%x" : 02/09/10
timefmt="%X" : 12:26:59
timefmt="%y" : 10
timefmt="%Y" : 2010
timefmt="%z" : +0100
timefmt="%Z" : CET

Set back Time Format

Command: 
Output:: Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 12:26:59 CET

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: Server Side Includes

Any Environment Variables which can be found via printenv can be accessed this way. E.g.
Command:  (the ip of your host)
Output: 38.107.191.84 (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:: 14,455

Command: 
Output:: 14K

Overview

flastmod

Command: 
Output:: Tuesday, 23-May-2000 01:42:59 CEST

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: Hello!
You came from (none) and the URL of this document is http://home.snafu.de/pewtah/ssi/index.shtml.

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

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:

UNIQUE_ID=Mjcb5VQX-pYAASIehH8AAAAQ
SCRIPT_URL=/pewtah/ssi/index.shtml
SCRIPT_URI=http://home.snafu.de/pewtah/ssi/index.shtml
VISP_DOMAIN=snafu.de
VISP_USER=pewtah
HTTP_X_CC_ID=ccc02-01
HTTP_HOST=home.snafu.de
HTTP_USER_AGENT=CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)
HTTP_ACCEPT=text/xml,application/xhtml+xml,text/html;q=0.9,text/plain;q=0.8,image/png,*/*;q=0.5
HTTP_ACCEPT_LANGUAGE=en-us,en;q=0.5
HTTP_ACCEPT_ENCODING=gzip
HTTP_ACCEPT_CHARSET=ISO-8859-1,utf-8;q=0.7,*;q=0.7
HTTP_CONNECTION=close
HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL=no-cache
HTTP_PRAGMA=no-cache
PATH=/sbin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11R6/bin:/root/bin
SERVER_SIGNATURE=
SERVER_SOFTWARE=Apache/2.0.63 (FreeBSD)
SERVER_NAME=home.snafu.de
SERVER_ADDR=10.150.10.19
SERVER_PORT=80
REMOTE_ADDR=38.107.191.84
DOCUMENT_ROOT=/dm/users/reseller/snafu.de/htdocs
SERVER_ADMIN=webmaster@snafu.de
SCRIPT_FILENAME=/dm/users/sn/snafu.de/pe/pewtah/public_html/ssi/index.shtml
REMOTE_PORT=42266
GATEWAY_INTERFACE=CGI/1.1
SERVER_PROTOCOL=HTTP/1.1
REQUEST_METHOD=GET
QUERY_STRING=
REQUEST_URI=/pewtah/ssi/index.shtml
SCRIPT_NAME=/pewtah/ssi/index.shtml
DATE_LOCAL=Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 12:26:59 CET
DATE_GMT=Tuesday, 09-Feb-2010 11:26:59 GMT
LAST_MODIFIED=Tuesday, 23-May-2000 01:42:59 CEST
DOCUMENT_URI=/pewtah/ssi/index.shtml
USER_NAME=pewtah_snafu.de
DOCUMENT_NAME=index.shtml
topic=Server Side Includes

Each single variable can be printed with echo.

Overview

set

Command: <--#set var="topic" value="Server Side Includes" -->
Variable 'topic' was set to 'Server Side Includes' and can be used e.g. for printing or comparisons.

Overview