Forum > Networking and Web Programming
Free CGI hosting for Lazarus binaries?
maurobio:
Dear ALL,
Can someone out there suggest a reliable free hosting service which offers CGI support for Lazarus binaries compiled under Linux?
I have found a few searching Googly, but in the end (usually after a long registration process) I just discovered that the "CGI support" offered by most free hosting services is for Perl scripts only.
Thanks in advance!
With best regards,
PierceNg:
--- Quote from: maurobio on June 23, 2023, 03:09:07 am ---Can someone out there suggest a reliable free hosting service which offers CGI support for Lazarus binaries compiled under Linux?
--- End quote ---
Figure out how to use Docker and use free container hosting services by AWS, Azure, etc.
Warfley:
There are a few problems with hosting native CGI applications why this isn't provided often. First and most simply, security reasons. When hosting scripts like PHP or Perl you can configure the interpreter to just use a certain maximum amount of memory, be restricted to certain directories, only access to certain APIs, etc.
The second problem is dependencies. Most native Linux applications have a set of dependencies, like a certain libc version, or other libraries like sqlite, and these often in specific versions. An application built on one system may not run on another system just because it runs Linux. It must have the correct versions of all the dependencies, and these versions may clash between different applications. So you also need a form of encapsulation here.
This is why you usually don't have hosters providing you the ability to just push native applications onto their servers. What is used instead is as PierceNg has already wrote, that containerization is used. Here your application runs in a virtual environment, that you configure with all the required libraries and other dependencies, and that can be managed or deployed through software fetching from repositories like the docker hub.
Leledumbo:
Azure and AWS provide 12 months/750 hours burstable free vm instances, while Oracle and Google provides an always free tier (with limits, of course). Of course you must setup the VM to serve the CGI by yourself, it's unlike Perl CGI / PHP where many hostings provide preconfigured environment where all you need to do is upload your scripts.
maurobio:
Hi, @PierceNg, @Warfley, @Leledumbo!
Thanks for your answers. I have used old & good CGI protocol for about thirty years, so I am aware of its cons, but also of its pros (simplicity foremost amongst them). Perhaps I still dwell in the sweet pioneering illusions of the early Web, where everything was simpler.
Please don't be shocked, but until the suggestion by PierceNg I had never heard of "Docker"! I took a quick look at it - the concept seems truly interesting, but I much doubt that I would have the time, the patience, and the brains (not necessarily in that order!) to "figure out" how to use it and then spent yet more time with AWS, Azure, etcetera!
I would like just an old-fashioned server providing support for simple CGI scripts as binary executables. Notice that many free web hosting services claim that they offer such support, but in practice they don't - HelioHost.org is an honourable exception, but nowadays it is quite difficult to earn free space there (not too mention that it now offer only the horrible Plesk as its control panel!).
Anyway, I am already struggling - although with most rewarding results :D - to develop Android apps using LAMW to spent my time with older things. Life is short.
With best regards,
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