Abstracts - 12th Systems Administration Conference
(LISA '98)
wshdbg - A Debugger for CGI Applications
Andrej Vckovski
Netcetera AG
Abstract
This contribution discusses wshdbg , an interactive, remote
debugger for CGI applications written in pure or derived
Tcl-based environments such as websh . The discussion covers a
short overview of the websh environment and an analysis of
current techniques and impediments of CGI debugging.
The debugger presented consists of a client-server architecture, where
the server is running on the same host as the Web browser, while the
client is included in the CGI application that needs to be
debugged. The resulting environment does not provide the level of
sophistication known from typical source level debuggers, yet it
presents a significant step forward compared to typical CGI debugging
techniques which rely on tracing the execution by many log or debug
messages. The system has been in operational use in the last two years
and proved to be a great help in debugging large Web-based
applications, allowing high-level software engineering for Web
applications on nearly the same level as it is being done in
traditional software development.
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