newbie question

[arunk]

Hi,

I have a naiive question about CGI support. Are the CGI scripts (php, perl) allowed to launch my own external programs? I have not signed up yet but would need to use some external programs to generate content that would like to display.

Thanks.

[webzone (archived)]

You can run your own Perl and PHP scripts on the server, however you cannot launch your own compiled programs. In fact, you cannot execute code on the server at all (it could be a security hole if it was allowed; most hosts don't allow that). However, the scipting languages and the extensions provided actually are mostly all you need to make any website.