perl code to test my C based CGI application

[chris]

Already tried cgi newsgroup to no avail.

I'm a Perl begginner, and it's starting to look like Perl is the best
way to do this. I have a C based CGI executable that receives a single
arguement via HTTP POST method as follows:

<form method="POST" action="http://mypc-01/scripts/MyCGI.exe"
name="postToCGI">

I'd like to load test it by creating a Perl script that simply calls
it with same argument over and over and over. How can I do this?

thanks.

chris

[David K. Wall]

chris <od488gw02@sneakemail.com> wrote:

[a CGI program written in C]

> I'd like to load test it by creating a Perl script that simply
> calls it with same argument over and over and over. How can I do
> this?

See

perldoc lwpcook

It has examples that should get you started.

[Purl Gurl]

chris wrote:

> I'm a Perl begginner, and it's starting to look like Perl is the best
> way to do this. I have a C based CGI executable that receives a single
> arguement via HTTP POST method as follows:

Are you a beg-ginner or a beginner?

"argument"

> <form method="POST" action="http://mypc-01/scripts/MyCGI.exe" name="postToCGI">

> I'd like to load test it by creating a Perl script that simply calls
> it with same argument over and over and over. How can I do this?

[url]http://stein.cshl.org/~lstein/torture/torture.html[/url]


Purl Gurl
--
"This is Usenet, not a classroom. Get over it....little boy."
- Elaine Ashton

[chris]

Purl Gurl <purlgurl@purlgurl.net> wrote in message news:<3EFB529C.3C9EFFC1@purlgurl.net>...

> chris wrote:
>

> > I'm a Perl begginner, and it's starting to look like Perl is the best
> > way to do this. I have a C based CGI executable that receives a single
> > arguement via HTTP POST method as follows:

>
> Are you a beg-ginner or a beginner?
>
> "argument"
>
>

> > <form method="POST" action="http://mypc-01/scripts/MyCGI.exe" name="postToCGI">

>

> > I'd like to load test it by creating a Perl script that simply calls
> > it with same argument over and over and over. How can I do this?

>
> [url]http://stein.cshl.org/~lstein/torture/torture.html[/url]
>
>
> Purl Gurl

Spell correcting in a newsgroup? yikes.

Thanks everyone. I found a nice example by Jason Mathews and modified a bit:

#!/bin/perl
# based on sample script by Jason Mathews 28-March-1996

for ($count=1; $count < 11; $count++)
{
$ENV{'GATEWAY_INTERFACE'} = "CGI/1.1";
$ENV{'SCRIPT_NAME'} = "C:/Inetpub/Scripts/MyCGIUtility.exe";
$ENV{'SERVER_PROTOCOL'} = "HTTP/1.0";

#
# Set all environment variables that are referenced in your
# CGI program. For example, only REQUEST_METHOD, QUERY_STRING,
# and CONTENT_LENGTH are referenced in the dump.cgi program.
################################################## #####################

$| = 1;

# CGI form input

$cgi_input = 'acctid=501020000246';

#
# POST method
#

print "----------------------------------------------------\n";
print "simulating a POST method:\n";

# Setup environment

$ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} = "POST";
$ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'} = length($cgi_input);
$ENV{'CONTENT_TYPE'} = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

open(PIPE, "| MyCGIUtility.exe");
print PIPE $cgi_input;
close(PIPE);

} # end for

chris

[Eric Schwartz]

[email]od488gw02@sneakemail.com[/email] (chris) writes:

> Thanks everyone. I found a nice example by Jason Mathews and modified a bit:

<snip>

I guess it depends on what you're testing. What you did will test the
program, but outside its normal execution environment
(Webserver+CGI). You're essentially simulating a CGI environment, and
then testing. This isn't a big problem, but you need to also test it
in a real CGI environment, as you always have the risk that your
simulation isn't necessarily good enough.

-=Eric
--
Come to think of it, there are already a million monkeys on a million
typewriters, and Usenet is NOTHING like Shakespeare.
-- Blair Houghton.

[chris]

Purl Gurl <purlgurl@purlgurl.net> wrote in message news:<3EFC6C08.A07C140B@purlgurl.net>...

> chris wrote:
>

> > Purl Gurl wrote:

> > > chris wrote:

>

> > > > I'm a Perl begginner, and it's starting to look like Perl is the best
> > > > way to do this. I have a C based CGI executable that receives a single
> > > > arguement via HTTP POST method as follows:

>

> > > Are you a beg-ginner or a beginner?

>

> > > "argument"

>

> > Spell correcting in a newsgroup? yikes.

>
> My presumption is you do not care to improve your spelling skills,
> which is often a reason for poor spelling skills.
>
>

> > > > I'd like to load test it by creating a Perl script that simply calls
> > > > it with same argument over and over and over. How can I do this?

>

> > > [url]http://stein.cshl.org/~lstein/torture/torture.html[/url]

>
>

> > I found a nice example by Jason Mathews and modified a bit:

>
> Yours is a nice example, although inefficient. It does not load
> test your software, however.
>
> A single iteration of your example code is no different than eleven
> iterations. Either your program works right or it doesn't. Your
> efficiency would be greatly improved by moving your environment
> variables outside your looping mechanism; no need to set those
> variables eleven times. Same is true for your $| flushing. This
> only needs to be set once. A simple system() call would be quicker
> than opening a filehandle.
>
> Nice example which could be improved significantly, keeping in
> mind your example does not load test.
>
>
> Purl Gurl

Thanks. I moved all my env vars and flushing outside the loop now.

I plan to run this script from 10 different client boxes at the same
time, that will all be hitting the CGI server, so I think it will give
me somehwhat of a load test. I suppose it's more of a performance
test.

chris