cgijs

CGIJS is a all featured library to run any CGI mode / Interpreted language script files, or connect to any web application server proxies, or manage processes in the system.

CGIJS library:

• Supports running any CGI / Interpreted Language scripts using the nodejs process module in any OS that runs node.js. Needs the language interpretor to be installed in the system
• [TODO] Supports running any CGI / Interpreted Language scripts using interpreters library module in any OS that runs node.js. Do not need the language interpretor to be installed in the system
• Supports both CGI executables as well as proxy to localhost/ remote /embedded servers using proxying of multiple protocols (http, websockets, tcp, udp, socks, ssh, ftp).
• Supports managing processes like embedded server executables, embedded database executables, or any other embedded/ non-embedded executables
• Supports working with shell, json, ini, csv, yaml, and xml internally

[Funding Invited]

General Note: The library is production ready. However, please be cautious of processes/executables permissions/security in your project using CGIJS

History

CGIJS was created with a motivation to allow creation of a Desktop executable/ application using Electron that can run any CGI / Interpreted language scripted files/ applications under the hood.

Installation

npm install cgijs --save

If you wish to run interpreted languages like php, perl, python, micropython, cpython, ruby, julia, cpp, golang, ocaml, lua, napi, wasm-run, r-lang, openssl with wasm files without having the language's binary present/ installed in your system then use the following package.

npm install bridge-wasm --save

Features

Light weight, Flexible, Generic implementation. CGIJS is Nodejs Framework Independent / agnostic for application development.

There are three main modules inside CGIJS - file for CGI file execution, proxy for running proxies, and process for managing processes.

SECURITY NOTE:

• The process shell module is security agnostic and is dependant on your code.
  • The package accesses the shell to run script executables using the node.js process module. Please consider your security risks based on your executable's/ script's security risks.
• The proxy module is security agnostic and is dependant on your code and proxy's security.
  • The package has a LAN or WAN network proxy module AND does not create any proxies by its own - unless specified by you. Please consider your custom created proxy's security risks.
• The package does not use Telemetry, nor Collect data Remotely, nor has Telemetry/Remote based Error collection on its own.
  • The package propogates errors for you to handle or collect errors/ data.

Library Features

Node CGI Embedded - run interpreted scripts that support cgi using nodejs

• CGI file execution
  • Run any scripts that support CGI based serving/execution
  • Run multiple CGI executables/ Interpreters in one or multiple applications
  • Embed your own CGI/ Interpreted Language executables
  • Runs scripts with language interpretor binary (like php, python, ruby, etc) in your system
  • Runs scripts without language interpretor binary (like php, python, ruby, etc) in your system using their wasm packages

Node Web Proxy - run web proxies

• Running Proxies
  • Run any host that serves a web app, using proxy
  • Run proxies for Application (Local / Remote)
  • Supports websocket implementation in web proxies
  • Run multiple protocol proxies (HTTP, UDP, TCP, Websockets, Socks) and multiple instances in one or multiple applications

Node Processes - Manage web servers, database processes, or other system processes or services

• Manage Processes or Services
  • Allows running and closing process Executables
  • Allows managing Embedding Web Servers, which can run web applications through proxies _{[Todo] Testing for some embeddable servers}
  • Allows managing Embedded Database servers _{[Todo] Testing for some embeddable servers}
  • Should run smoothly with Unsupported proxy servers/ processes/ services (not widely tested)
• Embedding
  • Multiple web servers in one or multiple applications
  • Multiple databases in one or multiple applications

Functionality Details

The script should support piping all files of below interpreted languages:

• Python (2.x, 3.x) - py (for Python .py extension files. Needed for *nix systems)
• Perl (Version Independent) - plc, pld, pl (for Perl .pl, .plc, .pld extension files)
• PHP (Version Independent) - php (for .php extension files)
• Ruby (Version Independent) - rb (for Ruby .rb extension files)
• Node.js (Version Independent) - js (for Node.js .js extension files)
• CGI - cgi (for CGI .cgi extension files) [_{Todo Testing}]

The script should support piping all proxies of above languages and following:

• Jsp (With Tomcat, or any webserver as proxy)
• Aspx (With IIS, Apache, or any webserver as proxy)
• [] Jsp (With Tomcat embedded) _[Todo]
• [] Aspx (With Nginx and Apache embedded) _[Todo]

The script currently allows working with (starting, stopping, restarting using bash, bat scripts) following web servers:

• IIS _[Done]
• Nginx _[Done]
• Apache HTTPD _[Done]
• Apache TomCat _[Done]
• Nginx (Allows Embed) _[Done]
• Apache HTTPD (Allows Embed) _[Done]
• Apache TomCat (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Mongoose [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Jetty [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Putty [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• [] Mongoose (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• [] Jetty (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• Putty (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• PHP development server using php -S
• Ruby development server using rails server [_{Todo - Testing}]
• Python development server using py -m http.server
• [] Other Proxy-able local/remote servers [_InProgress]

The script currently allows working with (starting, stopping, restarting proxies) following web servers:

• IIS _[Done]
• Nginx _[Done]
• Apache HTTPD _[Done]
• Apache TomCat _[Done]
• Nginx (Allows Embed) _[Done]
• Apache HTTPD (Allows Embed) _[Done]
• Apache TomCat (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Mongoose [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Jetty [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Putty [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• [] Mongoose (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• [] Jetty (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• Putty (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• PHP development server using php -S
• Ruby development server using rails server [_{Todo - Testing}]
• Python development server using py -m http.server
• [] Other Proxy-able local/remote servers [_InProgress]

The script currently allows working with (starting, stopping, restarting) following web servers:

• IIS _[Done]
• Nginx _[Done]
• Apache HTTPD _[Done]
• Apache TomCat _[Done]
• Nginx _[Done]
• Apache HTTPD _[Done]
• Apache TomCat [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Mongoose [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Jetty [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• Putty [_{Todo - Testing}], _{should work based on current testing of other proxies}
• [] Mongoose (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• [] Jetty (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• Putty (Allows Embed) [_{Todo - Testing}]
• PHP development server using php -S
• Ruby development server using rails server [_{Todo - Testing}]
• Python development server using py -m http.server
• [] Other Proxy-able local/remote servers [_InProgress]

The script currently allows working with (starting, stopping, restarting) following databases and processes:

• Mysql _[Done]
• MongoDB _[Done]
• [] PgSQL _[Todo]
• [] Redis _[Todo]
• bash, bat, ps scripts _[Done]
• Other Processes for your application support

Note:

This library is in active development. Issues, and feedbacks as github ticket are welcome.

Package Dependencies:

• Environment and Library dependencies:

  • Nodejs: (> 8.x),
  • http-proxy for http-proxy support,
  • socks for socks support,
  • udp-proxy for udp support,
  • ssh2 for ssh2, ssh, ftp, sftp support,
  • socket-proxy for socket proxy,
  • http-proxy-to-socks for http to socks proxy,
  • csv for file parser,
  • xml-js for xml file parser,
  • yaml for yaml file parser,
  • ini for ini file parser,
  • dotenv for dotenv file parser,
  • shelljs for support with shell
  • concurrency.js for concurrency and parallelization support for threads and processes

• Extra needed dependencies to use language interpretors and libraries for php, perl, python, micropython, cpython, ruby, julia, cpp, golang, ocaml, lua, napi, wasm-run, r-lang, openssl with wasm files without having to install (or have) binaries in your system

  • bridge-wasm for running interpreted languages with wasm without having the binary in your system (installed/ present).

• Application Dependencies:

  • Your app, you decide
  • Example/Demo has "express": "^4.17.1"
  • Alternatively, Use any other Nodejs framework you want to use for your app

Usage Demo:

This project contains example that demonstrates working with ExpressJS.

• The demos for runing CGI/Interpreted scripts with node.js and express applications can be found in the folder demo app.
• The demos for individual implementation of file, process, proxy, and utils modules can be found in the folder demo usage [todo]

Use case:

cgijs library has been created to address following use cases:

• working with CGI / interpreted languages from any Node.js app framework
• using any CGI / interpreted languages apps with electron as demonstrated in functioning desktop-cgi app

Technical Specifications

... * Wiki links to be added

Wiki

• Getting started
  • Quick demo - CGI mode executable files
  • Quick demo - proxying to proxies/servers
  • Quick demo - proxying to proxy's websocket
  • Quick demo - proxying to udp, socks, http to socks proxy's websocket
• Run CGI files using process module and binaries in the system
  • PHP (.php)
  • Perl (Perl any versions - .plc, .pld, .pl)
  • Python (Python2, Python3 - .py)
  • Ruby (.rb)
  • Node.js (.js)
• Run CGI files using cgi-js wasm` module
  • PHP (.php)
  • Perl (Perl any versions - .plc, .pld, .pl)
  • Python (Python2, Python3 - .py)
  • Ruby (.rb)
  • Lua (.)
  • Rust (.)
  • GoLang (.go)
  • CPython (.py)
  • Julia (.)
  • R-Lang (.)
• Run Proxy servers to connect to:
  • Any Local http/https/websocket Servers
  • Any Remote http/https/websocket Servers
  • Embedded Apache httpd, Apache tomcat, Nginx (http/https/websocket)
  • Embedded Mongoose http server (http/https)
• Manage Embedded Servers (for desktop-cgi use case):
  • Embedded Apache httpd (http/https/websocket)
  • Embedded Apache tomcat (http/https/websocket)
  • Embedded Mongoose http server (http/https)
  • Embedded Nginx (http/https/websocket)
  • PHP inbuilt web development servers
  • Ruby inbuilt web development servers
  • Python inbuilt web development servers
• Manage Embedded Database Servers (for desktop-cgi use case):
  • Embedded Mysql
  • Embedded MongoDB
  • Embedded PgSQL
  • Working with SQLite
• Manage Processes (for desktop-cgi use case):
  • Other Processes or executable workings
• Run and Manage embedded or non-embedded executables / processes on need for application
• Working with config.json file for simpler implementation in apps

Current Status

• In development [Testing for Desktop-CGI use case]
• In development [Testing for language based development server]

Todo

Check .todo file for latest TODO list

License

The MIT License (MIT) - See LICENSE for further details

Copyright © 2019 - till library works: Ganesh B desktopcgi@gmail.com

Please support the development in github repository through

- feature needs reporting,
- testing,
- issue reporting,
- contribution

Please use these styles for contributions