SPUG: Web interface problem

[Mikel Tidwell]

Hi everyone,

I'm stumped on how to proceed on a page for a web interface I'm creating
for my web site.  I want to be able to download a typically large file off
another web server, and store it on the local server.  By large, I mean an
average of 20 MB or so, but up to 100 MB at a typical rate of 30K/s.

Here's how I expect it to work:

 * User locates the file on another site, comes to the interface, and
commands the file be downloaded.
 * Script uses either LWP or `wget` to fetch file. <Problem>
 * Script moves on to allow the person how to name the file, etc.

Problem: Downloading a file usually takes more than two minutes.  If the
client doesn't time out by then, the web server will terminate the process
anyway (cgi time limit in Roxen).  I could simply change this limit, but
I'm looking for a smarter solution.

I thought about creating a child process, but I know very little about
fork(), or what happens to the parent in this scenario.  I also have an
issue with, should the child be able to download the file, notifying the
user that the download was complete, so he/she can continue.

If this still makes any sense, please help.  Thanks... ^^

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  -- Mikel Tidwell   President: RPGamer -- http://www.rpgamer.com/
   MSNM: FireMyst    Personal Home Page -- http://dragon.rpgamer.com/
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