I'm prototyping a Web interface to a large image processing application,
which requires an extensive set of environment variables to run.
This is normally set for users from their .profile or .cshrc
by simply running an environment file supplied by the vendor.

The sh or csh script is quite big, and takes several seconds
(on a Sparc Ultra 2) to run, so naturally I don't want to duplicate
it in CGI (neither do I want to program this in shell scripts ;-)
So I need these environment variables en masse from the Server's
environment.

The following options spring to mind:
  - Use fastcgi.  Drawback: this prototype has to be ready very fast:
    I have about one or at most two days for the CGI part of this.
    Showstopper: I'm using a precompiled apache because there
    isn't a compiler here - and won't be until after the prototype
    demo (I'm not the sysop - and I quit trying to build gcc when I
    found "ar" and "as" missing from the system).
  - Use mod_env.  Easy but ugly.
  - Go back to CERN HTTPD (which I used in '94-5 for some similar work)
  - Use a Perl server.  Drawback: don't need the learning curve
    for installing and administrating one just now.

As I write, it looks like being mod_env.  Any better suggestions?

Nick Kew.