Server Side Includes (SSIs) are commands that you can enter into your page to give them some dynamic content.
What do I call my file?
The web server has to know that a file includes SSI commands to be able to execute them. Hence, any file you want to be displayed back to the user with an SSI command displaying the desired results must have an extension of .shtml.
How do I enter a ssi command?
The syntax of an SSI command looks like this:
<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/counter.pl" -->In this case, when the page is displayed to the browser, it includes the results of the perl script "counter.pl", which is stored in a "cgi-bin" directory.
Other common directives look like this, and do the following:
Have a look at the Apache site for more on SSI Directives.
Is all ssi functionality enabled?
Yes. This may surprise experienced users, as the "exec" command is often disabled by web hosts for security reasons -- as, if used maliciously, exec could cause real damage.
We run in a chroot [Change Root] environment. This means that each user has access to only a limited portion of the file system, and can only damage their own site. They cannot access another user's site.All the same we do not recommend that you run <!--#exec cmd="rm -rf /" --> as you will remove your entire site unrecoverably!
