Um, not really. User directories don't map onto document root. And
CERN allows mapping of wildly differing file system paths onto virtual URL
paths (there's no concept of a single DocumentRoot in CERN's httpd as
there is in NCSA). Without PATH_TRANSLATED, it becomes impossible to figure
out where the actual file system location of the file in PATH_INFO is
(which sounds an awful lot like the problem that DOCUMENT_ROOT is supposed
to be solving?)
Just as a side note I wish there was a better way of passing file
names back to the server than in the path info. It looks really wierd
in the URL and it only allows you to pass back a single name. I'd rather
there was a generic method of translating virtual paths to actual
path names that I could use in my scripts. If this existed, there woulnd't
be a need for a DOCUMENT_ROOT environment variable at all -- just translate
"/" and you're done.
But I do agree that if NCSA is making unilateral changes to CGI that someone
needs to revisit the spec and update the docs. Remember, the "C" stands for
"Common."
Laura