uploaded serving a random image with a CGI script.md

notes/serving a random image with a CGI script.md

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+---
+date: 2024-11-12
+title: serving a random image with a CGI script
+tags: cgi
+---
+I made this because I have hundreds of images of myself and what I have been doing from BeReal.
+
+I stopped using it because the company got big and evil (booo), so I requested all my data (images) and I (will soon) request them to remove that data.
+
+But, for the meanwhile, I've been screwing around with it. I made a timelapse, but also fun is a random image picker.
+
+I put all the images on my server, and made a very simple CGI script:
+
+```bash
+#!/bin/bash
+
+file=$( (cd /var/www/; find images/ -type f -not -name "*index.html" \
+  | sort --random-sort | head -n1) )
+
+echo "HTTP/1.1 302 Found"
+echo "Location: /${file}"
+echo ""
+```
+
+now I can access `/.../random.cgi` and it redirects me to an image, served by nginx. Sweet.
+
+I would like to write a bigger blog about CGI scripts in future.