---
name: "slowcgi"
section: "8"
platform: "openbsd"
package: "man"
version: "8.0-current-20261101"
release: "OpenBSD 8.0-current (2026-11-01)"
platforms: ["openbsd"]
url: "https://new.carta.tech/slowcgi"
---

# slowcgi(8)

a FastCGI to CGI wrapper server

## NAME

**slowcgi** – a FastCGI to CGI wrapper server

## SYNOPSIS

**slowcgi** \[**-dv**\] \[**-p** *path*\] \[**-s** *socket*\] \[**-t** *timeout*\] \[**-U** *user*\] \[**-u** *user*\]

## DESCRIPTION

**slowcgi** is a server which implements the FastCGI Protocol to execute CGI scripts. FastCGI was designed to overcome the CGI protocol's scalability and resource sharing limitations. While CGI scripts need to be forked for every request, FastCGI scripts can be kept running and handle many HTTP requests.

**slowcgi** is a simple server that translates FastCGI requests to the CGI protocol. It executes the requested CGI script and translates its output back to the FastCGI protocol.

Modern web frameworks and web applications usually come with the capability to run as FastCGI servers. **slowcgi** is not intended for these applications.

**slowcgi** opens a socket at */var/www/run/slowcgi.sock*, owned by www:www, with permissions 0660. It will then [chroot(8)](/chroot/8.md) to */var/www* and drop privileges to user "www".

The options are as follows:

- **-d**

  Do not daemonize. If this option is specified, **slowcgi** will run in the foreground and log to stderr.

- **-p** *path*

  [chroot(2)](/chroot/2.md) to *path*. A *path* of */* effectively disables the chroot.

- **-s** *socket*

  Create and bind to alternative local socket at *socket*.

- **-t** *timeout*

  Terminate the request after *timeout* seconds instead of the default 120 seconds. The CGI script is left to run but its standard input, output and error will be closed.

- **-U** *user*

  Change the owner of */var/www/run/slowcgi.sock* to *user* and its primary group instead of the default www:www.

- **-u** *user*

  Drop privileges to *user* instead of default user www and [chroot(8)](/chroot/8.md) to the home directory of *user*.

- **-v**

  Enable more verbose (debug) logging.

## SEE ALSO

[httpd(8)](/httpd/8.md)

## STANDARDS

Mark R. Brown, *FastCGI Specification*, April 1996.

D. Robinson, K. Coar, *The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) Version 1.1*, RFC 3875, October 2004.

## HISTORY

The **slowcgi** server first appeared in OpenBSD 5.4.

## AUTHORS

Florian Obser ⟨*florian@openbsd.org*⟩

## BUGS

**slowcgi** only implements the parts of the FastCGI standard needed to execute CGI scripts. This is intentional.