The most common name of a directory on a web server in which CGI programs are stored. When you see this in your browser's URL window, you are probably running or are about to run a CGI program. The 'bin' part of 'cgi-bin' is a shorthand version of 'binary', because once upon a time, most programs were referred to as 'binaries'. In real life, most programs found in cgi-bin directories are text files

scripts that are executed by binaries located elsewhere on the server. While most programs using CGI are stored in this directory, it is not a requirement for using CGI.