# Matt's Script Archive

> Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Matt's_Script_Archive
> Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Matt's_Script_Archive.md
> Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt's_Script_Archive
> Source revision: 1334540305
> License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/)

This article relies excessively on references to primary sources. Please improve this article by adding secondary or tertiary sources. Find sources: "Matt's Script Archive" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

**Matt's Script Archive** is a collection of [CGI](/source/Common_Gateway_Interface) scripts written in the [Perl programming language](/source/Perl). Started in 1995 by Matt Wright (at the time a high school student in Fort Collins, Colorado), the archive contains about a dozen free scripts, designed to be easily added to a site and configured.[1] One of the scripts, [FormMail](/source/FormMail), is claimed to be the most popular CGI script on the [World Wide Web](/source/World_Wide_Web), with over 2 million downloads since 1997.[2]

As the scripts grew in popularity they were criticized for being insecure. The **FormMail.pl** script, in particular, was exploited by [spammers](/source/Spam_email_delivery) to send junk email.[3] [SecurityFocus](/source/SecurityFocus) put attacks based on FormMail.pl third in their list of the Top Attacks for the 1st Quarter of 2002.[4] As Perl 5 became more mature, norms in the community changed to encourage use of [modules](/source/Module_(programming)) such as [CGI.pm](/source/CGI.pm) and code safety features such as strictures and [taint checking](/source/Taint_checking); the scripts in Matt's Script Archive, however, did not follow these changes, and as a result (and also because Matt Wright wrote much of the code when he was an inexperienced programmer) tend to be buggy. Experienced Perl programmers usually recommend against the use of these scripts, and the London Perl Mongers started an effort called "nms" to write drop-in replacements for them.[5][6] Matt Wright himself has recommended using the nms scripts, saying:

*I would highly recommend downloading the nms versions if you wish to learn CGI programming. The code you find at Matt's Script Archive is not representative of how even I would code these days.*[7]

Most of the scripts at Matt's Script Archive ceased to be updated after 1996, with the exception of security flaws or bugs.[8]

## See also

- [History of the World Wide Web](/source/History_of_the_World_Wide_Web)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** ["World Wide Mart: History"](https://web.archive.org/web/20110724041133/https://worldwidemart.com/history.html). Archived from [the original](https://worldwidemart.com/history.html) on July 24, 2011. Retrieved April 23, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** ["Matt's Script Archive: FormMail"](http://www.scriptarchive.com/formmail.html). Retrieved April 23, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** ["Are Spammers and Hackers Abusing Your FormMail.pl Perl Script"](http://datacreek.net/webgear/tips/fmailspam.html). *webgear.datacreek.net*. Retrieved April 23, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** ["The nms Project"](https://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/news.html). 2004-12-28. Retrieved April 23, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** [London Perl Mongers](http://london.pm.org/)

1. **[^](#cite_ref-6)** [NMS](https://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/). Sourceforge.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-7)** ["Matt's Script Archive: nms"](http://www.scriptarchive.com/nms.html). Retrieved April 23, 2011.

1. **[^](#cite_ref-8)** ["Matt's Script Archive: nms"](http://www.scriptarchive.com/nms.html). Retrieved April 23, 2011.

## External links

- [Matt's Script Archive](http://www.scriptarchive.com/)

- [nms project on sourceforge](https://nms-cgi.sourceforge.net/)

v t e Perl Things CPAN Perl Foundation archives module Perl VM YAPC Frameworks BioPerl Catalyst Dancer DBI DBIx::Class LWP Mojolicious Moose Plack PSGI Template Toolkit Software Amavis Argus @SSP AWStats BackupPC Bricolage Bugzilla Dada Mail ikiwiki Makepp Movable Type Munin OTRS Request Tracker SpamAssassin TWiki/Foswiki W3Perl Webmin Related Parrot Raku Rakudo rules MoarVM Books Advanced Perl Programming Effective Perl Programming Higher-Order Perl Perl Cookbook Programming Perl Learning Perl Intermediate Perl Perl Best Practices Perl Design Patterns People Larry Wall Randal L. Schwartz Damian Conway Allison Randal Audrey Tang Sean M. Burke chromatic brian d foy Jesse Vincent Outline Category

---
Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Matt's Script Archive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt's_Script_Archive) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt's_Script_Archive?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.