<snip>
The other difference is that I have to distinguish between the initial program which calls my CGI program (indirectly) and that CGI program, as, rather obviously, the initial program must only be called once.
</snip>
You say the initial program must only be called once. I'm not sure if that is possible. I guess it would work as long as the initial program doesn't start the persistence and is just there to give you a link to the second program. Here is how persistent CGI works with Apache on the IBM I to the best of my recollection.
Open program /cgibin/mycgi.pgm
The very first output must be Accept-HT:myhandle
Myhandle has to be unique. It is what tells apache to leave this program open, and how to get back to this instance of the program.
You output the rest of the page as normal. In there is a link that posts to /cgibin/mycgi.pgm/myhandle/
When you submit that post, the same instance of mycgi.pgm is called. If you need multiple programs, you would need to call them from the first program.
I have had it working before as a proof of concept, but like you, I was extremely frustrated with how complex it was to make it work. In the end it was decided that rewriting everything in PHP and using stored procedures was easier than trying to tack persistent cgi over our existing screens and workflow.
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