is craiglist based on php or asp or both?

Answer 1

It can not be based on both because php is a Unix-based software while asp is for Windows servers, the two are comparable only in that they serve about the same purpose but they are made for two entirely different OS's.

As for how craigslist is built, one could do a server query and find out if it runs a flavor of linux or windows, but that still doesn't answer what it's built on.

Just from the look of things it appears it could be built on perl, also certain links within lead to /cgi-bin/nameoffile.cgi and that would likely be a perl-based file.

Meanwhile, the personals link leads to a php-based file but at another domain, it is now somewhat safe to assume the craigslist server is unix based and this rules out Active server pages (asp), it would appear a combination of unix-based languages is in use.

Thou this is not the only way to test for the language it is further possible an entirely different language is used as well, I can conclude that php is definitely being used, and being that perl is the most widely used language for cgi-bin applications, it is a fair assumption perl is in use also, for starters.

Answer 2

PHP, I believe. That would fit with their low-overhead approach; why pay license fees for IIS/ASP when you can use Apache and PHP for free?