I know nothing about CGI but recently I`ve been thinking that maybe I should. Two possible reasons.

Firstly, processing HTML based contact forms. Some clients may not have PHP available yet they need or want a contact form set up. From what I know, CGI seems the best (maybe only) way of doing that outside a proper server side language like PHP.

Second, cron jobs. I don`t know a whole lot about crons either but I can imagine many situations where they would be handy to run. I watched this tutorial on how to set them up using cPanel. The thing is , the "script" that runs the cron job is a cgi script.
http://www.siteground.com/tutorials/.../cron_jobs.htm
Is it even possible to create a cron job script just in PHP? And how would it be executed?

So what do you think? Should I be adding "SAMS CGI in 24 hours" to my reading list?

Cronjobs in php are most certainly possible. You run it using the command:

php -f "path/to/file.php"

Furthermore, the more you know, the better, but you don't have to know everything. CGI can be handy I guess, but since almost every host supports php, you don't need to know it. You can always learn it when needed.

I don't think it is going to hurt to know something about it, since it operates behind the scenes in many places. Of course this depends a lot on the function of your job, and I definitely wouldn't say that every webmaster NEEDS to know about it.

CGI is so archaic it's almost obsolete. Yeah, you might find yourself in a situation where someone you're working with wants you to use it. You also might find yourself in a situation where you work for somebody that has an IBM AS/400 server also.

But I wouldn't recommend learning either UNTIL and UNLESS such a situation comes up because they both totally suck!

LOL. After using PHP and ASP, I'm spoiled and will avoid at all costs anything as archaic as CGI.

I am unknown about CGI. i want to know how it will be useful can we use it on PERl language.