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CERN HTTP daemon

The CERN server is available precompiled for many different UNIX systems. Currently these include: Digital Equipment Ultrix, Digital Equipment OSF/1, Digital Equipment VAX, Hewlett Packard HP/UX, Sun Microsystems Solaris, Sun Microsystems SunOS, IBM RS/6000 under AIX, Silicon Graphics, Linux and Next.

If a binary version of the server software is available for your system then all you need to do is retrieve the appropriate distribution, un-tar the file and move the program files httpd, htadm, htimage, cgiparse and cgiutils to an appropriate directory. Standard icons used for creating directory listings are located in subdirectories of a directory called server_root, as are sample configuration files. These should be moved to where the server will be able to find them.

If the server software for your system is not available in binary form retrieve the source distribution. You will also need the Common Library. You may want to retrieve the Line Mode Browser as this too makes use of the Common Library, you can then build this browser at the same time as the server. These three distribution files, all in tar format, should be unpacked in the same directory. The paths of all files contained in the distributions start with a top-level directory WWW. This top-level directory contains two scripts for building the software: a C Shell script, BUILD, and a Bourne Shell script, BUILD.SH. These scripts are functionally equivalent. To build the software just type either `BUILD' or `BUILD.SH'. This invokes the make utility to compile the software. If the software has not been configured for your system type, you will see the message:

  Please edit BUILD file to include your machine OS
  and mail differences back to [email protected]

  If you are BUILDing for:
          - ISC 3.0
          - SCO
  just uncomment the corresponding lines in the BUILD script.

It is fairly straightforward to add support for another UNIX variant. The BUILD script examines the output from the UNIX uname command to determine the type and version of the operating system, and creates a subdirectory in each of the directories Daemon, Library and LineMode named according to the platform. Thus for AIX, subdirectories named rs6000 are created. A makefile is created in each of these subdirectories from standard parts and from an operating-system-dependent include file: All/system/Makefile.include. Output files from the build process are placed in these operating system subdirectories. To port to a new system either the BUILD or the BUILD.SH script should be edited, depending on which shell you use, in the following way:

• Each script starts by locating the UNIX uname command (which prints the operating system version) and stores the pathname of the command in the $UNAME variable. Further down the BUILD file there are lines of the form:

      if ($UNAME == "ID") setenv WWW_MACH id
  

  In the BUILD.SH file they take the form:

      if [ "$UNAME" = "ID" ];then WWW_MACH=id; export WWW_MACH;fi
  

  Add an appropriate line similar to one of these, replacing ID with the string that uname prints on your system and id with a unique abbreviation for the system.

• Create a subdirectory named id in the directory All and copy an existing Makefile.include file from the subdirectory for a similar system to the new subdirectory All/id. You may need to alter the definitions in this file.

• Type BUILD or BUILD.SH and see what happens!

This process should create server and browser programs in the directories Daemon/id and LineMode/id respectively. If you have problems, check the general comments above.

Spinning the Web by Andrew Ford
© 1995 International Thomson Publishing
© 2002 Andrew Ford and Ford & Mason Ltd
Note: this HTML document was generated in December 1994 directly from the LaTeX source files using LaTeX2HTML. It was formatted into our standard page layout using the Template Toolkit. The document is mainly of historical interest as obviously many of the sites mentioned have long since disappeared.