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GN cache files

GN cache files are used as the basis for serving information to both Gopher and Web clients. Every resource to be served (including the CGI scripts that generate virtual documents) must be explicitly listed in the cache file which resides in the same directory as the resource file. Cache files have a rigidly defined structure, which makes them uncongenial to edit; however, there is a program, mkcache, which will generate cache files from menu description files, which are much easier to edit. They are composed of plain text with a relatively free format, and may contain comments. A sample menu description file is shown below:

    # Sample basic menu file for the GN server.

    Name=Introduction to our server.
    Path=0/docs/intro.txt

    Name=Further information about our organization.
    Path=1/docs/background

    Name=Link to the University of Minnesota Gopher server.
    Path=1/
    Type=1
    Host=gopher.micro.umn.edu
    Port=70

Blank lines and comment lines (which start with a hash sign - #) are ignored. Each menu item is defined by a group of lines containing keywords and values.

• Basic keywords
• Type modifiers
• Extended keywords
• Search items within menus
• Including HTML within menus
• Protocol-dependent menu items
• Executing programs to generate documents

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.