[ $Id: README,v 1.4 1998/12/01 15:16:33 gert Exp $ ]

This is a collection of tools to maintain mgetty using a WWW interface
(CGI binaries and a couple of static pages).

Right now, it's not yet "plug and play", and it's only known to work
with Apache and Roxen web servers (CERN and IBM have some weird problems).

Please direct all questions concerning the WWW gui to Simone Demmel
(neko@greenie.muc.de) or to the mgetty mailing list (mgetty@muc.de).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
INSTALLATION

You need to have the following prerequisites installed and working - if
some of those do not work, don't even start with the WWW gui, get the
low level stuff to work first!

* mgetty+sendfax (any version from 1.0.0 up will do)

* pbmplus/netpbm tools (required programs are pnmscale, pnmflip and ppmtogif).

* a WWW server that can execute "CGI"-Binaries

* perl 5.  Version 5.004 or higher recommended.

* to look at the stuff: a WWW browser that can do tables,  GIF images,
  and forms.  The programs are developed using Netscape 3.x and 4.x, but
  MSIE and others should work just fine.


PATHNAMES

The WWW stuff needs a couple of different directories.  The paths that
are used by the "main" mgetty stuff as well are taken from the main
mgetty Makefile (../../Makefile):

  * CONFDIR is where "wwwgui.conf" will be stored.

  * BINDIR is used as default path for the pbm tools - if that is not
    correct, adapt "wwwgui.conf" after it has been created with "make".

  * LIBDIR is used for the common subroutines (wwwsub.pl) and for 
    the "simple pnm quantify" program (simplequant.pl)

  * PERL the path to the Perl5 program on your system

  * INSTALL the program used to install programs on your system

  (if you have used the ../../Makefile to install mgetty+sendfax, don't
  worry about those things, they will be OK).


The following HAVE to be set in the Makefile in this directory:

  * HTMLDIR - this is where the "index.html" file will go into.  It must
    be accessible from the WWW server daemon!

  * IMAGEDIR - where you want the navigation and logo pictures to be
    stored in ("turn left", "next page", ...), can be the same as HTMLDIR.

  * CGIBINDIR - this is where the CGI binaries go into.  If your WWW
    server can execute ".cgi" files from any directory (apache, roxen),
    this can be the same as HTMLDIR.  If you use an old WWW server that
    cannot do this (IBM, CERN), it will be the "global" CGI-binary path.

  * CGI_HREF - this is how the *.html files have to reference the *.cgi
    binaries.  If the path names are the same, set this to "".  If they
    differ, CGI_HREF will be something like CGI_HREF="/cgi-bin/" (this
    is what shows up as pathname to the CGI programs in the WWW browser).

If you don't know what this is all about, or what a CGI binary might be,
ask your local WWW expert.  If you don't have one, ask on the mgetty 
mailing list (mgetty@muc.de), but DO NOT EXPECT that we will find out
what kind of WWW server you have running on your system, or how it is
configured.  This is not easy without actually *looking* at the system!


MAKE

Now you just run "make", and all the binaries, HTML page, and the
wwwgui.conf file are built from the corresponding "*.in"-Files.

If you get any errors in this stage, send us the output from the "make"
command!


WWWGUI.CONF

If "make" runs without errors, look into the newly created "wwwgui.conf"
file.  Check all the path names to the programs listed there, and check
the path names "$webtmpabs" and "$webtmprel" (description can be found 
in the wwwgui.conf file).

If you want to put a custom logo on top of the generated pages, edit
"$www_logo".

NOTE: wwwgui.conf is read from perl programs, so it has to be VALID PERL
SYNTAX.  Do not remove any quotation marks, or semicolon characters.  If
you're in doubt, do NOT change anything outside quotation marks (or change 
it back if things didn't work).   You can test if you got the syntax
right by running "perl -c wwwgui.conf".



INSTALLATION

If "make" runs fine without errors, do a "make install".

Now everything should be accessible from a WWW client.  If you want to
change any paths or logos now, change them in "LIBDIR/wwwgui.conf" - if
there exists a config file, it will NOT be overwritten if you do another
"make install".


TROUBLESHOOTING

If one of the path names or program specifications in the wwwgui.conf
file is wrong, the CGI programs will tell you.

If your WWW server doesn't want to execute .cgi programs, you will
get an error message, or will see the program code (hairy perl stuff),
instead of a nice flashy page.  If so, check the documentation for your
WWW server!

--------------------------------------------------------------------
ACCESS PERMISSIONS

Currently, these tools do NOT enforce any kind of access permissions.

Make sure your WWW server doesn't allow access to the CGI programs
unless you want everybody to be able to read your incoming faxes...

How this is done for your WWW server is documented in the WWW server's
manual, e.g. for the apache http server on www.apache.org.  If your WWW
server supports it, you could, for example, put an .htaccess file into
the CGIBINDIR that contains the following lines:

    order deny,allow
    deny from all
    allow from <hostname/domain>

--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please direct all questions concerning the WWW gui to Simone Demmel
(neko@greenie.muc.de) or to the mgetty mailing list (mgetty@muc.de).
--------------------------------------------------------------------
