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The Web server running on www.dartmouth.edu cannot directly see the AFS file
servers or serve pages from them for security reasons. Another system, northstar-www, runs a Web server
that can directly serve pages out of a user's AFS (Northstar)
account.
There are options available for people who want to have Web pages, but keep
them in AFS and maintain them directly from a Northstar account.
Option 1
Make a public_html directory in your Northstar account and
put your pages in that directory. The machine northstar-www
runs a Web server and sees all the AFS server files, so your URL would be
http://northstar-www.dartmouth.edu/~USERNAME.
Users can log in to northstar-www directly, but it sees all your files. All
AFS accounts are automatically enabled on northstar-www. Make sure your
public_html directory is readable by the Web server. To make
sure it is, run the command fs sa ~/public_html http_server rl
or fs sa ~/public_html system:anyuser rl.
System:anyuser allows anyone to view any of the files. It
is safer to allow access only from the machine on which the Web server runs
(http_server).
Advantages
- Files are easily edited directly from any Northstar machine (or any other
machine with an AFS client installed).
- Can use the Web development tools on the UNIX workstations to better
advantage.
Disadvantages
- Slightly less efficient; files get pulled over the network twice.
- URL is not www.dartmouth.edu.
Option 2
Apply for an account on www.dartmouth.edu
and use it the same way Macintosh users do. Maintain your pages in your AFS
space and transfer (FTP) copies of them to www.dartmouth.edu when they are
changed. Note that tools such as xdir can transfer complete
directory hierarchies with a drag-and-drop interface, so this is not really a
disadvantage.
Advantages
- URL is www.dartmouth.edu/~USERNAME.
- Extra disk allocation just for Web pages.
- Faster server.
Disadvantages
- FTP access only - You have to edit off-line, then upload the
pages.
Option 3
Follow the instructions to serve pages off Northstar-www as in Option 1 and
obtain a www.dartmouth.edu account as in Option 2. In your www.dartmouth.edu
account, place a file named .htaccess (the leading
"." is important) containing the lines:
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^(.*)$ http://northstar-www.dartmouth.edu/~USERNAME/$1
RewriteRule /data/public/./people/U/USERNAME/(.*)
http://northstar-www.dartmouth.edu/~USERNAME/$1
Replace USERNAME with your own username (and
U by the initial letter). This causes the Web server on www to
call northstar-www instead for all requested pages.
Advantage
- The URL is www.dartmouth.edu/~USERNAME.
Disadvantages
- Less efficient. You will need to contact both servers, then pull a file
over the network as for the pure Northstar-www option.
There is no problem using a combination of these options, apart from
complicating the file management.
Note: www.dartmouth.edu and Northstar share usernames.
Your personal username is automatically the same on each system. Neither server
directly runs arbitrary user CGI scripts. If you want to dabble with CGI
scripts, you should get an account on www.dartmouth.edu, then request a
companion account on www by
sending an e-mail to webmaster@dartmouth.edu, requesting
your account be enabled on www. Www is an experimental server, with the same
configuration as www.dartmouth.edu, but less restrictive policies and intended
for learning and developing Web tools.
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