> On Fri, 21 Mar 1997, Scott K. Ellis wrote: > > > Package: info2www > > Version: 1.2.2.9-4 > > > > While the webstandard states that http://localhost/doc/ should resolve to > > files in the /usr/doc directory, it doesn't provide that there needs to be a > > symlink in /var/www. The info2www symlink should be to /usr/doc/info2www, > > not just doc/info2www At first, I didn't understand what Scott was try to do. Then I looked at what info2www tried to do, and it didn't work on my system either - so now I understand. > The problem is that the policy forbids absolute symlinks. That's why I > can't use `/usr/doc/info2www'. Correct. Do the following drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Mar 20 15:46 1997 var/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Mar 20 15:46 1997 var/www/ lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 Mar 20 15:46 1997 var/www/info2www -> ../../usr/doc/info2www Instead of drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Mar 20 15:46 1997 var/ drwxr-xr-x root/root 0 Mar 20 15:46 1997 var/www/ lrwxrwxrwx root/root 0 Mar 20 15:46 1997 var/www/info2www -> doc/info2www The problem is, the webservers (even the ones conforming to the web standard) do not have a symlink from /var/www/doc to /usr/doc. Remember, there are other ways to accomplish having the http://locahost/doc directory pointing to /usr/doc without using symlinks - so the web standard doesn't guarantee that a symlink between /var/www/doc and /usr/doc will exist. Personally, I don't really like the idea of having http://localhost/doc pointing at /usr/doc. Most of the stuff there isn't html -- and if you want to look at that stuff, dwww will work much better (I'm slightly biased). > But why is /var/www not guaranteed to exist? For dwww, I'm creating it, and I'm also putting in a symlink to the location of the CGI script (in /usr/lib/dwww/dwww.cgi I think) into /usr/lib/cgi-bin/dwww and another symlink to /var/lib/dwww/html into the /var/www (the default document root). This is consistant with what Chris is doing with info2www. > The Webstandard 3.0 (part of the new policy) says: > > ------- > 3.Web Document Root > > Web Applications should try to avoid storing files in the Web > Document Root. Instead use the /usr/doc/<package> directory for documents > and register the Web Application via the menu package. If access to the > web-root is unavoidable then use > > /var/www > > as the Document Root. This might be just a symlink to the location > where the sysadmin has put the real document root. > ------- Since dwww uses dynamically created html, it can't put that stuff under /usr/doc, so it must create a symlink to /var/lib/dwww/html (actually ../../var/lib/dwww/html for the /var/web directory). In info2www's case, it might make sense to put that stuff under /usr/doc since it is all static. > It seams to me as all Debian web _servers_ should create ask the user > where he wants to have the web root and make a symlink to /var/www. Huh? The web root should go wherever the user wants it, but it should default to /var/www. Also, the web server, and other debian web packages should feel free to create /var/www, /usr/lib/cgi-bin and dump stuff into them -- since it doesn't create a problem if the user decides to have their document root elsewhere. > They > should also make a symlink /var/www/doc -> ../../usr/doc or tell the web > server to map URL's with directory /doc/ to /usr/doc/. The symlink idea isn't a part of the web standard. The "mapping" part is - but if the server does this, then your /var/www/info2www symlink won't work. > Or do I have to use the new menu system? No, I think that is more for indexing bona-fide documentation, as opposed to creating consistent URL's to data files referenced by CGI scripts. I hope this helps. dwww will miraculously appear in Incoming in a few hours. :-) Cheers, - Jim
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