Configuring your Web Server on UNIX

The following steps are required to get the Gsharp Web Edition and its examples running on your web server:

1. The GsharpWE executable must be made available as /bin/GsharpWE

   Login as root and set up a symbolic link from /bin/GsharWE to the GsharpWE executable. The commands will be similar to the following:

   cd /bin
   ln -s /usr/uniras/7v3/bin/GsharpWE GsharpWE

   This step is required as each GsharpWE script uses the following line to show that it must be executed by GsharpWE:

   #!/bin/GsharpWE

2. Now open a new shell (without the UNIRAS environment having been initialised) and move to the GsharpWE cgi-bin directory. e.g.

   cd /usr/uniras/7v3/example/cgi-bin

   Now try running the gallery example:

   ./gs_gallery.gsw

   If the above command outputs HTML then you are running on an Operating System that Gsharp can auto-setup the required environment variables.

   If the command produced the following error

   ERROR: No access to message catalog "Gsharp"

   then you must set up the following environment variables in your web server configuration
   file:
   
   • UNIDIR to be the directory above the directory containing Gsharp executable.
   • NLSPATH to be $UNIDIR/msg/C/%N
   • LD_LIBRARY_PATH to be the /lib directory (normally $UNIDIR/lib)
   • LM_LICENSE_FILE to your license file (normally $UNIDIR/base/license.dat)
     (On Linux the environment variable is TM_LICENSE_FILE)
   • TEMP to be the directory used for temporary files
     

   For an Apache Web Server add lines similar to the following to httpd.conf:

   SetEnv UNIDIR /usr/uniras/7v3
   SetEnv NLSPATH /usr/uniras/7v3/msg/C/%N
   SetEnv LD_LIBRARY_PATH /usr/uniras/7v3/lib/
   SetEnv LM_LICENSE_FILE /usr/uniras/7v3/base/license.dat
   SetEnv TEMP /TMP/

   N.B. You will need to modify the commands to match your installation

3. You must create a directory where temporary files can be written to.
   • The directory must be part of your web server (see next step)
   • The cgi-bin process must be able to write files to this directory. For security reasons the cgi-bin process is normally run as the user nobody. This means you must give your directory world write permission e.g.

     chmod 777 /tmp/GsharpWE/

   • You may like to setup a cron job to delete all the files in this directory on an hourly, daily, weekly or monthly basis.
     
     
4. You will need to add a number of directories to your web server. This can be done by using mappings in the configuration files of your web server or by physically copying the files into your document hierarchy. We recommend using mappings as shown below:
   
   
   • The files in $UNIDIR/example/cgi-bin should be made available as scripts on your web server.

     The Gsharp examples assume that they can be found in /Gsharp-bin/. With apache web servers you use the ScriptAlias command e.g.

     ScriptAlias /Gsharp-bin/ "/usr/uniras/7v3/example/cgi-bin/"     

     If you use a name other than Gsharp-bin you will need to modify the following files.

   • The directory $UNIDIR/example/GsharpWE should be added to your web server. We suggest you add it as /GsharpWE/. You will also need to make sure your directory for temporary files can be found on your web server. If you wish, you could also add the Gsharp On-line Documentation to your web server.

     On Apache web servers you should add lines similar to the following to httpd.conf

   Alias /GsharpWE/ "/usr/uniras/7v3/example/GsharpWE/" 
   Alias /GsharpTmpFiles/ "/tmp/GsharpWE/" 
   Alias /Gsharp/ "/usr/uniras/7v3/help/" 

5. Environment variables must be created which specify the name of your directory for temporary files (GsharpTmpFilesActualDir), the name of how it appears on your web server (GsharpTmpFilesWebDir) and the name of your cgi-bin directory (GsharpWEcgi-binDir).

   When a Gsharp Web Edition script runs it will read these variables and alter its HTML output appropriately. You can either do this in your server configuration scripts e.g.

   SetEnv GsharpTmpFilesActualDir /tmp/GsharpWE/
   SetEnv GsharpTmpFilesWebDir /GsharpTmpFiles/
   SetEnv GsharpWEcgi-binDir /Gsharp-bin/

   or you can specify these values in the Gsharp initialisation script $UNIDIR/base/Gsharprc.gsl

   if webedition() then
     putenv("GsharpTmpFilesWebDir=/GsharpTmpFiles/");
     putenv("GsharpTmpFilesActualDir=/tmp/GsharpWE/");
     putenv("GsharpWEcgi-binDir=/Gsharp-bin/")
   endif
   

6. Restart your web server and you should be able to run the GsharpWE examples from http://yourmachine/GsharpWE/. If you still get problems, check the error log file for the web server.