scohelphttp(X1M)

scohelphttp -- man and scohelp document server

Synopsis

Description

The scohelp document server is the Netscape (TM)

FastTrack

server. The server has two parts: scohelphttp (a daemon start/stop script) and ns-httpd (the server daemon itself, scohelphttpd).

/usr/ns-home/bin/httpd/ns-httpd: If enabled, this X server daemon is started from a script in /etc/rc2.d when the system enters multiuser mode. When scohelphttpd is running, there might be more than one instance of this binary running. Once running, scohelphttpd can be stopped and restarted using scohelphttp. This client cannot be executed by users. For details on enabling and disabling scohelphttpd, see ``Options''.
/etc/scohelphttp: Script that allows system administrators to control the scohelphttpd process. The scohelphttp script must be run as root. For details on each script option, see ``Options''.

scohelphttpd is started by root and checks the configuration files (in /usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config) for configuration information. scohelphttpd then begins listening on port 457 for incoming help requests from scohelp(X1) (the default help viewer), man(1) (the manual page viewer), or any other document browser using the HTTP protocol.

When it receives a request, scohelphttpd checks for the requested document in several localized DocumentRoot directories. If the requested document is found, scohelphttpd returns the document to scohelp or another document browser. If it cannot find the document, scohelphttpd delivers an error message.

Options

The /etc/scohelphttp startup script has seven options:

start: starts the scohelphttpd process and reads scohelphttpd's configuration files in /usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config (obj.conf, magnus.conf, lang.conf, and mime.types)
stop: stops the scohelphttpd process and all processes managed by scohelphttpd
restart: restarts scohelphttpd without interrupting HTTP service (useful for immediately implementing changes to configuration files)
enable: ensures that scohelphttpd starts when the system reboots
disable: prevents scohelphttpd from starting when the system reboots
query: returns the current state of the scohelphttpd process
rotate: archives the log files (if they exist) in /usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/logs (errors, access, and startup_errors) to dated backup files without interrupting the server

NOTE: If the scohelphttpd process dies without warning (you see error messages when trying to access the SCOhelp online documentation), you might need to run scohelphttp stop before you can restart it (even if scohelphttp query claims that scohelphttpd is still running).

Configuring scohelphttpd

scohelphttpd uses configuration information in the /usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config directory:

magnus.conf: Contains information the server uses to configure itself (such as the port to bind with, the server name, the ServerRoot directory, SSL, and DNS activation). See the Netscape FastTrack Server Administrator's Guide.
obj.conf: Contains information on if and how the server services requests from the browser (such as Netscape Navigator). See the Netscape FastTrack Server Administrator's Guide.
lang.conf: Specifies DocumentRoot, LocalizedDocRoot, LanguageAlias, and CompatibilityRoot. See ``Configuring document location''.
mime.types: Defines the default document (MIME -- Multi-Purpose Internet Mail Extensions standard) types recognized by SCOhelp. See the Netscape FastTrack Server Administrator's Guide.

NOTE: Configuration parameters (except for pathnames) for all types of resource configuration are case-insensitive and all comment lines begin with a ``#''.

Configuring document location

By default, document locations are located in /usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config/lang.conf. You can set the following variables in this file. Additional configuration information can be found in the file itself.

DocumentRoot

Specifies the directory from which to serve documents (/usr/lib/scohelp/en_US.ISO8859-1, by default). By default, all requests are taken from this directory.

NOTE: If you change DocumentRoot, you might make the help system unusable.

LocalizedDocRoot

Sets the language-specific directories out of which documents are served.

If LocalizedDocRoot is set, scohelp(X1) and man(1) send Accept-Language to the scohelphttpd server, which uses it to determine the language to use when serving help information. scohelphttpd searches the corresponding LocalizedDocRoot directories after passing through any LanguageAlias settings. If no language-specific location is specified, the server looks in DocumentRoot. See also ``Internationalization and localization''. Finally, if the document still has not been found, the server searches the directory specified by CompatibilityRoot.

For example, to serve out of the directory containing documents in French, use the following:

LocalizedDocRoot	fr_FR.ISO8859-1	/usr/lib/scohelp/fr_FR.ISO8859-1

LanguageAlias

Allows you to map one way of defining a locale to another. This allows you to configure the server to deliver a given set of localized documents to clients using differing locale strings.

The syntax is:

LanguageAlias aliased_locale  system_locale

In this example, the server is set to deliver documents from system_locale whenever requests are made for documents from aliased_locale.

For example, to redirect every request with the locale ``fr'' to the locale ``fr_FR.ISO8859-1'', set LanguageAlias to:

LanguageAlias	fr	fr_FR.ISO8859-1

CompatibilityRoot

Provides access to documents from the SCO OpenServer directory structure by searching /usr/lib/scohelp after searching the appropriate LocalizedDocRoot and DocumentRoot directories.

Access control

You can control access to your entire server or any specified resources in two ways:

by maintaining a database of users and groups and specifying that only certain people can see certain files, or that everyone except those people can see certain files
by specifying access for users from particular domains or IP addresses

To manage the access control user database:

Start the Netscape Administration Server:

nsadmin start
Start the Server Selector by running the SCOadmin Netscape Server Admin manager. See ``Configuring FastTrack servers''.
Select the Netscape FastTrack Server by clicking on scohelphttpd. This starts the Server Manager.
Click on the Access Control button.

For more information, see the Netscape FastTrack online documentation, available by clicking on the Help button on any window in the Server Manager.

NOTE: For security reasons, it is a good idea to stop the Netscape Administration server when you are finished using it. To do this, run:

/etc/nsadmin stop

Internationalization and localization

scohelphttpd supports internationalization and localization; scohelphttpd can be adapted to present information in any language you want. See ``Configuring document location'' for information on Accept-Language and the lang.conf file.

scohelp gets the value of Accept-Language from the browser resource file; see ``Internationalization and localization'' in the scohelp(X1) manual page.

Files

/etc/scohelphttp: configuration script for scohelphttpd
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp: root of the scohelphttpd directory subtree
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config/obj.conf: contains configuration information for how scohelphttpd services requests from scohelp
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config/magnus.conf: defines default document MIME types recognized by SCOhelp
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/config/lang.conf: specifies *root resources
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/logs/access
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/logs/errors
/usr/ns-home/httpd-scohelphttp/logs/startup_errors: log files for scohelphttpd
/etc/rc2.d/S93scohelphttp: script that starts scohelphttpd automatically when the system enters multiuser mode

References

locale(1), man(1), nsadmin(1M), scohelp(X1)

``Configuring and managing the help server''