Setting up Windows httpd

The server kit comes as a (large) ZIP file. To set up the software, perform the following steps:

1. Create a directory C:\HTTPD. Please don't be creative at this point. If you use this location, the server will run without the need to edit configuration files. Also, all of the documentation, script examples, form examples, etc. will just run (assuming you do steps 3, 4 and 5!).

2. Unzip the kit into the new directory. Be sure to use the -D (use directories) option of pkunzip! Directories must be preserved. Use pkunzip (2.04g or later), or equivalent, to uncompress the kit.

3. The Common Log Format requires that times be recorded in GMT. Therefore, httpd must know what timezone your computer's local clock is set for. The TZ environment variable is used for this purpose.

   Add a line to your AUTOEXEC.BAT to set the TZ variable. Within the US, the syntax is as follows:

   SET TZ=sssnddd

   where sss is the 3-letter abbreviation for your standard timezone (e.g. EST), n is the standard time offset of your timezone from GMT (e.g. for Eastern, 4), and ddd is the 3-letter abbreviation for your daylight time (if your state has daylight time, e.g., for Eastern, EDT). For example:

   SET TZ=EST4EDT
   SET TZ=MST7    <== for Arizona, no daylight time

4. The demo page and many examples in the documentation require the server to run back-end scripts in a DOS window. They will fail if you don't have enough environment space. Add a line

   CommandEnvSize=8192

   to the [NonWindowsApp] section of SYSTEM.INI.

5. Verify that you have the Visual Basic 3.0 runtime DLL VBRUN300.DLL in your Windows "system" directory. This is needed to run the Windows CGI examples. The server does not need the Visual Basic runtime library! If you don't have it, you can get it from many many sources on the net and in the MSBASIC library of CompuServe.

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