.\" This manpage has been automatically generated by docbook2man
.\" from a DocBook document. This tool can be found at:
.\"
.\" Please send any bug reports, improvements, comments, patches,
.\" etc. to Steve Cheng .
.TH "PYGOPHERD" "8" "25 August 2003" "John Goerzen" "PyGopherd Manual"
.SH NAME
PyGopherd \- Multiprotocol Information Server
.SH SYNOPSIS
\fBpygopherd\fR [ \fB\fIconfigfile\fB\fR ]
.SH "DESCRIPTION"
.PP
Welcome to \fBPyGopherd\fR. In a nutshell, \fBPyGopherd\fR
is a modern dynamic
multi-protocol hierarchical information server with a pluggable
modularized extension system,
full flexible caching, virtual files and
folders, and autodetection of file types -- all with support for
standardized yet extensible per-document metadata. Whew! Read on for
information on this what all these buzzwords mean.
.SS "FEATURES"
.PP
Here are some of \fBPyGopherd\fR's features:
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Provides built-in support for multiple protocols:
HTTP (Web), Gopher+, Gopher (RFC1436), Enhanced Gopher0,
and WAP (mobile phones). Protocols can be enabled or
disabled as desired.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Provides protocol autodetection. That is,
\fBPyGopherd\fR can listen for all the above protocols
\fBon a single port\fR and will
automatically respond using the protocol it detects the
client is using. Practical effects of this are that you
can, for instance, give out a single URL and have it
viewable normally on desktop Web browsers and in WAP
mode on mobile phones -- and appropriately in various
Gopher browsers.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Metadata and site links can be entered in a
variety of formats, including full UMN dotfile metadata
formats as well as Bucktooth gophermap files. Moreover,
gophermap files are not limited to Gopher protocols, and
can be used for all protocols.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Support for inter-protocol linking (linking
from Gopher sites to web sites)
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Virtual folder system lets you serve up
anything as if it were regular files and directories.
PyGopherd comes with the following virtual folder systems
built in:
.RS
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Can present any Unix MBOX, MMDF box, MH
directory, Maildir directory, or Babyl mailbox as a
virtual folder, the contents of which are the
messages in the mailbox.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Can use a configurable separator to
split a file into multiple parts, the first line of each
becoming the name for the virtual folder.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Can peek inside a ZIP file and serve it
up as first-class site citizens -- metadata can even be
stored in the ZIP files.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Can serve up the contents of a dictd
server as a filesystem.
.RE
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Modular, extensible design: you can use PyGopherd's own
PYG extension format, or UMN- or Bucktooth-style
executables.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Runs on any platform supported by Python 2.2 or 2.3.
This includes virtually every past and current flavor of
Unix (Linux, *BSD, Solaris, SunOS), Windows, MacOS 9.x
and X, and more. Some features may not be available on
non-Unix platforms.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Runs on any platform supported by Java 1.1
via the Jython Python implementation.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Tunable server types via configuration
directive -- forking or threading.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Secure design with support for chrooted execution.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Feature-complete, full implementations of:
Gopher0 (RFC1435), Gopher+, HTTP, and WAP.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Support for automatically finding the titles
of HTML documents for presentation in a directory.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Versatile configuration file format is both
extensible and nicely complementary of the module system.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Protocol-independant, handler-dependant
caching. This increases performance by letting handlers
cache dynamically-generated information -- currently used by
the directory handlers. This can improve performance of
directories by several orders of magnitude. Because this is
a handler cache only, all protococls share the single
cache. Since the processing time for the protocols is
negligable, this works out very well.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Autosensing of MIME types and gopher0 item
types. Both are completely configurable. MIME type
detection is done using a standard mime.types file, and
gopher0 types are calculated by using a configurable
regexp-based MIME-to-gophertype map.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Heavy support of regular expressions in configuration.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
ProtocolMultiplexer and HandlerMultiplexer
let you choose only those protocols and handlers that you
wish your server to support and the order in which they are
tried when a request comes in.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Full logging via syslog.
.SS "ABOUT GOPHER"
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR started life as a server for the Gopher Internet
protocol. With Gopher, you can mount a filesystem (viewing files and
folders as if they were local),
browse Gopherspace with a web browser,
download files, and be interactive with searching.
.PP
But this is only part of the story. The world of Gopher is more
expansive than this. There are two major gopher protocols: Gopher0
(also known as RFC1436) and Gopher+. Gopher0 is a small, simple,
lightweight protocol that is very functional yet also extremely easy
to implement. Gopher0 clients can be easily places in small embedded
devices or in massive environments like a modern web browser.
.PP
Gopher+ is based on Gopher0 but extends it by providing document
metadata such as file size and MIME type. Gopher+ allows all sorts of
neat features, such as configurable metadata (serving up a bunch of
photos? Add a Subject field to your metadata to let
a customized photo
browser display who is pictured) and multiple
views of a file (let the
user select to view your photos as PNG or JPEG).
.SH "QUICK START"
.PP
If you have already installed \fBPyGopherd\fR system-wide, or your
administrator has done that for you, your task for setting up
\fBPyGopherd\fR for the first time is quite simple. You just need
to set up your configuration file, make your folder directory,
and run it!
.PP
You can quickly set up your configuration file. The
distribution includes two files of interest:
\fIconf/pygopherd.conf\fR and
\fIconf/mime.types\fR. Debian users will find
the configuration file pre-installed in
\fI/etc/pygopherd/pygopherd.conf\fR and the
\fImime.types\fR file provided by the system
already.
.PP
Open up \fIpygopherd.conf\fR in your editor and
adjust to suit. The file is heavily commented and you can
refer to it for detailed information. Some settings to take a
look at include: \fIdetach\fR,
\fIpidfile\fR, \fIport\fR,
\fIusechroot\fR, \fIsetuid\fR,
\fIsetgid\fR, and \fIroot\fR.
These may or may not work at their defaults for you. The
remaining ones should be fine for a basic setup.
.PP
Invoke \fBPyGopherd\fR with \fBpygopherd
path/to/configfile\fR (or
\fB/etc/init.d/pygopherd start\fR on Debian).
Place some files in the location specified by the
\fIroot\fR directive in the config file and
you're ready to run!
.SH "INSTALLATION"
.PP
If you are reading this document via the "man" command, it is likely
that you have no installation tasks to perform; your system administra-
tor has already installed \fBPyGopherd\fR. If you need to install it yourself, you
have three options: a system-wide installation with Debian, system-wide
installation with other systems, and a single-user installation. You
can download the latest version of PyGopherd
from
.SS "DEBIAN SYSTEM-WIDE INSTALLATION"
.PP
If you are tracking Debian unstable, you may install
\fBPyGopherd\fR by simply running this command as root:
.PP
\fBapt-get install pygopherd\fR
.PP
If you are not tracking Debian unstable, download the .deb
package from the \fBPyGopherd\fR website and then run
\fBdpkg -i\fR to install the downloaded
package. Then, skip to the configuration section below.
You will use \fB/etc/init.d/pygopherd start\fR
to start the program.
.SS "OTHER SYSTEM-WIDE INSTALLATION"
.PP
Download the tar.gz version of the package from the website. Make
sure you have Python 2.2 or above installed; if now, download and
install it from . Then run these
commands:
.nf
\fBtar -zxvf pygopherd-x.y.z.tar.gz\fR
\fBcd pygopherd-x.y.z\fR
\fBpython2.2 setup.py\fR
.fi
.PP
Some systems will use \fBpython\fR or
\fBpython2.3\fR in place of
\fBpython2.2\fR.
.PP
Next, proceed to configuration. Make sure that the
\fI/etc/pygopherd/pygopherd.conf\fR file
names valid users (\fIsetuid\fR and
\fIsetgid\fR options) and a valid document
root (\fIroot\fR option).
.PP
You will type \fIpygopherd\fR to invoke the
program.
.SS "SINGLE-ACCOUNT INSTALLATION"
.PP
Download the tar.gz version of the package from the website. Make
sure you have Python 2.2 or above installed; if now, download and
install it from . Then run these
commands:
.nf
\fBtar -zxvf pygopherd-z.y.z.tar.gz\fR
\fBcd pygopherd-x.y.z\fR
.fi
.PP
Modify \fIconf/pygopherd.conf\fR as follows:
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Set \fIusechroot = no\fR
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Comment out (add a # sign to the start of
the line) the \fIpidfile\fR,
\fIsetuid\fR, and
\fIsetgid\fR lines.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Set \fIroot\fR to osomething appropriate.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Set \fIport\fR to a number
greater than 1024.
.PP
When you want to run \fBPyGopherd\fR, you will issue the
\fBcd\fR command as above and then type
\fBPYTHONPATH=. bin/pygopherd\fR. There is no
installation step necessary.
.SH "CONFIGURATION"
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR is regulated by a configuratoin file normally
stored in \fI/etc/pygopherd/pygopherd.conf\fR.
You can specify an alternate configuration file on the command
line. The \fBPyGopherd\fR distribution ships
with a sample \fIpygopherd.conf\fR file that
thoroughly documents the configuration file options and
settings.
.SH "OPTIONS"
.PP
All \fBPyGopherd\fR configuratoin is done via the configuration
file. Therefore, the program has only one command-line
option:
.TP
\fB\fIconfigfile\fB\fR
This option argument specifies the location
of the configuration file that \fBPyGopherd\fR is to use.
.SH "HANDLERS"
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR defines several handlers which are responsible for
finding data on your server and presenting it to the user. The
handlers are used to generate things like links to other documents and
directory listings. They are also responsible for serving up regular
files and even virtual folders.
.PP
Handlers are specified with the \fIhandlers\fR
option in \fIpygopherd.conf\fR. This option is
a list of handlers to use. For each request that arrives,
\fBPyGopherd\fR will ask each handler in
turn whether or not it can handle the request, and will handle the
request according to the first handler that is capable of doing so.
If no handlers can handle the request, a file not found error is
generated. See the example configuration file for an example.
.PP
The remaining parts of this section describe the different
handlers that ship with \fBPyGopherd\fR. Please note that some
versions of this manual may show the handlers in all caps;
however, their names are not all caps and are case-sensitive.
.SS "DIR.DIRHANDLER"
.PP
This handler is a basic one that generates menus based
on the contents of a directory. It is used for
directories that contain neither a
\fIgophermap\fR file nor UMN-style links
files, or situations where you have no need for either
of those.
.PP
This handler simply reads the contents of your on-disk
directory, determines the appropriate types of each file,
and sends the result to the client. The descriptions of
each item are usually set to the filename, but the
\fIhtml.HTMLFileTitleHandler\fR may override
that.
.SS "GOPHERMAP.BUCKGOPHERMAPHANDLER"
.PP
This handler is used to generate directory listings
based on \fIgophermap\fR files. It will
not read the directory on-disk, instead serving content
from the \fIgophermap\fR file only.
Gophermaps are useful if you want to present a directory
in which the files do not frequently change and there is
general information to present. Overall, if you only
wish to present information particular to certain files,
you should consider using the abstract feature of
UMN.UMNDirHandler.
.PP
The \fIgophermap\fR files contain two
types of lines, which are described here using the same
convention normally used for command line arguments. In
this section, the symbol \\t will be used to indicate a
tab character, Control-I.
\fB\fIfull line of informational
text\fB\fR
\fB\fIgophertypeDESCRIPTION\fB\fR [ \fB\\t\fIselector\fB [ \\t\fIhost\fB [ \\t\fIport\fB ] ]\fR ]
.PP
Note: spaces shown above are for clarity only and should
not actually be present in your file.
.PP
The informational text must not contain any tab
characters, but may contain spaces. Informational text
will be rendered with gopher type
\fIi\fR, which will cause it to be
displayed on a client's screen at its particular
position in the file.
.PP
The second type of line represents a link to a file or
directory. It begins with a single-character Gopher
type (see Gopher Item Types below) followed immediately
by a description and a tab character. There is no space
or other separator between the gopher type and the
description. The description may contain spaces but not
tabs.
.PP
The remaining arguments are optional, but only to the
extent that arguments may be omitted only if all
arguments after them are also omitted. These arguments
are:
.TP
\fB\fIselector\fB\fR
The \fIselector\fR is
the name of the file on the server. If it begins
with a slash, it is an absolute path; otherwise,
it is interpreted relative to the directory that
the gophermap file is in. If no selector is
specified, the description is also used as the
selector.
.TP
\fB\fIhost\fB\fR
The \fIhost\fR
specifies the host on which this resource is
located. If not specified, defaults to the
current server.
.TP
\fB\fIport\fB\fR
The \fIport\fR
specifies the port on which the resource is
located. If not specified, defaults to the port
the current server is listening on.
.PP
An example of a gophermap to help illustrate the concept
is included with the \fBPyGopherd\fR distribution in the
file \fIexamples/gophermap\fR.
.SS "FILE.COMPRESSEDFILEHANDLER"
.PP
In order to save space, you might want to store
documents on-disk in a compressed format. But then
clients would ordinarily have to decompress the files
themselves. It would be nice to have the server
automatically decompress the files on the fly, sending
that result to the client. That's where
\fIfile.CompressedFileHandler\fR comes
in.
.PP
This handler will take compressed files, pipe them
through your chosen decompression program, and send the
result directly to clients -- completely transparently.
.PP
To use this handler, set the
\fIdecompressors\fR option in the
configuration file. This option defines a mapping from
MIME encodings (as defined with the
\fIencoding\fR option) to decompression
programs. Files that are not encoded, or which have an
encoding that does not occur in the
\fIdecompressors\fR map, will not be
decompressed by this handler.
.PP
Please see the sample configuration file for more
examples and details about the configuration of this
handler.
.SS "FILE.FILEHANDLER"
.PP
The \fIfile.FileHandler\fR is just that
-- its duty is to serve up regular files to clients.
.SS "HTML.HTMLFILETITLEHANDLER"
.PP
This handler is used when generating directories and
will set the description of HTML files to the HTML title
defined in them rather than let it be the default
filename. Other than that, it has no effect. UMN
gopherd implements a similar policy.
.SS "MBOX HANDLERS"
.PP
There are four mailbox handlers:
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
mbox.MaildirFolderHandler
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
mbox.MaildirMessageHandler
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
mbox.MBoxMessageHandler
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
mbox.MBoxFolderHandler
.PP
These four handlers provide a unique "virtual folder"
service. They allow you to present mailboxes as if they
were folders, the items of the folders being the
messages in the mailbox, organized by subject. This is
useful for presenting mail archives or just making
e-mail accessible in a nice and easy fashion.
.PP
To use these handlers, all you have to do is enable them
in your \fIhandlers\fR section. They
will automatically detect requests for mailboxes and
handle them appropriately.
.PP
The different handlers are for traditional Unix mbox
mailboxes (all messages in a single file) and new
qmail-stype Maildir mailboxes. You can enable only the
two handlers for the specific mailbox type that you use,
if desired.
.SS "PYG.PYGHANDLER"
.PP
PYG (short for PYGopherd) is a mechanism that provides a
tremendous amount of flexibility. Rather than just
letting you execute a script like other Gopher or HTTP
servers, PYGs are actually loaded up into PyGopherd and
become fully-capable first-class virtual handlers. Yet
they need not be known ahead of time, and are loaded
dynamically.
.PP
With a PYG handler, you can generate gopher directories,
handle searches, generate files, and more on the fly.
You can create entire virtual directory trees (for
instance, to interface with NNTP servers or with DICT
servers), and access them all using the standard Gopher
protocol. All of this without having to modify even one
line of \fBPyGopherd\fR code.
.PP
If enabled, the \fIpyg.PYGHandler\fR will
look for files with the extension .pyg that are marked
executable. If found, they will be loaded and run as
PYGs.
.PP
Please note: this module provides the capability to
execute arbitrary code. Please consider the security
ramifications of that before enabling it.
.PP
See the \fIvirtual.Virtual\fR handler for
more information about passing data to your scripts at
runtime.
.PP
At present, documentation on writing PYGs is not
provides, but you may find examples in the
\fIpygfarm\fR directory included with the
\fBPyGopherd\fR distribution.
.SS "SCRIPTEXEC.EXECHANDLER"
.PP
This handler implements "old-style" script execution;
that is, executing arbitrary programs and piping the
result to the client. It is, for the most part,
compatible with both scripts written for UMN gopherd and
the Bucktooth gopher server. If enabled, it will
execute any file that is marked executable in the
filesystem. It will normally list scripts as returning
plain text, but you may create a custom link to the
script that defines it as returning whatever kind of
file you desire. Unlike PYGs, this type must be known
in advance.
.PP
The \fIscriptexec.ExecHandler\fR will set
environment variables for your scripts to use. They are
as follows:
.TP
\fBSERVER_NAME\fR
The name of this server as defined in
the configuration file or detected from the
operating system.
.TP
\fBSERVER_PORT\fR
The port this server is listening on.
.TP
\fBREMOTE_ADDR\fR
The IP address of the client.
.TP
\fBREMOTE_PORT\fR
The port number of the client.
.TP
\fBREMOTE_HOST\fR
The same value as \fIREMOTE_ADDR\fR
.TP
\fBSELECTOR\fR
The file that was requested; that is,
the relative path to this script. If the selector
included additional parameters after a |, they
will be included in this string as well.
.TP
\fBREQUEST\fR
The "base" part of the selector; that
is, the part leading up to the |.
.TP
\fBSEARCHREQUEST\fR
Included only if the client specified
search data, this is used if the client is
searching for something.
.PP
See the \fIvirtual.Virtual\fR handler for
more information about passing data to your scripts at
runtime.
.PP
Please note: this module provides the capability to
execute arbitrary code. Please consider the security
ramifications of that before enabling it.
.SS "UMN.UMNDIRHANDLER"
.PP
This is one of the most powerful workhorse handlers in
\fBPyGopherd\fR. It is designed to emulate most of the ways
in which the UMN gopherd distribution generates
directories, even going so far as to be bug-compatible
in some cases. Generating directories with this handler
is often the best general-purpose way to make nice
directories in gopherspace.
.PP
The remainder of the description of the
\fIUMN.UMNDirHandler\fR, except for the
Abstracts and Info section, is lifted directly from the
original UMN gopherd documentation, with light editing,
because this handler implements it so exactly that there
was no point in rewriting all that documentation :-)
.SS "LINKS"
.PP
You can override the default view of a directory as
generated by \fIdir.DirHandler\fR by
creating what are known as \fBLinks\fR in
the data tree.
.PP
The ability to make links to other hosts is how gopher
distributes itself among multiple hosts. There are two
different ways to make a link. The first and simplest is
to create a link file that contains the data needed by the
server. By default all files in the gopher data directory
starting with a period are taken to be link files. A link
file can contain multiple links. To define a link you
need to put five lines in a link file that define the
needed characteristics for the document. Here is an
example of a link.
.nf
Name=Cheese Ball Recipes
Numb=1
Type=1
Port=150
Path=1/Moo/Cheesy
Host=zippy.micro.umn.edu
.fi
.PP
The Name= line is what the user will see when cruising
through the database. In this case the name is "Cheese
Ball Recipes". The "Type=" defines what kind of document
this object is. For a list of all defined types, see
Gopher Item Types below. For Gopher+ and HTTP, a MIME
type is also used, which is determined automatically based
on the type you specify.
.PP
The "Path=" line contains the selector string that the
client will use to retrieve the actual document. The
Numb= specifies that this entry should be presented first
in the directory list (instead of being alphabetized).
The "Numb=" line is optional. If it is present it cannot
be the last line of the link. The "Port=" and "Host="
lines specify a fully qualified domain name (FQDN) and a
port respectively. You may substitute a plus '+' for
these two parameters if you wish. The server will insert
the current hostname and the current port when it sees a
plus in either of these two fields.
.PP
An easy way to retrieve links is to use the Curses
Gopher Client. By pressing '=' You can get information
suitable for inclusion in a link file.
.SS "OVERRIDING DEFAULTS"
.PP
The server looks for a directory called
\fI.cap\fR when parsing a directory. The
server then checks to see if the \fI.cap\fR
directory contains a file with the same name as the file
it's parsing. If this file exists then the server will
open it for reading. The server parses this file just
like a link file. However, instead of making a new
object, the parameters inside the
\fI.cap/\fR file are used to override any
of the server supplied default values.
.PP
For instance, say you wanted to change the Title of a text
file for gopher, but don't want to change the filename.
You also don't want it alphabetized, instead you want it
second in the directory listing. You could make a
set-aside file in the \fI.cap\fR directory with the same
filename that contained the following lines:
.nf
Name=New Long Cool Name
Numb=2
.fi
.PP
An alternative to \fI.cap\fR files are
extended link files. They work just the same as the files
described in Links above, but have a somewhat abbreviated
format. As an example, if the name of the file was
\fIfile-to-change\fR, then you could create
a file called \fI.names\fR with the
following contents:
.nf
Path=./file-to-change
Name=New Long Cool Name
Numb=2
.fi
.SS "ADDING COOL LINKS"
.PP
One cool thing you can do with .Links is to add neato
services to your gopher server. Adding a link like this:
.nf
Name=Cool ftp directory
Type=h
Path=/URL:ftp://hostname/path/
Host=+
Port=+
Name=Cool web site
Type=h
Path=/URL:http://hostname/
Host=+
Port=+
.fi
.PP
Will allow you to link in any FTP or Web site to your
gopher. (See url.URLHandler for more details.)
.PP
You can easily add a finger site to your gopher server thusly:
.nf
Name=Finger information
Type=0
Path=lindner
Host=mudhoney.micro.umn.edu
Port=79
.fi
.SS "HIDING AN ENTRY"
.PP
This kind of trick may be necessary in some cases,
and thus for
object "fred", the overriding .names file entry would be:
.nf
Type=X
Path=./fred
.fi
.PP
by overriding default type to be "X". This kind of
hideouts may be usefull, when for some reason there are
symlinks (or whatever) in the directory at which
\fBPyGopherd\fR looks at, and those entries are not desired to
be shown at all.
.SS "ABSTRACTS AND INFO"
.PP
Many modern gopher server maintainers like to intersperse
gopher directory listings with other information -- often,
additional information about the contents of files in the
directory. The gophermap system provides one way to do
that, and abstracts used with UMN gopher directories
provides another.
.PP
Subject to the \fIabstract_headers\fR and
\fIabstract_entries\fR configuration file
options, this feature allows you to define that extra
information. You can do that by simply creating a file
named \fIfilename.abstract\fR right
alongside the regular file in your directory. The file
will be interpreted as the abstract. For a directory,
create a file named \fI.abstract\fR in the
directory. Simple as that!
.SS "URL.HTMLURLHANDLER"
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR provides ways for you to link to pages outside
Gopherspace -- that is, web pages, FTP sites, and the like.
This is accomplished according to the Links
to URL specification (see Conforming To below for
details). In order to link to a URL (EXCEPT gopher URLs)
from a menu, you create a link of type h (regardless of the
actual type of the resource that you are linking to) in your
\fIgophermap\fR or
\fI.Links\fR
file that looks like this:
.nf
/URL:http://www.complete.org/
.fi
.PP
Modern Gopher clients that follow the Links to URL
specification will automatically follow that link when you
select it. The rest need some help, and that's where this
handler comes in.
.PP
For Gopher clients that do not follow the Links to URL
specification, the \fIurl.HTMLURLHandler\fR
will automatically generate an HTML document for them on the
fly. This document includes a refresh code that will send
them to the proper page. You should not disable this
handler.
.SS "URL.URLTYPEREWRITER"
.PP
Some people wish to serve HTML documents from their Gopher
server. One problem with that is that links in Gopherspace
include an extra type character at the beginning, whereas
links in HTTP do not. This handler will remove the extra
type character from HTTP requests that come in, allowing a
single relative-to-root link to work for both.
.SS "VIRTUAL.VIRTUAL"
.PP
This handler is not intended to ever be used directly, but
is used by many other handlers such as the mbox support, PYG
handlers, and others. It is used to generate virtual
entries in the directory hierarchy -- that is, entries that
look normal to a client, but do not actually correspond to a
file on disk.
.PP
One special feature of the
\fIvirtual.Virtual\fR handler is that you can
send information to it at runtime in a manner similar to a
CGI script on the web. You do this by adding a question
mark after the regular selector, followed by any arbitrary
data that you wish to have sent to the virtual request
handler.
.SS "ZIP.ZIPHANDLER"
.PP
Using zip.ZIPHandler, you can save space on your server by
converting part or all of your site into a ZIP file.
\fBPyGopherd\fR can use the contents of that ZIP file as the
contents of your site -- completely transparently.
.PP
The ZIP file handler must be enabled in the configuration
file for this to work.
.SH "GOPHER ITEM TYPES"
.PP
When you construct links to files via
\fI.Links\fR or \fIgophermap\fR
files, or modify the \fImapping\fR in the
configuration file, you will need to know these. Items
bearing the "not implemented" text are not served up by
\fBPyGopherd\fR as it ships, generally due to requirements of
customized per-site software, but may be served up via PYG
extension modules or other gopher servers.
.PP
This list was prepared based on RFC1436, the UMN gopherd(1) manpage,
and best current practices.
.TP
\fB0\fR
Plain text file
.TP
\fB1\fR
Directory
.TP
\fB2\fR
CSO phone book server (not implemented by \fBPyGopherd\fR)
.TP
\fB3\fR
Error condition; text that follows is plain text
.TP
\fB4\fR
Macintosh file, BinHex format
.TP
\fB5\fR
DOS binary archive (not implemented by
\fBPyGopherd\fR; use type 9 instead)
.TP
\fB6\fR
uuencoded file; not directly generated by
\fBPyGopherd\fR automatically, but can be linked to
manually. Most gopher clients will handle this better
as type 1.
.TP
\fB7\fR
Search
.TP
\fB8\fR
Telnet link
.TP
\fB9\fR
Binary file
.TP
\fB+\fR
Redundant server (not implemented by \fBPyGopherd\fR)
.TP
\fBc\fR
Calendar (not implemented by \fBPyGopherd\fR)
.TP
\fBe\fR
Event (not implemented by \fBPyGopherd\fR)
.TP
\fBg\fR
GIF-format graphic
.TP
\fBh\fR
HTML file
.TP
\fBI\fR
Any kind of graphic file other than GIF
.TP
\fBi\fR
Informational
text included in a directory that is displayed but does not
link to any actual file.
.TP
\fBM\fR
MIME multipart/mixed file
.TP
\fBs\fR
Any kind of sound file
.TP
\fBT\fR
tn3270 link
.TP
\fBX\fR
.TP
\fB-\fR
UMN-specific -- signifies that this entry should not be
displayed in a directory entry, but may be accessed via a
direct link. This value is never transmitted in any Gopher
protocol.
.SH "CONFORMING TO"
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The Internet Gopher Protocol as specified in RFC1436
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The Gopher+ upward-compatible enhancements to the Internet Gopher
Protocol from the University of Minnesota as laid out at
.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The gophermap file format as originally implemented in the
Bucktooth gopher server and described at
.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The Links to URL specification as laid out by John Goerzen
at
.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The UMN format for specifying object attributes and links
with .cap, .Links, .abstract, and similar files as specified elsewhere
in this document and implemented by UMN gopherd.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The PYG format for extensible Python gopher objects as created for
\fBPyGopherd\fR.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Hypertext Transfer Protocol HTTP/1.0 as specified in
RFC1945
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) 3.2 and 4.0
Transitional as specified in RFC1866 and RFC2854.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Maildir as specified in
and
.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
The mbox mail storage format as specified in
.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Registered MIME media types as specified in RFC2048.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Script execution conforming to both UMN standards as laid out in UMN
gopherd(1) and Bucktooth standards as specified at
,
so far as each can be implemented consistent with secure
design principles.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
Standard Python 2.2.1 or above as implemented on
POSIX-compliant systems.
.TP 0.2i
\(bu
WAP/WML as defined by the WAP Forum.
.SH "BUGS"
.PP
Reports of bugs should be sent via e-mail to the \fBPyGopherd\fR
bug-tracking system (BTS) at
or submitted online
using the Web interface at .
.PP
The Web site also lists all current bugs, where you can check their
status or contribute to fixing them.
.SH "COPYRIGHT"
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR is Copyright (C) 2002, 2003 John Goerzen.
.PP
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as
published by the Free Software Foundation; version 2 of the
License.
.PP
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.
.PP
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
along with this program; if not, write to:
.nf
Free Software Foundation, Inc.
59 Temple Place
Suite 330
Boston, MA 02111-1307
USA
.fi
.SH "AUTHOR"
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR, its libraries, documentation, and all included
files (except where noted) was written by John Goerzen
and copyright is held as stated in the
Copyright section.
.PP
Portions of this manual (specifically relating to certian UMN gopherd
features and characteristics that PyGopherd emulates) are modified
versions of the original
gopherd(1) manpage accompanying the UMN gopher distribution. That
document is distributed under the same terms as this, and
bears the following copyright notices:
.nf
Copyright (C) 1991-2000 University of Minnesota
Copyright (C) 2000-2002 John Goerzen and other developers
.fi
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR may be downloaded, and information found, from its
homepage via either Gopher or HTTP:
.PP
.PP
.PP
\fBPyGopherd\fR may also be downloaded using Subversion. Additionally,
the distributed tar.gz may be updated with a simple "svn update"
command; it is ready to go. For information on getting
\fBPyGopherd\fR with Subversion, please visit .
.SH "SEE ALSO"
.PP
python (1).