Changes for Web authors

Due to unexpected hardware failures on July 23, 2003, we upgraded our Web server www.nmt.edu to a newer, faster machine running Red Hat Linux and the latest Apache server. Some procedures for Web authors will change:

• The starting directory for your Web structure will now be your ~/public_html directory instead of ~/www. To rename this directory under Linux, use this command:

        mv ~/www ~/public_html

  If you have existing procedures or programs that refer to the ~/www directory, you can add a soft link with this command:

        ln -s ~/public_html ~/www

  This will effectively cause your Web directory to appear in both places. However, this may not fix some CGI script problems.
• The procedure for CGI scripts has changed:
  • Previously, scripts executed as user nobody. Now they must have the same owner as the page that refers to them, and they run as that owner.
  • A CGI script may not be a soft link. It must be an actual file.
  • The script must be in the same directory as the page that refers to it.
  • The script cannot be world or group writeable.
  • Formerly, any error output (to stdout) from a script was appended to the Apache error log. However, that log is now inaccessible. Since your script runs as you, you can write debug output to any file to which you have write access, and that file does not need to be world-writeable or even world-readable.
  • If you use server side includes, any script invoked by <!--exec cmd="..."--> must be in the same directory and cannot have any command line arguments.
  • Your user ID number must be greater than 500. Some older accounts may have this problem. Ask the User Consultant if you are not sure about your user ID number.
  • Previously, CGI scripts had to end in .cgi. Now, they may also end in .pl (Perl) or .py (Python).
• If you use an .htaccess file to restrict access within your web pages, please note this must now be world readable. If it is not, the web server will not be able to read this file; by default it will deny access to that folder.

Last updated: 2003/10/31 04:27:26 UT
URL: http://www.nmt.edu/tcc/upgrade/www.html