Anti-Web Quick-Start Guide
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is a guide to get Anti-Web up and running quickly. It is not meant
to be a definitive manual. For that, see the file MANUAL.


[*] Introduction
[*] Compilation
[*] Simple Configuration
[*] Complex Configuration



[*] Introduction
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Anti-Web is a light-weight, single-process, non-threaded webserver that
emphasizes simplicity, efficiency, and security.

AW 3 is the result of a rewrite of the webserver's internals and represents
much thought, effort, and careful design by the AW team.

With a few (perhaps signifigant) exceptions, AW 3 should be drop in
compatible with AW 2. To use this drop in compatibility, refer to the
"Simple Configuration" section. If you want to use some of AW 3's more
advanced features, refer to the "Complex Configuration" section.

Your rights to use, distribute, and modify AW are protected by the
GNU GPL license. Please see the file COPYING for more details.



[*] Compilation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

You should be able to compile AW simply by extracting it, changing into
the extracted directory and typing

  make

If all goes well, you should end up with an executable called "awhttpd".

If all does not go well, check the top of the file Makefile for compilation
options. You will need to do this for a SunOS compilation, for instance.




[*] Simple Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Most simply, AW 3 can be run like so:

awhttpd <directory> <port>

where directory contains your HTML tree and port is the port that you
want AW to listen for connections on.

You must also make sure that the permissions in your HTML tree
are set up in a sane manner:

- All of the specified files/directories should be world readable:

  chmod -R a+r /var/webpage/


- All the directories should be world listable and world readable:

  chmod a+x `find /var/webpage/ -type d`


- Ideally all files should be owned by a different user than AW is
  run as, although you can only do this if you have root access.
  (In this mode, AW will run as UID 32767)


Finally, you should put the awhttpd binary in a directory and include
a line to start AW in your startup scripts. (Typically /etc/rc*)

For example:

  /usr/local/sbin/awhttpd /var/webpage 80






[*] Complex Configuration
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AW 3 can also be run like so:

awhttpd <directory>

where directory contains:

- A file "awhttpd.conf" that specifies some basic parameters. Use the
  example file included in the AW distribution. You probably won't
  need to edit this file but if you do, the included conf file
  is extensively commented.

- A directory called "default" that contains the default HTML tree
  that you want people to view.

- Optional: Various other directories corresponding to virtual hosts.
  For instance, you might want to have different HTML trees for
  different websites. IE: "example.com/" (don't forget to symlink
  "www.example.com/" to "example.com/" if your DNS is set up to
  resolve both!)

  If the client does not specify a virtual host or the virtual host
  specified is not found, the client will be given the pages
  in the "default/" directory.

- Optionally, CGI scripts. Any directory that files can be served
  from, so can CGI scripts. You must set the extension in the conf
  file and make the CGI script world executable. See the file SCRIPTING
  for more details.


You must also make sure that the permissions in your AW directory
are set up in a sane manner:

- All of the above files/directories should be world readable:

  chmod -R a+r /var/webpage/


- All the directories should be world listable and world readable:

  chmod a+x `find /var/webpage/ -type d`


- All the CGI files should be world executable, though not set UID.

  chmod a+x /var/webpage/my_cgi_script.php


- Ideally all files should be owned by a different user than AW is
  run as, although you can only do this if you have root access.



Finally, you should put the awhttpd binary in a directory and include
a line to start AW in your startup scripts. For example:

/usr/local/sbin/awhttpd /var/webpage



Doug Hoyte (Fractal)
(C) 2004 HCSW, Doug Hoyte