Installation & Getting Started
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If you tried to get Robin Hood to work before reading this and are not having any
luck, you have come the the right place. Robin Hood requires libHTTP 0.9 to run. If
you don't have libHTTP 0.9, you will need to download and install it first.
Installing libHTTP
libHTTP includes all of the source code required to build it as well a considerable
amount of documentation for programmers. If you only wish to use it, move the file
libHTTP.so to "/boot/home/config/lib/"
File Permissions
RobinHood respects the file permission attributes of the files in your web directory.
If you find you are being asked for a password when viewing your web-site,
you probably need to fix the permission attributes. Seperate permissions are maintained
by the file system for owner, group, and other users. Each class is further sub-divided into read, write,
and execute permissions. RobinHood will require a password for a file if others do not have
read access for the file; CGIs require execute access. Access permissions can be
changed with the "chmod" command. If you wish to make your entire web directory public,
use the command: chmod -R o+r path
Where path is the path to your web directory. The CGI directory permission should be
set with: chmod -R o+x path.
Where path is the path of the CGI directory.
Robin Hood Components
Robin Hood includes serveral executable components. The user interface and the server
are seperate. The server can continue running in the background even after the UI has
exited.
- rhdaemon - This is the Robin Hood server. It runs in the background and
has no visible UI. It can be started by launching it from the tracker, the command-line,
or, from the Robin Hood Console. The rhdaemon can be placed anywhere you like as long
as libHTTP is in the /boot/home/config/lib/ directory. If you wish to have the server start automatically on
startup, add the following line to your UserBootscript: path/rhdaemon &
Where path is the location of the rhdaemon on your computer.
- RHConsole - This is a graphical console for RobinHood. It displayes a
connection log, reports on the status of the server, has controls for starting and
stopping the server, and can open the Robin Hood configuration file. It includes a filter menu; this allows you to control what is
displayed in the log. RHConsole does not have to be running for the server to be
running.
- rhlog - This is a command-line console for the rhdaemon. It outputs log
entries to stdout and can filter what types of entries are displayed. It should
reside in the /boot/home/config/bin/ directory for convienient access. It can be
made to log all server transactions to the file RHLog by adding the following line to
your UserBootscript: rhlog >> /boot/home/config/setting/RHLog &
It could also be used over a telnet session to monitor the web server. Type
"rhlog --help" for a list of filtering options.
Configuring the Virtual Hosts File
The Virtual Hosts File contains the configuration info for the rhdaemon. You can open this
file from the File menu of RHConsole or by opening /boot/home/config/settings/RHVirtualHosts.
This file specifies which ports the server runs on and which web directories are
assigned to each host name.
CGI Setup
Files located /cgi-bin, where the "/" is the root of the web directory, are
executed instead of transfered. The cgi-bin directory can be a symlink shared by
all your web directories if you wish; it may contain symlinks as well. You can find more information on CGIs and sample CGIs at
The CGI Resource Index.
SSI Setup
Server Side Includes provide a mechanisim for creating dynamic html pages.
A SSI file ( usually ends in .shtml ) looks like a normal html file, but contains
directives to the server to inline other text elements in the document from another source.
The source can be an static text document ( like a html document, or a plain text ), another
shtml document ( which will also be parsed ), a CGI, or a shell command. shtml documents are
created on the fly by the server and the client never sees the original shtml file.
Files with a mime-type of "text/x-server-parsed-html" are assumed to be SSI files
and will be treated as such. See
NCSA HTTPd Tutorial: Server Side Includes for more information on using SSIs.
Robin Hood Web Server - A web server for BeOS
Copyright (C) 1999 Joe Kloss
BeOS is a registered trademark of Be Inc.