
			      Meta-HTML
	    Copyright 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998 Brian J. Fox
	     Copyright 1996, 1997, Universal Access Inc.
		Written by Brian J. Fox (bfox@ai.mit.edu)

This is the README file for various Meta-HTML source distributions.

To find out about compiling Meta-HTML, please see the INSTALL file.

Installing Your First Web Server:
--------------------------------

    Type "./Install", and follow the directions.

    The Install program handles the details of installing the Meta-HTML
    Server for you.  It is the simplest and fastest way to get up and
    running with Meta-HTML, and with a full featured web server.  If
    you would like to install the Server manually, the following
    instructions detail the necessary steps.

    Installing the Meta-HTML Server is quite straight-forward, and only
    requires you to have the most minimal knowledge of Unix-like systems.
    For those of you who can't wait, the following sequence is sufficient
    to install the Meta-HTML server on a machine that is not already running
    a web server:

      1) Choose a directory under which your server will be installed,
	 say, "/usr/www".  We will call this directory <wwwroot>.
	 (mkdir /usr/www)

      2) Create <wwwroot>/bin, <wwwroot>/docs, <wwwroot>/conf, and
	 <wwwroot>/logs.
	 (mkdir /usr/www/bin /usr/www/docs /usr/www/conf /usr/www/logs)

      3) Copy "server/mhttpd" and "Utilities/*" to <wwwroot>/bin.
	 (cp server/mhttpd /usr/www/bin)
	 (cp Utilities/* /usr/www/bin)

      4) Copy "release" to <wwwroot>/docs/.
	 (cp -r release /usr/www/docs/)

      5) Copy "server/conf" to <wwwroot>/conf.
	 (cp -r server/conf /usr/www/conf)

      6) Create the file "<wwwroot>/conf/identity.local", and place
	 the following Meta-HTML commands in it to tell the server
	 which IP address and port it should serve documents from, and
	 to tell it where those documents are stored.

	 (emacs /usr/www/conf/identity.local)
	 <set-var mhtml::document-root = /usr/www/docs>
	 <set-var mhtml::server-name = www.myhost.com>
	 <set-var mhtml::server-port = 80>

      7) As the superuser, start the server from the <wwwroot> directory:
	 (cd /usr/www; su -c bin/mhttpd)

    Congratulations, you are now running the Meta-HTML Server, and you
    have a Web site!  You can now go to your first URL:

      8) Start a browser, and connect to "http://<your-host>",
	 where "<your-host>" should be replaced with the name of your machine.


Co-habitating the Meta-HTML Server with an Existing Server:
-----------------------------------------------------------

    You may run the Meta-HTML Server on a non-standard port (such as
    8080), or under an aliased IP address for your machine.  The Server
    tightly binds to the address and port that it finds in the
    configuration file.  The newly installed server may serve the same
    documents that you are already serving with another server, or, may be
    configured to serve a different set of documents.

    If you are installing the Server with its own set of documents to
    serve, and its own IP address, simply follow the instructions given
    under `Installing Your First Web Server'.

    Otherwise, the intructions are almost identical; but you must manually
    edit the `mhttpd.conf' file and change the port number to 8080.  You
    do this by changing the line which reads:

      <set-var mhtml::server-port = <if <get-var mhttpd::ssl-server> 443 80>>

    to read:

      <set-var mhtml::server-port = 8080>

    Then start the server as described above.  The documents are served
    from the directory specified in `MHTML::DOCUMENT-ROOT'.


Installing the Meta-HTML CGI Engine:
------------------------------------

    Once again, you should just type "./Install".
    Installing the Meta-HTML CGI Engine is a relatively simple task for
    any specific existing Web server, but the methods vary from server to
    server.  Thus, we suggest that you use your browser to connect to our
    on-line documentation discussing the specifics of server
    configuration:

	    http://www.metahtml.org/documentation/manual/install.mhtml


Installing the Meta-HTML Stand-Alone Processor:
----------------------------------------------

    Copy the file `mhc/mhc' to some directory in your path, say
    `/usr/local/bin'.

    Then, simply specify to your server that documents ending in ".mhtml"
    are executable, make sure that the Meta-HTML documents that you create
    actually are executable (chmod a+x file.mhtml), and that they begin
    with:

	#!/usr/local/bin/mhc
	<set-var mhtml::include-prefix=YOUR-DOCUMENT-ROOT>

    where "YOUR-DOCUMENT-ROOT" is replaced with the full path to your
    document directory (e.g., /usr/www/docs).

