Unzip the distribution and you should see two directories cgi-bin
and pages. Upload everything in cgi-bin in ASCII mode to a directory
on your server that can run cgi. For example, I recommend creating a
directory called links off your cgi-bin. You'll end up with a structure
like:
/cgi-bin/links
- User cgi like search.cgi, add.cgi, etc.
/cgi-bin/links/admin - All the admin programs.
Make sure all the files are transferred in ASCII mode!!
Upload the cascading style sheet: links.css and the background image
to the directory where you want the pages created.
2. Double check that the Path to perl is correct. Links defaults with
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
If this is incorrect, you'll need to edit the first line of every .cgi
program, and change it to where you have Perl version 5 installed.
3. Set permissions:
chmod 755 (-rwxr-xr-x) on all .cgi files.
chmod 666 (-rw-rw-rw-) on all files in the data directory.
chmod 666 (-rw-rw-rw-) on all your template files (if using the online editor).
chmod 777 (drwxrwxrwx) on the hits directory
chmod 777 (drwxrwxrwx) on the ratings directory
chmod 777 (drwxrwxrwx) on the directory where Links pages will be created.
4. Edit links.cfg and set as a minimum:
- PATH to your admin directory, this is a system path, not a URL! If you
get an error message about not finding a file, look at the SCRIPT_FILENAME
variable for clues on the proper path!
$db_script_path = "/alex/links/cgi-bin/admin";
- URL to your admin directory. This should start with 'http://'.
$db_dir_url
= "http://localhost/links/cgi-bin/admin";
- URL of where your user cgi is kept. If you kept the default installation,
it will just be one level below the admin directory.
$db_cgi_url
= "http://localhost/links/cgi-bin";
- PATH to where your pages are built. This should be a system path, not a URL.
$build_root_path = "/alex/links/pages";
- URL of where your pages are.
$build_root_url = "http://localhost/links/pages";
- Set one of either:
$db_mail_path = '';
$db_smtp_server = '';
If you are on NT, set $db_smtp_server to your SMTP server. If you are on UNIX,
set $db_mail_path to your sendmail program.
- Set the email address for who all emails will come from:
$db_admin_email = '';
5. ** Password protect your admin directory. Never leave your admin directory
unprotected
in a public site, your whole directory could be erased!!
6. Give it a test! Go to: http://yourserver.com/cgi-bin/links/admin/admin.cgi or wherever
you setup admin.cgi, and you should see the admin screen. Try (in this order):
1. Add a category.
2. Add a link in that category.
3. Build pages.
4. Search for the one link, using the new pages created.
5. Add a link from the new pages created.
6. Validate a link from admin.
If everything goes ok, you should be all done!
If you run into problems, take a look at the Problems section
below and check out the Links forum at:
http://gossamer-threads.com/scripts/forum/
4. Problems
====================================================
* 500 Server Errors.
I've tried to remove as much chance of 500 server errors as possible. If you still
get one check the following:
- Did you upload/ftp the file up in ASCII mode?
- Is the path to Perl right? (#!/usr/local/bin/perl)
- Is the path to Perl to a version of perl5?
- Are there any syntax errors you made when editing links.cfg?
- Are the file set to the right permissions?
500 server errors are 99% of the time caused by: File uploaded in BINARY mode, or
path to perl is wrong or goes to perl version 5.
* Fatal Error: (Maybe you didn't strip carriage returns after a network transfer?)
You've uploaded something in BINARY mode! Make sure you transfer ALL the files
in ASCII mode. Don't trust your FTP programs AUTO-DETECT mode, but instead
transfer everything in ASCII.
* Header/Footer problems.
The script looks at whatever you have entered in the header/footer field. It first
checks to see if what you entered is a file and if it is it will insert the contents
of that file.
If it can't find/open the file the script will insert the value. This way you can
either specify a file or some text to use as a category header/footer.
TIP: If you want the same text to appear on all pages, don't use a header. Just put
that text into site_html.pl.
* Fatal error: unrecognized token my( ...
You have the path to perl pointing to perl version 4. Make sure it goes to perl
version 5.
Remember: Please be careful with the script as it does create
directories and other potentially hazardous stuff.
Good Luck!