kraidsaves
02-27-2003, 09:51 PM
I like tripod alot for being free but lately i've been trying to learn Perl (at least the basics) and that led me to all the things it can do including Bulletin Boards. I found this cool looking open source and FREE Perl based Bulletin Board at http://yabbforum.com . The place I saw this forum was here http://www.finalrender.com/forums/fR_main/YaBB.pl As you can see its a real good looking forum not to mention it's free. So I started delving further into it but i got stopped by a strange answer from tripod. In order for it to work your server must use Perl 5 (which tripod has) or better and you must be allowed to set permissions. Here is the ansewer I got from Tripod help concerning permissions:
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Tripod's CGI server assumes that any file with a .pl or .cgi file extension has executable permissions. This means you do not have to change any script permissions. Since Tripod does not allow Telnet access, you wouldn't be able to change permissions anyway.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Here is also a response I got from a Tripod Technician:
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Thanks for contacting us. Because Tripod allows CGI access to millions
of people at once means we have to handle some things a little
differently in terms of how your scripts are accessed and executed.
Your scripts, if properly stored in the CGI-BIN directory in your
account, are all handled by a separate machine, our Beta Server.
This machine inserts the correct path to the perl interpreter, so
whatever you may place on that first line, such as:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
will not even be read. You don't need to worry about this at all. If
there is a script that absolutely, positively requires the absolute
path, use the address beta.tripod.com/membername/cgi-bin/ and it should
handle just fine.
The other thing you don't need to worry about is permissions. When you
upload a file onto our UNIX servers, it will be set so that only you can
read or write to it. Others will have read access only. It would
usually be necessary to change execute permissions for this file to be
usable. However, our beta server once again takes care of this. It
will add execute permissions invisibly to your scripts that run through
it, so no CHMOD'ing or CHOWN'ing is necessary on your part.
There are two reasons we do this. The first is simplicity. If someone
wants to use a script, they can without a lot of hassle and UNIX
familiarity. The second is basic security. We don't allow telnet
access to our servers, period. Because of this we require a workaround
to allow CGI access at all. If your script is having troubles with this
setup, we may be able to come up with some ways around the problem. We
are in the BETA stage, after all.
Good luck with your scripts.
Sincerely,
Tom
Lycos Web Publishing
Product Support Specialist
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Needless to say as a person begging to learn perl this answer is confusing. The way I understand it that it is pre-set and everything is going to be set to 711. But if it's 711 doesnt that mean that people wont be able to post on the bulletin because they will not have write permission? Very confusing answer for a simple question.
///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Tripod's CGI server assumes that any file with a .pl or .cgi file extension has executable permissions. This means you do not have to change any script permissions. Since Tripod does not allow Telnet access, you wouldn't be able to change permissions anyway.
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Here is also a response I got from a Tripod Technician:
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Thanks for contacting us. Because Tripod allows CGI access to millions
of people at once means we have to handle some things a little
differently in terms of how your scripts are accessed and executed.
Your scripts, if properly stored in the CGI-BIN directory in your
account, are all handled by a separate machine, our Beta Server.
This machine inserts the correct path to the perl interpreter, so
whatever you may place on that first line, such as:
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
will not even be read. You don't need to worry about this at all. If
there is a script that absolutely, positively requires the absolute
path, use the address beta.tripod.com/membername/cgi-bin/ and it should
handle just fine.
The other thing you don't need to worry about is permissions. When you
upload a file onto our UNIX servers, it will be set so that only you can
read or write to it. Others will have read access only. It would
usually be necessary to change execute permissions for this file to be
usable. However, our beta server once again takes care of this. It
will add execute permissions invisibly to your scripts that run through
it, so no CHMOD'ing or CHOWN'ing is necessary on your part.
There are two reasons we do this. The first is simplicity. If someone
wants to use a script, they can without a lot of hassle and UNIX
familiarity. The second is basic security. We don't allow telnet
access to our servers, period. Because of this we require a workaround
to allow CGI access at all. If your script is having troubles with this
setup, we may be able to come up with some ways around the problem. We
are in the BETA stage, after all.
Good luck with your scripts.
Sincerely,
Tom
Lycos Web Publishing
Product Support Specialist
/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
Needless to say as a person begging to learn perl this answer is confusing. The way I understand it that it is pre-set and everything is going to be set to 711. But if it's 711 doesnt that mean that people wont be able to post on the bulletin because they will not have write permission? Very confusing answer for a simple question.