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USEFUL TOOLS FOR THE GN ADMINISTRATOR

Over time, we've built up a toolbox of utilities to help administer our gn server. Many are things we've written. Others we stumbled across while surfing the nets. (Like, cowabunga dude!) This page discusses many of these helpful tools.

All these items may be downloaded from ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools.

CONTENTS: * Stuff We Wrote + mkmenus - Automatic menu file maker. [UPDATED] [5/23/95] + cgi-postin - Web forms made easy. [UPDATED] [5/28/95] + pwmenu - Password protect gn menus. + mksheet - Generate contact sheet of GIFs. + mkgntexidir - Construct a library of GNU "texinfo" documents. + gn.gif - Our gn logo. * Stuff We Stole + giftrans - Mark GIF color planes as transparent. + sgmls - A Validating SGML Parser. + html-check - HTML checker and DTDs.

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Stuff We Wrote

We've written several utilities to help us run our gn server. Some make the task easier, such as the mkmenus automatic menu generator. Others, such as pwmenu, implement new features. This section discusses some of those tools.

MKMENUS - AUTOMATIC MENU FILE MAKER. [UPDATED]

New version - now supports automatic footers.

One feature of gn is that it exports only those items explicitly authorized by the .cache file. This feature, however, becomes a chore for directories that merely archive a bunch documents that don't need any fancy titles or access control. The mkmenus utility automatically scans directories and constructs menu files for the directory contents.

* We used mkmenus, for example, to construct menu files for the entire Lynx documentation tree. This allows us to host the Lynx documentaiton locally, within our gn server.

* A pre-formatted manual page is available on-line.

* The mkmenus script is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/mkmenus and manual page source is at: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/mkmenus.1.

CGI-POSTIN - WEB FORMS MADE EASY. [UPDATED]

New version - adds timeout to handle aborted client transfers. New version - bugfix to avoid truncation on long data streams.

Web forms can be a useful addition to your server, but they can be a pain in the butt to develop. In particular, it can be a real chore writing CGI processors -- the back-end program that handles the form data. The cgi-postin program was designed to let you write CGI processors simply (and securely) as sh scripts. The current release has preliminary support for perl too.

* "CGI made E-Z with cgi-postin" is an application note that describes this utility. The note includes several interactive examples that build Web forms and processors using cgi-postin.

* The cgi-postin source is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/cgi-postin.c.

PWMENU - PASSWORD PROTECT GN MENUS.

pwmenu adds password-protection to gn menus. When a menu is called via pwmenu, the user will be prompted for and must enter a correct password before gn will provide them the menu.

* "Adding Password Protection to gn Menus" is an application note that describes how to use this utility.

* We have a demonstration that shows how pwmenu works.

* The pwmenu script is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/pwmenu.

MKSHEET - GENERATE CONTACT SHEET OF GIFS.

This simple little script generates an HTML "contact sheet" of all the GIF images in a directory. This is nice if you collect all of your images into one repository, and would like an HTML sheet that displays all the graphics you've collected.

* The mksheet script is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/mksheet.

MKGNTEXIDIR - CONSTRUCT A LIBRARY OF GNU "TEXINFO" DOCUMENTS.

The GNU Project distributes their documentation in a "texinfo" format. They also provide tools that convert it their own little hypertext format. Not to mention tools that read their own little hypertext format. Bleych. I'd rather use Lynx.

Thanks to Lionel Cons, this is now possible! He has written a really nifty (perl-based) texinfo-to-HTML converter that does a remarkable job. I've written a script called mkgntexidir that uses his converter to construct an entire library of documentation from GNU "texinfo" files. The script not only generates the HTML versions of the documents, but also menu files for your documentation library.

* My GNU documentation tree is available on-line if you'd like to see a sample of what mkgntexidir does.

* There are two tools you need before you can use the mkgntexidir script: Lionel's texi2html.pl script and my mkmenus script.

* The mkgntexidir source is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/mkgntexidir.

* This script uses a Texi_docs datafile to describe the contents of your library. A sample of this file is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/Texi_docs.

GN.GIF - OUR GN LOGO.

Hmmm...maybe this really belongs in the "Stuff We Stole" section. The gopher in the icon is based upon one I found in an image repository on the net. The original gopher was a mean, surly looking little bugger. I tried to make him cute and cheerful. I fear I achieved perplexed and confused instead. I guess I can live with that. The globe in the icon...well...I invented that myself. Really! (If you don't believe me, ask my wife...Morgan Fairchild...)

* "Why xv does not Like our gn Icon" is a brief note that explains why some programs, such as xv and old versions of NCSA Mosaic, do wierd things with our gn icon. (Hint: it has to do with "GIF transparency.")

* The gn.gif icon is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/gn.gif.

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Stuff We Stole

While surfing the nets, we've encountered some tools written by other folks that have helped us maintain our server. They are discussed in this section.

GIFTRANS - MARK GIF COLOR PLANES AS TRANSPARENT.

This utility, by Andreas Ley <ley@rz.uni-karlsruhe.de>, takes a color plane in a GIF image and marks it "transparent". If you are reading this with an image-capable browser, check out the icon at the top of the page. It has a really putrid green background. By marking that color as "transparent", it blends very nicely into the page.

* The giftrans.c source is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/giftrans.c.

* The original distribution site is: ftp.rz.uni-karlsruhe.de:/pub/net/www/tools.

SGMLS - A VALIDATING SGML PARSER.

This utility parses ISO 8879 "Standard Generalized Markup Language", and can be used to locate errors in SGML documents. It was written by James Clark <jjc@jclark.com> based upon work by Charles F. Goldfarb. What use is that? Well bucko, look at the next entry in the list...

* The sgmls-1.1.91 source is available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/sgmls-1.1.91.tar.gz.

* The original distribution site is: sgml1.ex.ac.uk:/pub/SGML/sgmls.

HTML-CHECK - HTML CHECKER AND DTDS.

HTML is defined through SGML. Given, therefore, a Document Type Definition (DTD) for HTML, the aforementioned sgmls can be used to verify the structure of HTML documents. This package includes a set of DTDs for HTML written by Dan Connolly <connolly@hal.com> that may be used with sgmls. Also included is a simple script called html-check that will run sgmls to verify HTML documents. Please note that this html-check script is not the same as the one written by Dan. Apologies for any confusion.

* My html-check script and Dan's HTML DTDs are available as: ftp.unicom.com:/pub/gn-tools/html-check.tar.gz.

* The "HTML Check Toolkit" by Daniel W. Connolly and Mark A. Gaither, which includes the DTDs, their html-check script, and a binary of sgmls can be retrieved from: http://www.hal.com/~markg/HaLSoft/html-check.

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Back to the gn info page. Up to Unicom Systems home page. Let us know your comments, corrections, additions, suggestions.

Chip Rosenthal <chip@chinacat.unicom.com>

@(#) gn-info/gn-tools.html 1.30 95/05/28 02:54:22