## AOLserver Answers -- 10/10/2000

Getting AOLserver
Building AOLserver
Obtaining the 128-bit SSL Module (nsssl)
Installing AOLserver
Database Access
Getting Help
Contributing Software
Contributing Patches

### Getting AOLserver

AOLserver binary builds for many platforms are at http://aolserver.com/
AOLserver is open-source. The source code is hosted at Source Forge and can be found at the following locations:

- http://aolserver.com/
- In CVS at http://sourceforge.net/project/aolserver/

### Building AOLserver

AOLserver builds very easily and the Installationdocument describes the process. We recommend that you use the defaults in include/Makefile.global when building your module. This file contains rules and knows how to build modules properly for all platforms AOLserver has been ported to. To link a shared object, we recommend the default which is:
`gcc -shared -nostartfiles`
On some Solaris installations the Cygnus compiler is unable to build working shared objects. We're told that if you put the -Wl,-E option in the nsd/Makefile when linking the executable, Cygnus works, but we have not verified this successfully. GCC from just about anywhere else willwork. You can get a pre-built copy of GCC 2.95.2 from http://www.sunfreeware.com/or build your own from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/. Just install it and put a link to the new gcc in /usr/local/bin (keep the broken Cygnus in /usr/cygnus/bin in case you need it).
HINT: The magic option to GCC for the compiling step is "-fPIC", so if you're using a third-party library, make sure "-fPIC" appears in the CFLAGS. And, to eliminate the possibility of strange behavior, it's helpful but not necessary to build everything with the same compiler and using the same options. If you're using a third-party library for which no source code is available, you may run into problems if the vendor did not build it with the equivalent of "-fPIC" on their compiler. Shared objects must be position-independent.

### Obtaining the 128-bit SSL Module

AOLserver supports two levels of SSL for "https" connections -- the export version, which has a 40-bit secret key and a 512-bit public keypair, and the domestic version, which has a 128-bit secret key and a 1024-bit public key.
The 128-bit/1024-bit domestic version can be requested by sending mail to nsssl-request@aolserver.com. We are not allowed to give this software to anyone but citizens or naturalized citizens of the United States. You are not allowed to give it to people outside the USA or who are nationals of countries embargoed by the United States Government.
The 40-bit/512-bit version can be found at http://aolserver.com/as part of the regular AOLserver source and binary distributions.

### Installing AOLserver

Installing AOLserver is very straightforward and is covered in the Installationdocument.

### Database Access

AOLserver works with a great many databases including all the popular enterprise systems.

> Sybase Proxy Daemon (nssybpd)
> The nssybpd connects AOLserver to a Sybase database. America Online does not have a license to distribute the binary builds of this code externally (and neither does anyone else). The source code is located in the "nssybpd/" directory of the AOLserver source tree at Source Forge and requires the Sybase Client Libraries to build.

### Getting Help

AOLserver has an active developer community as well as a very active user community. Links to these areas are at http://aolserver.com/help/.

### Contributing Software

AOLserver is extremely extensible and we host a great many community-contributed modules at http://aolserver.com/modules/. You can contribute your software by following the guidelines on that page.

### Contributing Patches

We accept any form of patches at bugs@aolserver.com. We request that your patch include a test case and, if possible, a context diff against a tagged version of the AOLserver source code. In lieu of a test case we can also accept a narrative describing the problem in detail.