
README:  AOLserver

    This is the AOLserver 4.0.8 source distribution.  AOLserver is
    available at http://aolserver.com, a SourceForge hosted site.

RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.4.2.1 2004/09/07 17:27:26 dossy Exp $


Contents
--------
    1. Introduction
    2. Documentation
    3. Compiling and installing AOLserver
    4. Mailing lists
    5. Thank You


1. Introduction
---------------

AOLserver is a multithread web server with flexible and extensible C
and Tcl API's.  AOLserver is used for several high traffic, dynamic
web applications and services at America Online among other sites.

AOLserver is maintained, enhanced, and distributed freely by the
AOLserver community.  The home for AOLserver sources and bug/patch
database is on SourceForge available at:

	http://aolserver.com/

AOLserver is a freely available open source package.  See the file
"license.terms" for complete information.


2. Documentation
----------------

Documentation is available in the "doc" subdirectory of this release.
It contains of Unix-style reference manual entries for AOLserver.
Files with extension ".1" are for programs (for example, nsd.1); files
with extension ".3" are for C library procedures; and files with
extension ".n" describe Tcl commands.  The file "doc/nsd.1" gives a
quick summary of the AOLserver configuration.  To view any of the man
pages on Unix, cd to the "doc" directory and invoke your favorite
variant of troff using the normal -man macros, for example:

		groff -Tascii -man nsd.1 | more

Conversion to HTML may be possible with:

		groff -Thtml -man nsd.1 > nsd.html

If AOLserver has been installed correctly and your "man" program
supports it, you should be able to access the AOLserver manual entries
using the normal "man" mechanisms, such as

		man -M /usr/local/aolserver/man nsd


3. Compiling and installing AOLserver
-------------------------------------

AOLserver is known to compile and run on FreeBSD, Linux, Solaris, and
Mac OS/X 10.2.  Ports to other modern platforms such as HP/UX should
be easy.  To compile and install AOLserver:

3a.     Download, configure, build and install Tcl 8.4 or better
	with threads and shared libraries enabled.  To do so,
	download the latest release from http://tcl.tk and following
	the instructions in the included README.  You may install
	Tcl within the directory you intend to install AOLserver
	(e.g., /usr/local/aolserver) or in some other location.
	The following should work:

	% gunzip < tcl8.4.0-src.tar.gz | tar xvf -
	% cd tcl8.4.0/unix
	% ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/aolserver --enable-threads
	% make install
	
3b.     If you don't have GNU make (Linux make is GNU make), install
	it as AOLserver's makefiles require it.  If you're not sure
	if you have GNU make, try "make -v" to check.  You can get
	GNU make at http://www.gnu.org.

3c.     Download, configure, build, and install AOLserver.  The
	following should work:

	% gunzip < aolserver-4.0.8.src.tar.gz | tar xvf -
	% cd aolserver-4.0.8
	% ./configure 
	% make install

	AOLserver's configure script takes the following options:

	--with-tcl=/usr/local/aolserver/lib

		Path to library installation directory of Tcl where
		configure can find the tclConfig.sh script.  Without
		this option, configure will search around for
		tclConfig.sh, perhaps finding it in ../tcl8.4.0/unix.

	--enable-symbols

		Compile with debug symbols enabled.  The default
		is to compile optimized.

	--prefix=/usr/local/aolserver

		Set the installation directory for AOLserver.  All
		program, man page, and runtime files (e.g., log
		files) will be install or updated within this
		directory.


        To make AOLserver with purify, set the variable $PURIFY to 
        your purify executable along with any options you desire, e.g.,

        make PURIFY="purify -cache-dir=/home/joe/my-cache-dir" install
 

3d.     Create and edit a config file, nsd.tcl by convention.  A
	sample is provided to get started:

	% cd /usr/local/aolserver
	% cp sample-config.tcl nsd.tcl
	% vi nsd.tcl


3e.	Try running the server in a shell window:

	% cd /usr/local/aolserver
	% bin/nsd -ft nsd.tcl


More information on configuration and running AOLserver can be
found within the sample-config.tcl script and the AOLserver.n man
page.


4. Mailing lists
----------------

There is a mailing list for AOLserver to discuss anything from
configuration, development, and future direction.  To join visit:

	http://aolserver.com/lists.php


5. Thank You
-------------

Thank you for your interest in AOLserver!  We hope you find it
useful and look forward to hearing from you on our mailing list.

