Setup Guide for running BottleChat forum under Gophernicus

Prerequisites:

gophernicus server running with *scripting* and *http-style queries* enabled, also *personal gopherspaces* should be enabled if running under `~/public_gopher/`. Because gophernicus is typically installed as an *inetd(8)* network service it may not show up using *ps(1)* or *pgrep(1)*; if possible, check its `/etc/inetd.conf` entry for what options gophernicus is running with. The *sockstat(8)* command may also be useful.

a suitable AWK variant installed and runnable by gophernicus; AWKs known to work: *NetBSD awk, nawk[1], mawk, gawk*.

[1] lacks internal time functions; use `time()` and `date()`

Setup:

select a directory servable by Gophernicus; standard locations are under either `/var/gopher/` or `~/public_gopher/` :

    $ cd ~/public_gopher

copy script to ./gophermap:

    $ cp ../bottlechat.awk ./gophermap

create ledger file:

    $ touch ./ledger.txt

set appropriate ownership and permissions:

    $ chown your_uid:nobody gophermap ledger.txt
    $ chmod 755 gophermap
    $ chmod 666 ledger.txt
    $ ls -l gophermap ledger.txt
    -rwxr-xr-x  1 your_uid nobody  3622 Feb 10 12:14 gophermap
    -rw-rw-r--  1 your_uid nobody  2204 Feb 12 18:18 ledger.txt

verify working directory permissions:

    $ ls -ld ../
    drwxr-xr-x  3 your_uid  users 512 Feb 12 09:42  ~/public_gopher

edit gophermap to suit your setup; verify "#! <path>/awk" line at top is correct and the Home, Date, and Time variables match your AWK and working directory. The footer is toggleable via Foot.

Troubleshooting:

the companion *env_vars.awk* script can be installed in a similar fashion and is useful for probing `ENVIRON["<vars>"]` content.

permissions for the various files and directories may need to be tweaked depending on the permissions of the user gophernicus runs under; the above instructions were tested on a mostly stock NetBSD system with gophernicus running as user `nobody`.

Questions or Comments:

send email to `bottles AT sdf DOT org`