This form is for setting up or changing the configuration options that control how HyperNews version 1.9.9 operates at this site: (www78.pair.com). All the configuration options are stored in a file called hnrc that is used by all the other HyperNews scripts. The first time you visit this setup form (or use another setup method, described next), the hnrc file will not exist, and default values will be given for all options. After the file is created, the next time you visit this form (unless you use your browser Back button to revisit it), the values that are found in the hnrc file are used.
Instead of using this form, you can run setup.pl in the .scripts directory. Run it once to create the hnrc file with default values, edit that file, and then run setup.pl again. A couple more options are available if you manually edit the hnrc file. After editing the file, you can either use this form or the command line. One other option is that you can use the short form, which is a simpler version of this form. But read the documentation in this form in any case.
Both setup-form.pl and setup.pl look for hnrc in the HyperNews directory called $hnbin/Admin, currently "/usr/home/lawson/public_html/cgi-bin/HyperNews/Admin". For compatibility with old versions of HyperNews, we also check $hnbin and $hnbin/.scripts. (These variables that reference directories are always computed from the URL used to access each script so you do not need to set them.)
An hnrc file has been found in /usr/home/lawson/public_html/cgi-bin/HyperNews/Admin.
Each time you submit this setup form, the hnrc file will be changed in "/usr/home/lawson/public_html/cgi-bin/HyperNews/Admin". The old version of this file will be moved to hnrc-old. If an error occurs, you can back up to this form (which will still have the values you used) to correct the problem and resubmit.
It is possible to install HyperNews multiple times at the same site, each time with different options. In fact, the .scripts directories of each may be linked to a single copy, but you must use the appropriate URL to access this form, and be sure to fill in the $hnGroup field below. You may also want to define separate document directories for each installation and protect them against direct http access except by administrators. All installations may share the same set of users and passwords, and a different group of users may be given access to each.
When filling in values for the following options, as a convenience, you can use the values of previously defined options (in the order presented in this list) just by using the variable name for the option. For example, $http is used several times below. Another variable that is available is $hndocs, which is the directory where the HyperNews forums and messages are stored, currently "/usr/www/users/lawson/frontier/hn".
$hndocs may be the same as the httpd root document directory, or some subdirectory. If you use a subdirectory of the document root such as "hn", which is recommended, be sure the name is not the same as the name of the directory where the HyperNews scripts are stored or you and your server will be confused. Actually, $hndocs doesn't need to be accessible to the http server, just to the HyperNews scripts. But if you make it inaccessible to the server, make sure the icons are still accessible (see $hnicons below).
The user running your HyperNews programs is "lawson". This user must be able to write in the $hndocs directory. (Alternatively, the directory could be group writable by the group the user is in, "users"). You should create this directory yourself being sure to set the correct access mode. HyperNews will try to do it when needed but it will only succeed if the parent directory is also writable.
HyperNews documents directory full path ($hndocs):
When a user looks up a HyperNews URL that no longer exists, or perhaps they typed it in wrong, they will be referred to another document. $hnRootDoc is the document that is referenced if nothing else can be found. This could be your top level list of HyperNews pages, for example. You may specify this URL as either a HyperNews path relative to $hndocs (starting with a '/'), or as any URL.
Root Document ($hnRootDoc):
Alternatively, the header or footer text can be a simple http URL, or a file name, in which case the document it refers to is fetched, relative URLs fixed. A file name should start with '/' and it will be used as if relative to the $hndocs directory, not your file system root. (A relative path would be relative to each forum it is used in.)
Header Text ($headerText): /headerText.html
Footer Text ($footerText): /footerText.html
$global_body_tag is used to define the body tag at the beginning of the HTML body when displaying forums and messages. You could use this to give every page a background color or image. It defaults to a normal <BODY>.
Global Body Tag ($global_body_tag):
(Also see $startMsgBodyTag and $endMsgBodyTag in the hnrc file.)
$globalDefaultOutlineDepth is the maximum number of levels of messages to display when viewing the message outline on any page. It may be overridden on each forum. Use "-1" for All.
Default depth of the outline display ($globalDefaultOutlineDepth):
Icons directory full path ($hnicons):
Full URL for the same directory as $hnicons ($hniconsURL):
You only need to copy icons from the distribution once each time you install a new version of HyperNews, or not at all if you don't plan to use the distributed icons.
Copy Icons to $hnicons. NO
Directory Creation Mode ($hndirmode):
File Creation Mode ($hnfilemode):
In addition to this list of administrators for all HyperNews data, each forum has an administrator (i.e. the owner) whose scope is limited to that forum and all messages under it. Only the Group administrators have administrative powers for the membership and reset password functions.
Each administrator in the list (comma or whitespace separated) should be a User ID (which may be an email address, if you allow it). Parens and quotes should not be used. E.g. liberte@hypernews.org, rmelo@hypernews.org. The first entry in the list will be given in error messages for users who need help.
HyperNews Administrators (@hnAdmin): brian@bower.on.ca, faradmin, dzietsma, vikki@far.on.ca, christine@far.on.ca
People Directory ($hnPeople):
$hnPassword is the full path to the password file. This is usually $hnPeople/.htpasswd, but this can be shared with another installation of HyperNews. In cannot be a password file managed by some other process outside of HyperNews, however.
Password File Full Path ($hnPassword):
$hnGroup is the name of the group of members who have access to documents via this particular installation of HyperNews. Each installation of HyperNews may now have a different group of users but all can share the same password file and personal info for each user. Group specific files are in the directory $hnPeople$hnGroup.
You can leave $hnGroup empty and then HyperNews will behave identically with earlier versions. You must do this the first time to set up the "root" installation, but you can later define subgroups as well. If you want to specify a group name, the format is a path relative to $hnPeople. E.g. NCSA/SDG. Note that this is not a file system path; it is a path relative to the $hnPeople directory. The members of this group will be stored in the directory named by $hnPeople$hnGroup. There should be no spaces in the group name.
Warning: You must install the "root" installation with no group (i.e. leave it blank) the first time! But for multiple installations, if you forget to include the group name when you had intended to set up a group, you will very likely mess up your root installation.
Group Name ($hnGroup):
There are several fairly complex reasons to rebuild your $hnPassword file and $hnGroup files. You may not need to do it at all, and you should only need to do this once per installation when you finally install the new version of HyperNews. Passwords and group info are maintained redundantly thereafter in the membership information, the $hnPassword file, and the group specific files. If you specify an $hnGroup above, then only the group file will be rebuilt. If you select the $externalSecurity option in the hnrc file, the password file is never changed or used.
Rebuild $hnPassword and $hnGroup files. NO
If the server authentication mechanism is different for your server, you could either turn off all security (which is probably unwise), or attempt to use the "manual", form-based authentication mechanism by setting the following option. This is not guaranteed to work in all cases, however, so check it out if you need it. In any event, manual security is not used to restrict reading of messages - only commands (such as changing subscription or deletion) that have side effects.
Use form-based authentication ($manualSecurity). NO - use server authentication.
The main purpose of allowing passwords to be reset is to deal with the situation where a user has forgotten their password. To avoid bothering administrators to reset passwords, the option is available here for anyone, or members only, to reset the password of any member. The new password is not displayed - it is only emailed, in the clear, to the person whose password has been reset. Email is not particularly secure, so you may wish to allow only administrators to reset passwords. Of course, email must be enabled for this to work - see Notification below.
As a precaution, no one, not even another authenticated administrator, may reset an administrator password, no matter what the reset option is. Instead, you have to change the password explicitly on the membership form.
Note that if you allow anyone to register themselves, then you should probably not allow members to reset passwords unless you are very trusting.
If a forum is owned by a member, only that member, or an administrator may update the forum.
If set to 2, all the other security variables are effectively set to level 2 or greater. (This may change in the future.)
If you have set up HyperNews previously, you need to enter your Admin User ID and Password here.
Admin User ID:
Password:
/footerText.html