NAME
    TaskForest - A simple but expressive job scheduler that allows you to
    chain jobs/tasks and create time dependencies. Uses text config files to
    specify task dependencies.

VERSION
    This version is 1.19.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
    With the TaskForest Job Scheduler you can:

    *   schedule jobs run at predetermined times

    *   have jobs be dependent on each other

    *   rerun failed jobs

    *   mark jobs as succeeded or failed

    *   check the status of all jobs scheduled to run today

    *   interact with the included web service using your own client code

    *   interact with the included web server using your default browser

    *   express the relationships between jobs using a simple text-based
        format (a big advantage if you like using 'grep')

SYNOPSIS
      # Run the main program, checking for jobs to run.
      # By default, this will run until 23:55
      #
      use TaskForest;
      my $task_forest = TaskForest->new();
      $task_forest->runMainLoop();

      OR

      # Display the current status of all jobs scheduled to run today
      #
      use TaskForest;
      my $task_forest = TaskForest->new();
      $task_forest->status();

      # Rerun job J_RESOLVE in family F_DNS
      use TaskForest::Rerun;
      rerun("F_DNS", "J_RESOLVE", $log_dir);

      # Rerun job J_RESOLVE in family F_DNS
      use TaskForest::Rerun;
      &TaskForest::Rerun::rerun(
        "F_DNS",            # family name
        "J_RESOLVE",        # job name
        $log_dir,           # log directory
        $cascade,           # optional - apply to all dependent jobs as well
        $dependents_only,   # optional - apply to dependent jobs only
        $family_dir         # family directory
        );


      # Mark job J_RESOLVE in family F_DNS as Success
      use TaskForest::Mark;
      &TaskForest::Mark::mark(
        "F_DNS",            # family name
        "J_RESOLVE",        # job name
        $log_dir,           # log directory
        "Success",          # status
        $cascade,           # optional - apply to all dependent jobs as well
        $dependents_only,   # optional - apply to dependent jobs only
        $family_dir         # family directory
        );

DESCRIPTION
    The TaskForest Job Scheduler (TF) is a simple but expressive job
    scheduling system. A job is defined as any executable program that
    resides on the file system. Jobs can depend on each other. Jobs can also
    have start times before which a job may not by run. Jobs can be grouped
    together into "Families." A family has a start time associated with it
    before which none of its jobs may run. A family also has a list of
    days-of-the-week associated with it. Jobs within a family may only run
    on these days of the week.

    Jobs and families are given simple names. A family is described in a
    family file whose name is the family name. Each family file is a text
    file that contains 1 or more job names. The layout of the job names
    within a family file determine the dependencies between the jobs (if
    any).

    Family names and job names should contain only the characters shown
    below: ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZabcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz0123456789_

    Let's see a few examples. In these examples the dashes (-), pipes (|)
    and line numbers are not parts of the files. They're only there for
    illustration purposes. The main script expects environment variables or
    command line options or configuration file settings that specify the
    locations of the directory that contain family files, the directory that
    contains job files, and the directory where the logs will be written.
    The directory that contains family files should contain only family
    files.

  EXAMPLE 1 - Family file named F_ADMIN
        +---------------------------------------------------------------------
     01 |start => '02:00', tz => 'America/Chicago', days => 'Mon,Wed,Fri'
     02 |
     03 | J_ROTATE_LOGS()
     04 |
        +---------------------------------------------------------------------

    The first line in any family file always contains 3 bits of information
    about the family: the start time, the time zone, and the days on which
    this jobs in this family are run.

    In this case, this family starts at 2:00 a.m. Chicago time. The time is
    adjusted for daylight savings time. This family 'runs' on Monday,
    Wednesday and Friday only. Pay attention to the format: it's important.

    Valid days are 'Mon', 'Tue', 'Wed', 'Thu', 'Fri', 'Sat', 'Sun'. Days
    must be separated by commas.

    All start times (for families and jobs) are in 24-hour format. '00:00'
    is midnight, '12:00' is noon, '13:00' is 1:00 p.m. and '23:59' is one
    minute before midnight.

    There is only one job in this family - J_ROTATE_LOGS. This family will
    start at 2:00 a.m., at which time J_ROTATE_LOGS will immediately be run.
    Note the empty parentheses [()]. These are required.

    What does it mean to say that J_ROTATE_LOGS will be run? It means that
    the system will look for a file called J_ROTATE_LOGS in the directory
    that contains job files. That file should be executable. The system will
    execute that file (run that job) and keep track of whether it succeeded
    or failed. The J_ROTATE_LOGS script can be any executable file: a shell
    script, a perl script, a C program etc.

    To run the program, the system actually runs a wrapper script that
    invokes the job script. The location of the wrapper script is specified
    on the command line or in an environment variable.

    Now, let's look at a slightly more complicated example:

  EXAMPLE 2 - Job Dependencies
    This family file is named WEB_ADMIN

        +---------------------------------------------------------------------
     01 |start => '02:00', tz => 'America/Chicago', days => 'Mon,Wed,Fri'
     02 |
     03 |               J_ROTATE_LOGS()
     04 |
     05 | J_RESOLVE_DNS()               Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year()
     06 |
     07 |               J_WEB_REPORTS()      
     08 |
     09 |            J_EMAIL_WEB_RPT_DONE()  # send me a notification
     10 |
        +---------------------------------------------------------------------

    A few things to point out here:

    *   Blank lines are ignored.

    *   A hash (#) and anything after it, until the end of the line is
        treated as a comment and ignored

    *   Job and family names do not have to start with J_ or be in upper
        case.

    Now then, all jobs on a single line are started AT THE SAME TIME. All
    jobs on a line are started only when all jobs on the previous line are
    executed successfully. If there are no jobs on a previous line (as in
    the case of line 3 above), all jobs on that line are started when the
    family starts (2:00 a.m. above). There is an exception to this rule that
    we'll see in the next example.

    So the above family can be interpreted in English as follows: "All
    WEB_ADMIN jobs are eligible to run after 2:00 a.m Chicago time on
    Mondays, Wedesdays and Fridays. The first job to be run is
    J_ROTATE_LOGS. If that succeeds, then J_RESOLVE_DNS and
    Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year are started at the same time. If both
    these jobs succeed, then J_WEB_REPORTS is run. If that job succeeds, the
    J_EMAIL_WEB_RPT_done is run."

  EXAMPLE 3 - TIME DEPENDENCIES
    Let's say tha twe don't want J_RESOLVE_DNS to start before 9:00 a.m.
    because it's very IO-intensive and we want to wait until the relatively
    quiet time of 9:00 a.m. In that case, we can put a time dependency of
    the job. This adds a restriction to the job, saying that it may not run
    before the time specified. We would do this as follows:

        +---------------------------------------------------------------------
     01 |start => '02:00', tz => 'America/Chicago', days => 'Mon,Wed,Fri'
     02 |
     03 |               J_ROTATE_LOGS()
     04 |
     05 | J_RESOLVE_DNS(start => '09:00')    Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year()
     06 |
     07 |               J_WEB_REPORTS()      
     08 |
     09 |            J_EMAIL_WEB_RPT_DONE()  # send me a notification
     10 |
        +---------------------------------------------------------------------

    J_ROTATE_LOGS will still start at 2:00, as always. As soon as it
    succeeds, Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year is started. If J_ROTATE_LOGS
    succeeds before 09:00, the system will wait until 09:00 before starting
    J_RESOLVE_DNS. It is possible that Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year would
    have started and complete by then. J_WEB_REPORTS would not have started
    in that case, because it is dependent on two jobs, and both of them have
    to run successfully before it can run.

    For completeness, you may also specify a timezone for a job's time
    dependency as follows:

     05 | J_RESOLVE_DNS(start=>'10:00', tz=>'America/New_York')  Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year()

  EXAMPLE 4 - JOB FORESTS
    You can see in the example above that line 03 is the start of a group of
    dependent job. No job on any other line can start unless the job on line
    03 succeeds. What if you wanted two or more groups of jobs in the same
    family that start at the same time (barring any time dependencies) and
    proceed independently of each other?

    To do this you would separate the groups with a line containing one or
    more dashes (only). Consider the following family:

        +---------------------------------------------------------------------
     01 |start => '02:00', tz => 'America/Chicago', days => 'Mon,Wed,Fri'
     02 |
     03 |               J_ROTATE_LOGS()
     04 |
     05 | J_RESOLVE_DNS(start => '09:00')    Delete_Logs_Older_Than_A_Year()
     06 |
     07 |               J_WEB_REPORTS()      
     08 |
     09 |            J_EMAIL_WEB_RPT_DONE()  # send me a notification
     10 |
     11 |----------------------------------------------------------------------
     12 |
     13 | J_UPDATE_ACCOUNTS_RECEIVABLE()
     14 |
     15 | J_ATTEMPT_CREDIT_CARD_PAYMENTS()
     16 |
     17 |----------------------------------------------------------------------
     18 |
     19 | J_SEND_EXPIRING_CARDS_EMAIL()
     20 |
        +---------------------------------------------------------------------

    Because of the lines of dashes on lines 11 and 17, the jobs on lines 03,
    13 and 19 will all start at 02:00. These jobs are independent of each
    other. J_ATTEMPT_CREDIT_CARD_PAYMENT will not run if
    J_UPDATE_ACCOUNTS_RECEIVABLE fails. That failure, however will not
    prevent J_SEND_EXPIRING_CARDS_EMAIL from running.

    Finally, you can specify a job to run repeatedly every 'n' minutes, as
    follows:

        +---------------------------------------------------------------------
     01 |start => '02:00', tz => 'America/Chicago', days => 'Mon,Wed,Fri'
     02 |
     03 | J_CHECK_DISK_USAGE(every=>'30', until=>'23:00')
     04 |
        +---------------------------------------------------------------------

    This means that J_CHECK_DISK_USAGE will be called every 30 minutes and
    will not run on or after 23:00. By default, the 'until' time is 23:59.
    If the job starts at 02:00 and takes 25 minutes to run to completion,
    the next occurance will still start at 02:30, and not at 02:55. By
    default, every repeat occurrance will only have one dependency - the
    time - and will not depend on earlier occurances running successfully or
    even running at all. If line 03 were:

     03 | J_CHECK_DISK_USAGE(every=>'30', until=>'23:00', chained=>1)

    ...then each repeat job will be dependent on the previous occurance.

USAGE
    There are a few simple scripts in the bin directory that simplify usage.
    To run the program you must let it know where it can find the necessary
    files and directories. This can be done by environment variables, via
    the command line, or via the configuration file:

      export TF_JOB_DIR=/foo/jobs
      export TF_LOG_DIR=/foo/logs
      export TF_FAMILY_DIR=/foo/families
      export TF_RUN_WRAPPER=/foo/bin/run
      taskforest

      OR

      taskforest --run_wrapper=/foo/bin/run \
        --log_dir=/foo/logs \
        --job_dir=/foo/jobs \
        --family_dir=/foo/families

      OR

      taskforest --config_file=/foo/config/taskforest.cfg

    All jobs will run as the user who invoked taskforest.

    You can rerun jobs or mark jobs as Success or Failure using the 'rerun'
    and 'mark' commands as shown below.

OPTIONS
    The following command line options are required. If they are not
    specified on the command line, the environment will be searched for
    corresponding environment variables or look for them in the
    configuration file.

     --run_wrapper=/a/b/r  [or environment variable TF_RUN_WRAPPER]

       This is the location of the run wrapper that is used to execute the
       job files.  The run wrapper is also responsible for creating the
       semaphore files that denote whether a job ran successfully or not.
       The system comes with two run wrappers:
        bin/run
        and
        bin/run_with_log

       The first provides the most basic functionality, while the second
       also captures the stdout and stderr from the invoked job and saves
       it to a file in the log directory.  You may use either run wrapper.
       If you need additional functionality, you can create your own run
       wrapper, as long as it preserves the functionality of the default
       run_wrapper.

       You are encouraged to use run_with_log because of the extra
       functionality available to you.  If you also use the included web
       server to look at the status of today's job, or to browser the logs
       from earlier days, clicking on a the status of a job that's already
       run will bring up the log file associated with that job.  This is
       very convenient if you're trying to investigate a job failure.

     --log_dir=/a/b/l  [or environment variable TF_LOG_DIR]

       This is called the root log directory.  Every day a dated directory
       named in the form YYYYMMDD will be created and the semaphore files
       will be created in that directory.

     --job_dir=/a/b/j  [or environment variable TF_JOB_DIR]

       This is the location of all the job files.  Each job file should be
       an executable file (e.g.: a binary file, a shell script, a perl or
       python script).  The file names are used as job names in the family
       configuration files.  Job names may only contain the characters
       a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and _.  You may create aliases to jobs within this
       directory.

       If a job J1 is present in a family config file, any other
       occurrance of J1 in that family refers TO THAT SAME JOB INSTANCE.
       It does not mean that the job will be run twice.

       If you want the same job running twice, you will have to put it in
       different families, or make soft links to it and have the soft
       link(s) in the family file along with the actual file name.

       If a job is to run repeatedly every x minutes, you could specify
       that using the 'repeat/every' syntax shown above.

     --family_dir=/a/b/f  [or environment variable TF_FAMILY_DIR]

       This is the location of all the family files.  As is the case with
       jobs, family names are the file names.  Family names may only
       contain the characters a-z, A-Z, 0-9 and _.

    The following command line options are optional

     --once_only

       If this option is set, the system will check each family once, run
       any jobs in the Ready state and then exit.  This is useful for
       testing, or if you want to invoke the program via cron or some
       similar system, or if you just want the program to run on demand,
       and not run and sleep all day.

     --end_time=HH:MM

       If once_only is not set, this option determines when the main
       program loop should end.  This refers to the local time in 24-hour
       format.  By default it is set to 23:55.  This is the recommended
       maximum.

     --wait_time

       This is the amount of seconds to sleep at the end of every
       loop. The default value is 60.

     --verbose

       Print a lot of debugging information

     --help

       Display help text

     --log

       Log stdout and stderr to files

     --log_threshold=t

       Log messages at level t and above only will be printed to the
       stdout log file.  The default value is "warn".

     --log_file=o

       Messages printed to stdout are saved to file o in the log_directory
       (if --log is set).  The default value is "stdout".

     --err_file=e

       Messages printed to stderr are saved to file e in the log_directory
       (if --log is set).  The default value is "stderr".

     --config_file=f

       Read configuration settings from config file f.

     --chained

       If this is set, all recurring jobs will have the chained attribute
       set to 1 unless specified explicitly in the family file. 

     --collapse

       If this option is set then the status command will behave as if the
       --collapse options was specified on the command line.

     --ignore_regex=r

       If this option is set then the family files whose names match the
       perl regular expression r will be ignored.  You can specify this
       option more than once on the command line or in the configuration
       file, but if you use the environment to set this option, you can
       only set it to one value.  Look at the included configuration
       file taskforest.cfg for examples.

     --default_time_zone

       This is the time zone in which jobs that ran on days in the past will
       be displayed.  When looking at previous days' status, the system has no
       way of knowing what time zone the job was originally scheduled for.
       Therefore, the system will choose the time zone denoted by this
       option.  The default value for this option is "America/Chicago".

DISPLAY STATUS
    To get the status of all currently running and recently run jobs, enter
    the following command:

      status

      OR

      status --log_dir=/foo/logs --family_dir=/foo/families

      OR

      status --log_dir=/foo/logs --family_dir=/foo/families --collapse

    If the --collapse option is used then pending repeat jobs will not be
    displayed.

    The "status" command also accepts a "--date" option, in which case it
    displays all the jobs that ran for that date. The date must be in the
    "YYYYMMDD" format:

      status --log_dir=/foo/logs --family_dir=/foo/families --date 20090201

    If the date specified is not the same as the current date, the
    "--collapse" option doesn't make any sense, because there can't be any
    pending jobs for a date in the past.

    When displaying the status for days in the past, there is no way for the
    system to know what time zone the jobs were scheduled for. This is
    because the corresponding family file could have changed between the
    time that the job ran and the time that you're running the status
    command. To resolve this, the system will always display jobs in the
    time zone specified by the 'default_time_zone' option. If the default
    time zone is not specified, its default value is "America/Chicago".

RERUN A JOB
    To rerun a job, enter the following command:

     rerun --log_dir=l_d --job=Ff::Jj

    where l_d is the log directory and Ff is the family name and Jj is the
    job name.

    If you run the command like this:

     rerun --log_dir=l_d --job=Ff::Jj --cascade --family_dir=f_d

    then all the jobs that are directly or indirectly dependent on job Jj in
    family Ff will also be rerun.

    If you run the command like this:

     rerun --log_dir=l_d --job=Ff::Jj --dependents_only --family_dir=f_d

    then only those jobs that are directly or indirectly dependent on job Jj
    in family Ff will be rerun. Job Jj will be unaffected.

MARK A JOB SUCCESS OR FAILURE
    To mark a previously-run job as success or failure, enter the following
    command:

     mark --log_dir=l_d --job=Ff::Jj --status=s

    where l_d is the log directory and Ff is the family name, Jj is the job
    name, and s is 'Success' or 'Failure'.

    If you run the command like this:

     mark --log_dir=l_d --job=Ff::Jj --status=s --cascade --family_dir=f_d

    then all the jobs that are directly or indirectly dependent on job Jj in
    family Ff will also be marked.

    If you run the command like this:

     mark --log_dir=l_d --job=Ff::Jj --status=s --dependents_only --family_dir=f_d

    then only those jobs that are directly or indirectly dependent on job Jj
    in family Ff will be marked. Job Jj will be unaffected.

READING OPTIONS FROM A CONFIG FILE
    The 'taskforest' and 'status' commands now accept a "--config_file=f"
    option. You can now specify commonly used options in the config file, so
    you do not have to include them on the command line. The config file
    should contain one option per command line. The following sample config
    file shows the list of all supported options, and documents their usage.

     # ########################################
     # SAMPLE CONFIG FILE
     # ########################################
     # These are the four required command line arguments to taskforest
     log_dir         = "t/logs"
     family_dir      = "/usr/local/taskforest/families"
     job_dir         = "/usr/local/taskforest/jobs"
     run_wrapper     = "/usr/local/bin/run"

     # wait this many seconds between iterations of the main loop
     wait_time       = 60

     # stop taskforest at this time of day
     end_time        = 2355

     # if set to 1, run taskforest once only and exit immediately after that
     once_only       = 0

     # print out extra logs - may be redundant, due to log_threshold, below
     # THIS OPTION WILL BE DEPRECATED SOON.
     verbose         = 0

     # by default assume that the --collapse option was given to the status command
     collapse        = 1  # change from previously default behavior

     # by default assume that all repeating jobs have the --chained=>1 attribute set
     chained         = 1  # change from previously default behavior

     # log stdout and stderr to files
     log             = 1

     # by default, log stdout messages with status >= this value.
     # This only effects stdout
     # The sequence of thresholds (smallest to largest) is:
     # debug, info, warn, error, fatal
     log_threshold   = "warn"

     # The log_file and err_file names should NOT end with '.0' or '.1' 
     # because then they will be mistaken for job log files
     log_file        = "stdout"  
     err_file        = "stderr"  

     # currently unused
     log_status      = 0

     # ignore family files whose names match these regexes
     ignore_regex    = "~$"
     ignore_regex    = ".bak$"
     ignore_regex    = '\$'

PRECEDENCE OF DIFFERENT OPTIONS SOURCES
    All settings (required and optional) may be specified in a variety of
    ways: command line, environment variable and config file. The order of
    preferences is this: Most options have default values. Settings
    specified in the config file override those defaults. Settings specified
    in environment variables take override those specified in the config
    file and the default values. Setting specified on the command line
    override those specified in envrionment variables, and those specified
    in the config files and the default values.

    The names of the environment variable are the same as the names of the
    settings on the command line (or in the config file), but they should be
    in UPPER CASE, with "TF_" prepended. For example, the environment
    variable name for the 'run_wrapper' setting is 'TF_RUN_WRAPPER'.

LOGGING STDOUT AND STDERR
    If the --log option is set, then anything printed to stdout and stderr
    will be saved to log files. Before the logging start, the program will
    print onto stdout the names of the log file and error file. The program
    logs incidents at different levels ("debug", "info", "warning", "error"
    and "fatal"). The "log_threshold" option sets the level at which logs
    are written to the stdout file. If the value of log_threshold is "info",
    then only those log messages with a level of "info" or above ("warning",
    "error" or "fatal") will be written to the stdout log file. The stderr
    log file always has logs printed at level "error" or above, as well as
    anything printed explicitly to STDERR.

    The log file and error file will be saved in the log_directory.

THE TASKFORESTD WEB SERVER
    The TaskForest package includes a simple, low-footprint web server,
    called taskforestd, written in perl. The webserver uses the LWP library
    and its sole purpose is to give you an web-based interface to
    TaskForest. I chose to write a perl-based web server because it is easy
    for users to download, install and deploy. Also, it may be too much to
    ask users to install and mantain Apache, and configure mod_perl, just to
    get this web-based access.

    Taskforestd's behavior is controlled with a configuration file,
    taskforestd.cfg. This configuration file must be customized as described
    below, before you can use the web server. Once you have customized the
    configuration file, you can start web server like this:

      taskforestd --config_file=taskforestd.cfg

    You can stop the web server like this:

      taskforestd --config_file=taskforestd.cfg --stop

    For example, if the configuration file specifies that the host on which
    taskforestd runs is www.example.com, then the web server will be
    available at http://www.example.com/ .

    To use the webserver (or even the web service described below) you must
    have a valid userid and password. Taskforestd does not ship with any
    default userid and password pairs. A password is required to
    authenticate the person making requests via the web browswer. This
    userid and password combination may be (and should be) different from
    the userid and password of the account under which taskforestd is
    running.

    Which reminds me, as you would expect, taskforestd runs with the
    privileges of the account that invoked the program. If that account does
    not have permissions to read and write the job and family files, you
    will not be able to use the web server.

    It is not a good idea to run taskforestd as root, because even though
    taskforestd is written with security in mind, running as root opens a
    huge security hole. And anyway, you shouldn't run as root any program
    that you download off the 'net any more than you should give a stranger
    the keys to your house.

    The best method is to create a separate system user account for
    taskforest and taskforestd, and run the web server and command line
    requests as that user.

    Coming back to the taskforestd userid and password: The userids and
    passwords are specified in the configuration file using the same format
    as Apache's .htpasswd files. You can see commented-out examples of this
    in the configuration file taskforestd.cfg. For your convenience, the
    TaskForest distribution includes a program called gen_passwd that
    generates text that you can copy and paste into the config file:

     gen_passwd foo bar

    The above command will print out somthing that looks like the following;

     foo:4poVZGiAlO1BY

    This text can then be copied and pasted into the configuration file.

    Please see the included configuration file, "taskforestd.cfg", for a
    list of each configuration option, and what it means.

    Please keep in mind that the taskforestd server is not encrypted. Your
    userid and password will be transmitted in cleartext. This is a huge
    security hole. Do not do this unless both the client and the server
    behind a firewall, for example in a local intranet. If someone sniffs
    your unencrypted userid and password, they can change job files, family
    files, or delete them too.

    If you wish to use an encrypted, SSL-enabled server, please use the
    included taskforestdssl program instead of taskforestd. The only
    difference between the two is that the taskforestd uses HTTP::Daemon,
    and taskforestdssl uses HTTP::Daemon::SSL. To set up SSL, you will need
    to set up a server key and a server certificate. The locations of these
    files may be specified in the taskforestd configuration file, under
    server_key_file and server_cert_file, respctively. You can find more
    information in the documentation of HTTP::Daemon::SSL.

    If you would like to self-sign a certificate, there are some
    instructions in the HOWTO section later in this document.

    If your system does not support SSL (for example, with openssl), and you
    would like to use taskforestd across the Internet, my advice would be:
    "Don't." If you do, you would essentially be giving the world the
    ability to run any command on your server. If you still want to do it,
    at least make sure that the system account that taskforestd runs under
    does not have write access to any files, especially those in job_dir,
    log_dir and family_dir. This means that you would not be able to change
    job or family files or schedule reruns using taskforestd, but neither
    would the rest of the world be able to do that on your machine.

A SAMPLE TASKFORESTD CONFIGURATION FILE
     # This is a sample taskforestd configuration file

     # Please change all settings to values that make sense for you.

     # These are the four required command line arguments to taskforest
     log_dir         = "t/logs"
     family_dir      = "t/families"
     job_dir         = "t/jobs"

     # This is a file that ensures that only one child process can accept 
     # connections at any time
     lock_file       = "t/lock_file"

     # The HTTP server document_root
     document_root   = "htdocs"

     # The host on which the taskforest daemon will run
     host            = "127.0.0.1"

     # The port on which to listen for connections
     port            = 1111

     # The number of children that should be available at any time
     child_count     = 10

     # The number of requests each child process should serve before exiting.
     # (To protect from memory leaks, etc)
     requests_per_child = 40

     # Every time a child dies wait this much time (in seconds) before starting 
     # a new child. Do NOT set this value to less than 1, otherwise you may
     # encounter CPU thrashing.  Set it to something like 10 seconds if you're
     # testing.
     respawn_wait    = 1

     # my default, log stdout messages with status >= this.
     # This only effects stdout
     # The sequence of thresholds (smallest to largest is):
     # debug, info, warn, error, fatal
     log_threshold   = "info"

     # The log_file and err_file names should NOT end with '.0' or '.1' 
     # because then they will be mistaken for job log files
     #log_file        = "taskforestd.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.stdout"  
     #err_file        = "taskforestd.%Y%m%d.%H%M%S.stderr"  
     log_file        = "taskforestd.stdout"  
     err_file        = "taskforestd.stderr"  
     pid_file        = "taskforestd.pid"

     # Run as a daemon (detach from terminal)
     run_as_daemon   = 1

     # 
     # In order for the web site to work, you must have at least one valid
     # user set up.  As the commented examples below show, you may have
     # more than one.  The value of each valid_user option is the login
     # followed by a colon (:) followed by a crypt hash of the password.
     # There are many ways to generate the crypt hash, including using the
     # crypt perl function.  You can also use the gen_password script
     # included with this release.
     #
     #valid_user = "test:e3MdYgHPUo.QY"
     #valid_user = "foo:jp8Xizm2S52yw"

     # The path to the server private key file
     server_key_file   = "certs/server-key.pem"

     # The path to the server certificate
     server_cert_file  = "certs/server-cert.pem"

THE TASKFORESTD RESTFUL WEB SERVICE
    The TaskForest package includes a low-footprint web server written in
    perl. The webserver hosts one or more RESTful Web Services. The web
    service allows you to write, in any programming language, your own
    client software that integrates with TaskForest.

    For an introduction to RESTful web services, you can look at Wikipedia:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Representational_State_Transfer

  A NOTE ABOUT URI NOTATION
    For the purposes of this document we will denote variable parts of URIs
    using braces. For example, in the URI "/foo/bar.html/{variable_name}"
    the value of the variable "variable_name" will replace the string
    "{variable_name}".

  RESTFUL WEB SERVICE VERSION 1.0
    All of the service's URIs for version 1.0 are in the /rest/1.0/
    hierarchy. If the service upgrades to a newer version, 1.0 will be
    preserved, and the new service will be in, for example, the /rest/2.0/
    hierarchy. This way, backward compatability is preserved while clients
    migrate to the new interface.

    The documentation that follows describes the common 'header' and
    'footer' XHTML. This is followed by a list of all the URIs and families
    of URIs supported by the web service, the HTTP methods that each URI
    supports, and a description of the service for the client software
    developer.

   HEADERS AND FOOTERS
    Every page with an HTTP Status code of 200-207 served by version 1.0 of
    the web service will start with the html shown below.

        +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
     01 | <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml11/DTD/xhtml11.dtd">
     02 | <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en">
     03 |  <head>
     04 |   <title>$title</title>
     05 |  </head>
     06 |  <body>
     07 | 
     08 |    <div class="header_navigation">
     09 |      <a href="/rest/1.0/familyList.html">Family List</a>
     10 |      <a href="/rest/1.0/jobList.html">Job List</a>
     11 |      <a href="/rest/1.0/status.html">Status</a>
     12 |    </div>
     13 | 
     14 |    <form id="rerun" class="request" method="POST" action="/rest/1.0/request.html">
     15 |      <label for="rerun_family">Family</label><input id="rerun_family" name="family" /><br />
     16 |      <label for="rerun_job">Job</label><input id="rerun_job" name="job" /><br />
     17 |      <label for="rerun_log_date">Log Date</label><input id="rerun_log_date" name="log_date" /><br />
     18 |      <label for="rerun_options">Options</label><select id="rerun_options" name="options">
     19 |        <option value="">None</option>
     20 |        <option value="cascade">Cascade</option>
     21 |        <option value="dependents_only">Dependents Only</option>
     22 |      </select>
     23 |      <input type=submit name=submit  value="Rerun"/>
     24 |    </form>
     25 | 
     26 |    <form id="mark" class="request" method="POST" action="/rest/1.0/request.html">
     27 |      <label for="mark_family">Family</label><input id="mark_family" name="family" /><br />
     28 |      <label for="mark_job">Job</label><input id="mark_job" name="job" /><br />
     29 |      <label for="mark_log_date">Log Date</label><input id="mark_log_date" name="log_date" /><br />
     30 |      <label for="mark_options">Options</label><select id="mark_options" name="options">
     31 |        <option value="">None</option>
     32 |        <option value="cascade">Cascade</option>
     33 |        <option value="dependents_only">Dependents Only</option>
     34 |      </select>
     35 |      <label for="mark_status">Status</label><select id="mark_status" name="status">
     36 |        <option value="Success">Success</option>
     37 |        <option value="Failure">Failure</option>
     38 |      </select>
     39 |      <input type=submit name=submit  value="Mark"/>
     40 |    </form>
     41 | 
     42 |    <form id="logs" class="request" method="GET" action="/rest/1.0/logs.html">
     43 |      <label for="logs_date">Date</label><input id="logs_date" name="date" size=8 maxlength=8/><br />
     44 |      <input type=submit name=submit  value="View Logs"/>
     45 |    </form>
        +----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

    Lines 01-02 describe the file as an XHTML file. I chose XHTML because
    the output can be viewed by any web browser. If you would like another
    format, drop me an email.

    Line 04 will display the value of the title for that page. The "$" sign
    is an artifact of the web development framework I'm using.

    Lines 08-12 are the main navigation hyperlinks.

    Lines 14-24 and 26-40 are the two forms that show up on every page.
    These forms allow you to rerun jobs, and mark jobs, respectively.
    They're essentially interfaces to the 'rerun' and 'mark' commands. The
    log_date form variable is a date formatted like YYYYMMDD and is used to
    determine which day's job should be rerun. If left blank, the system
    uses today's date.

    Every page with an HTTP Status code of 200-207 served by version 1.0 of
    the web service will end with the html shown below.

      </body>
     </html>

   /rest/1.0/familyList.html
     HEAD
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Use this URI to retrieve a list of all Families.  These are all the
           files in the directory specified by the family_dir option in the
           taskforestd configuration file.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The client should not send any content to this URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | <ul class=family_list>
           02 |     <li class=family_name><a href="/rest/1.0/families.html/$file_name">$file_name</a></li>
           03 | </ul>

           Line 02 will appear 0 or more times, depending on how many Families
           are present. 

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     DELETE
     ======
           This URI does not support this method.

   /rest/1.0/families.html/{family_name}
     HEAD
     ====
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the HEAD method to see if the family specified within
           the URI has changed recently.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The family name is represented by {family_name} and is part
           of the URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           The HTTP content is empty.

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the GET method to retrieve the contents of the family
           file whose name is specified within the URI. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The family name is represented by {family_name} and is part
           of the URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | <div class="family_title">Viewing family $file_name</div>
           02 | <div id="family_contents_div" class="file_contents"><pre>$file_contents</pre></div>
           03 | <form name="family_form" action="/rest/1.0/families.html/$file_name" method="POST">
           04 |   <input type=hidden name="_method" value="PUT">
           05 |   <textarea name="file_contents" rows=20 cols=100>$file_contents</textarea>
           06 |   <br>
           07 |   <input type=submit value="Update Family" name=update />
           08 | </form>

           Line 01 displays the family name.  Line 02 displays the
           contents of the family file in its own div.  Line 03-08 are a
           form that can be used to update the family file.  Note here
           that the method is POST, but there is a form variable called
           "_method" whose value is "PUT".  This is a common idiom in
           RESTful service development because most web browsers only
           support GET and POST.  This is called overloaded POST.  

           With the taskforestd web service, whenever you need to use the
           HEAD, PUT or DELETE methods, you can use POST and define the
           'real' method with the _method form variable.  

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the PUT method to create a new family file or to
           change the contents of an existing family file.   

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           If your client is really using the PUT method, the contents of
           the family file should be sent in the contents of the HTTP
           request.

           If, however, your client is using overloaded POST, then the
           content that you would have sent with the PUT must be in the
           file_contents form variable.  Overloaded POST is explained in
           the description of the GET method, above.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In the typical case, after creating the new family file, or
           changing the contents of the existing family file, the server will
           return the  same contents as in the case of the GET method.  

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - OK
           400 - The file_contents form variable was missing, in the case of
                 Overloaded POST
           500 - The file could not be written - likely a permission issue  

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method. 

     DELETE
     ======
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the DELETE method to delete the family file named in
           the URI. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The family name is represented by {family_name} and is part
           of the URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In the case of DELETE, the server will never return any content.  

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           204 - Delete was successful and the client should not expect any
                 content
           500 - The file could not be deleted - likely a permission issue 

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

   /rest/1.0/jobList.html
     HEAD
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Use this URI to retrieve a list of all Jobs.  These are all the
           files in the directory specified by the job_dir option in the
           taskforestd configuration file.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The client should not send any content to this URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | <ul class=job_list>
           02 |     <li class=job_name><a href="/rest/1.0/jobs.html/$file_name">$file_name</a></li>
           03 | </ul>

           Line 02 will appear 0 or more times, depending on how many Jobs
           are present. 

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     DELETE
     ======
           This URI does not support this method.

   /rest/1.0/jobs.html/{job_name}
     HEAD
     ====
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the HEAD method to see if the job specified within
           the URI has changed recently.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The job name is represented by {job_name} and is part
           of the URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           The HTTP content is empty.

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the GET method to retrieve the contents of the job
           file whose name is specified within the URI. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The job name is represented by {job_name} and is part
           of the URI.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | <div class="job_title">Viewing job $file_name</div>
           02 | <div id="job_contents_div" class="file_contents"><pre>$file_contents</pre></div>
           03 | <form name="job_form" action="/rest/1.0/jobs.html/$file_name" method="POST">
           04 |   <input type=hidden name="_method" value="PUT">
           05 |   <textarea name="file_contents" rows=20 cols=100>$file_contents</textarea>
           06 |   <br>
           07 |   <input type=submit value="Update Job" name=update />
           08 | </form>

           Line 01 displays the job name.  Line 02 displays the contents of
           the job file in its own div.  Line 03-08 are a form that can be
           used to update the job file.  Note here that the method is POST,
           but there is a form variable called "_method" whose value is "PUT".
           This is a common idiom in RESTful service development because most
           web browsers only support GET and POST.  This is called overloaded
           POST.

           With the taskforestd web service, whenever you need to use the
           HEAD, PUT or DELETE methods, you can use POST and define the 'real'
           method with the _method form variable.

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the PUT method to create a new job file or to
           change the contents of an existing job file.   

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           If your client is really using the PUT method, the contents of the
           job file should be sent in the contents of the HTTP request.

           If, however, your client is using overloaded POST, then the content
           that you would have sent with the PUT must be in the file_contents
           form variable.  Overloaded POST is explained in the description of
           the GET method, above.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In the typical case, after creating the new job file, or changing
           the contents of the existing job file, the server will return the
           same contents as in the case of the GET method.

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - OK
           400 - The file_contents form variable was missing, in the case of
                 Overloaded POST
           500 - The file could not be written - likely a permission issue  

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method. 

     DELETE
     ======
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the DELETE method to delete the job file named in the
           URI.  

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The job name is represented by {job_name} and is part of the URI. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In the case of DELETE, the server will never return any content.  

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           204 - Delete was successful and the client should not expect any
                 content
           500 - The file could not be deleted - likely a permission issue 

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

   /rest/1.0/status.html
     HEAD
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the GET method to get the status of today's jobs.  

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           None - no additional information is needed. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | <div class=status>
           02 |     <dl class=job>
           03 |       <dt>Family Name</dt>
           04 |       <dd><a href="/rest/1.0/families.html/$family_name">$family_name</a></dd>
           05 |       <dt>Job Name</dt>
           06 |       <dd><a href="/rest/1.0/jobs.html/$base_name">$name</a></dd>
           07 |       <dt>Status</dt>
           08 |       <dd>$status</dd>
           09 |       <dt>Return Code</dt>
           10 |       <dd>$rc</dd>
           11 |       <dt>Time Zone</dt>
           12 |       <dd>$tz</dd>
           13 |       <dt>Scheduled Start Time</dt>
           14 |       <dd>$start</dd>
           15 |       <dt>Actual Start Time</dt>
           16 |       <dd>$actual_start</dd>
           17 |       <dt>Stop Time</dt>
           18 |       <dd>$stop</dd>
           19 |     </dl>
           20 | </div>

           Lines 02-19 will appear 0 or more times, once for every job that
           appears in the output of the status command.  The --collapse option
           is implied in the web service; pending repeat jobs are not
           displayed.

           If the job has an associated log file (in other words: if the
           wrapper script that ran it was run_with_log, and the status is
           either Running, Success or Failure) then line 08 will look like
           this:

           08 |       <dd><a href="/logFile.html/$output_file">$status</a></dd>

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - OK

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     DELETE
     ======
           This URI does not support this method.

   /rest/1.0/logs.html?date={date}
     HEAD
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the GET method to browse the log directory for a
           particular date - to see which jobs ran on that day, and when, and
           what the exit codes were.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The date is specified as a query parameter.  The date must be in
           the YYYYMMDD format.  If the date is omitted, then the date will
           default to the current date, and jobs with a status of 'Ready' or
           'Waiting' will also be displayed.           

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | <div class=status>
           02 |     <dl class=job>
           03 |       <dt>Family Name</dt>
           04 |       <dd><a href="/rest/1.0/families.html/$family_name">$family_name</a></dd>
           05 |       <dt>Job Name</dt>
           06 |       <dd><a href="/rest/1.0/jobs.html/$base_name">$name</a></dd>
           07 |       <dt>Status</dt>
           08 |       <dd>$status</dd>
           09 |       <dt>Return Code</dt>
           10 |       <dd>$rc</dd>
           11 |       <dt>Time Zone</dt>
           12 |       <dd>$tz</dd>
           13 |       <dt>Actual Start Time</dt>    
           14 |       <dd>$actual_start_dt</dd>     
           15 |       <dt>Stop Time</dt>            
           16 |       <dd>$stop_dt</dd>             
           17 |     </dl>              
           18 | </div>                  

           Lines 02-17 will appear 0 or more times, once for every job that
           appears in the output of the status command.  

           If the job has an associated log file (in other words: if the
           wrapper script that ran it was run_with_log, and the status is
           either Running, Success or Failure) then line 08 will look like
           this:

           08 |       <dd><a href="/logFile.html/$output_file">$status</a></dd>

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - OK

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     DELETE
     ======
           This URI does not support this method.

   /rest/1.0/logFile.html/{file}
     HEAD
     ====
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the HEAD method to see if the log file specified
           within the URI has changed recently.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The name of the log file is represented by {file} and is part
           of the URI. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           The HTTP content is empty.

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     GET
     ===
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send this URI the HEAD method to browse the log file specified
           within the URI. 

           Send this URI the GET method to browse the log directory for a
           particular date - to see which jobs ran on that day, and when, and
           what the exit codes were.

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           The name of the log file is represented by {file} and is part
           of the URI. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In a typical case, the server will send the header and footer,
           and the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like
           this: 

           01 | <div class="title">Viewing log file $file_name</div>
           02 |
           03 | <div id="file_contents_div" class="file_contents"><pre>$file_contents</pre></div>

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - Everything's OK
           304 - The resource has not been modified since the time
                 specified in the request If-Modified-Since header,
                 OR 
                 The calculated Etag of the resource is the same as that
                 specified in the request If-None-Match header.
           404 - The resource was not found

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Last-Modified
           o ETag
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     PUT
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     POST
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     DELETE
     ======
           This URI does not support this method.

   /rest/1.0/request.html
     HEAD
     ====
           This URI does not support this method.

     GET
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     PUT
     ===
           This URI does not support this method.

     POST
     ====
           DESCRIPTION
           ...........
           Send a POST to this URI to request a job be marked as success or
           failure, or be rerun.  

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY CLIENT TO SERVER
           .......................................
           There are three required form variables: "family", "job", and
           "submit".  The first is the name of the family, and the second is
           the name of the job.  If the value of the "submit" variable is
           "Rerun", then that job is rerun.  If the value is "Mark", then the
           job will be marked based on the value of the form variable
           "status", which can take a value of "Success" or "Failure".

           In either case, mark or rerun, the optional variable "options" is
           also permitted.  If it has a value, its value can be either
           "cascade" or "dependents_only".  These are treated the same way as
           the command line options to the 'rerun' and 'mark' commands. 

           REPRESENTATION SENT BY SERVER TO CLIENT
           .......................................
           In every case, the server will send the header and footer, and
           the 'real' content in between.  The content will look like this:

           01 | Request accepted.

           HTTP STATUS CODES
           .................
           200 - OK
           500 - The request could not be honored. 

           HTTP RESPONSE HEADERS
           .....................
           o Date
           o Content-Length
           o Content-Type

     DELETE
     ======
           This URI does not support this method.

HOWTO
  Run taskforest all day with cron
    This is the line I have in my crontab:

     02 00 * * * /usr/local/bin/taskforest --config_file=/foo/bar/taskforest.cfg

  Allow a user to view the web site
    Please make sure you read the section entitled "The Taskforestd Web
    Server" for important security considerations.

    Having said that, : The userids and passwords are specified in the
    configuration file using the same format as Apache's .htpasswd files.
    You can see commented-out examples of this in the configuration file
    taskforestd.cfg. For your convenience, the TaskForest distribution
    includes a program called gen_passwd that generates text that you can
    copy and paste into the config file:

     gen_passwd foo bar

    The above command will print out somthing that looks like the following;

     foo:4poVZGiAlO1BY

    This text can then be copied and pasted into the configuration file.

    Make sure you stop the server and restart it after making any changes to
    the configuration file.

  Start the web server
    To start the web server, run the taskforestd program with the
    --config_file and --start options. For example:

     taskforestd --config_file=taskforestd.cfg  --start

    Or, in the case of the ssl version of the server:

     taskforestdssl --config_file=taskforestd.cfg  --start

  Stop the web server
    To stop the web server, run the taskforestd program with the
    --config_file and --stop options. For example:

     taskforestd --config_file=taskforestd.cfg  --stop

    Or, in the case of the ssl version of the server:

     taskforestdssl --config_file=taskforestd.cfg  --stop

  Create a self-signed certificate with openssl.
    This is what works for me (instructions found at
    http://www.modssl.org/docs/2.8/ssl_faq.html#ToC25 ).

     1) Create a server key

       openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key.en 1024

     2) Make a decrypted version of it

       openssl rsa -in server.key.en -out server-key.pem

     3) Create a CSR (Certificate Signing Request)

       openssl req -new -key server-key.pem -out server.csr

     4) Create a CA Private Key

       openssl genrsa -des3 -out ca.key.en 1024

     5) Create a decrypted version of it

       openssl rsa -in ca.key.en -out ca.key

     6) Create a 10-yr self-signed CA cert with the CA key

       openssl req -new -x509 -days 3650 -key ca.key -out my-ca.pem

     7) Sign the CSR

        sign.sh server.csr

        The sign.sh program can be found in the pkg.contrib/ subdirectory
        of the mod_ssl distribution.  It is not clear whether or not I can
        include that script in this distribution, so for now at least,
        you'll have to use your own copy.  Make sure you specify the
        locations of the files in the taskforestd configuration file.

BUGS
    For an up-to-date bug listing and to submit a bug report, please visit
    our website at http://sourceforge.net/projects/taskforest/

SUPPORT
    For support, please visit our website at
    http://sourceforge.net/projects/taskforest/

AUTHOR
    Aijaz A. Ansari http://sourceforge.net/projects/taskforest/

    If you're using this program, I would love to hear from you. Please
    visit our project website and let me know what you think of it.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
    Many thanks to the following for their help and support:

    *   SourceForge

    *   Rosco Rouse

    I would also like to thank Randal L. Schwartz for teaching the readers
    of the Feb 1999 issue of Web Techniques how to write a pre-forking web
    server, the code upon which the TaskForest Web server is built.

COPYRIGHT
    This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
    under the same terms as Perl itself - specifically, the Artistic
    License.

    The full text of the license can be found in the LICENSE file included
    with this module.

SEE ALSO
    perl(1).

