lagoon 0.15 - by Reinier Post (reinpost@win.tue.nl)
		 Paul De Bra (debra@win.tue.nl)

This software contains a CGI script to automatically cache documents into
local server space.  Very useful in combination with our so-called
'fish search' extension of Mosaic for X.  You need to install this with a
local server and point into the cache space before the search is started.
Subsequent searches in the cache space will be an order of magnitude
faster than searches on the original remote documents (this is true even
on our system, which has a fast link to the rest of the world).

Lagoon can also be used to build a local copy of a remote document space
on the server machine to be used for a standalone demonstration.

Only documents requested by the http protocol are cached (of any type:
HTML, GIF, etc.).

The current release of lagoon has no automatic refreshing mechanism for
the cache; documents remain in the cache unrefreshed until you manually
remove them.  (a nightly crontab entry works wonders...)
It works at follows:

The document

  http://remote/costly-document.html

is mirrored in the local server file

  http://local-server/mirror/http://remote/costly-document.html

so when you try to get the second document and it isn't there, the first
documents will be fetched and its links are translated to point back into
the cache.  Incidentally, trying

  http://local-server/mirror/http:%2f%2fremote%2fcostly-document.html

(with the original URL escaped) works, too, and there is a configuration
option to translate URLs in cache to the latter form.

This code was tested on SunOS 4.1.1 with NCSA httpd 1.0,
SunOS 4.1.3, Solaris x86 2.1 and Esix 4.0.4.1 with NCSA httpd 1.1.
At least some versions have been reported to work on Ultrix, AIX,
and other platforms.

The src directory contains all the code and a README specific to the code.
It also has a CHANGES file summarizing the (long) list of present problems
and bugs, briefly mentioning what changes were made since the last release,
and mentioning what's in store for future releases.  (Please note: some
Lagoon info is online at http://www.win.tue.nl/lagoon/ and full documentation
may be installed there at some point in the future.)

The conf directory contains some lines for the NCSA httpd 1.x srm.conf
configuration file, telling the server to redirect certain URLs to be fed
to the cache script.

In cache.conf, the cache script's own configuration file, you tell the cache
script where to store its cached documents, amongst other things.  The values
supplied here override the defaults.

In expire.conf, you tell the cache script the expiration dates for documents,
and you can also specify alternative sources for documents.

Do edit the src/Makefile to set the proper name of the cache.conf
configuration file, and maybe some system dependent flags (check AUX_CFLAGS).
The cache can function without a configuration file; if it is missing, the
defaults set in config.h will be used.

The directories in which the cache is kept must be created beforehand.
The INSTALL script may do this for you.

All questions, complaints, etc. to the address below.

Needless to say, I and my institution disclaim any responsibility
for any loss of data or other damage resulting from trying to work
with this software.  (Be cautious with the separate 'cleanout' program,
intended to be run automatically; it selectively cleans out directories.)

Lagoon works for me, and some others, but try it at your own responsibility.

-- 
Reinier Post					reinpost@win.tue.nl
