
README:  AOLserver

    This is the AOLserver 4.5 source distribution.  AOLserver is
    available at http://aolserver.com, a SourceForge hosted site.

RCS: @(#) $Id: README,v 1.7 2005/08/24 14:12:45 shmooved 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 Windows XP, FreeBSD, Linux,
Solaris, and Mac OS/X 10.4.  Ports to other modern Unix 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 follow
	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:

	Unix:

	% gunzip < tcl8.4.11-src.tar.gz | tar xvf -
	% cd tcl8.4.11/unix
	% ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/aolserver --enable-threads
	% make install

	Windows:

	c:\tcl\srcdir> cd win
	c:\tcl\srcdir\win> nmake -f makefile.vc \
		INSTALLDIR=c:\aolserver OPTS=threads,thrdalloc,symbols \
		install
	

3b.     On Unix, 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.     Configure, build, and install AOLserver.  The build process
	requires a working, installed Tcl, and supports Unix and
	Windows with the same makefiles and a few supporting Tcl
	scripts.  The following should work:

	Windows:

	c:\aolserver\srcdir> c:\aolserver\bin\tclsh84.exe nsconfig.tcl
	c:\aolserver\srcdir> nmake install

	Unix:

	% /usr/local/aolserver/bin/tclsh84 ./nsconfig.tcl 
	% gmake install

	The nsconfig.tcl script is designed to work on Unix and
	Windows.  The tclsh used to execute the script must be from
	the installed Tcl location you intend to use for AOLserver
	as nsconfig.tcl will determine certain config settings from
	the tclsh environment.  In addition, two options may be
	specified:

        -install dir    Specify path to install (default: Tcl directory)
        -debug          Debug build with symbols and without optimization.

	On Windows, nsconfig.tcl will create include\ns.mak directly.

	On Unix, nsconfig.tcl will call the configure shell script
	with the appropriate options to create include/ns.mak.  You
	may also run configure directly although it has few additional
	features.


3d.     Once the binaries are built and installed, create and edit
	a config file, nsd.tcl by convention.  A sample is provided
	to get started:

	% cd /usr/local/aolserver
	% cp base.tcl nsd.tcl
	% vi nsd.tcl

        Additional configuration examples can be found in the 
        examples/config directory.

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

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


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/


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.

