An Exhaustive* Guide To Setting Up Your RetroNET Gopher Hole /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ \/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/ Lesson 1: What the hell is Gopher anyway? ========================================= Good question... a concise history of the Gopher protocol can be found at gopher.floodgap.com, so go bother them before you continue here... Back already? I'll assume you haven't done you're homework then... in a nutshell, Gopher is an internet protocol that slightly predates the World Wide Web. From a the client user's perspective it sits somewhere between ftp and http. There are those who claim it's superior to both, but I'll leave that debate, along with the rending of garments and gnashing of teeth, for another forum. Lesson 2: Why do I need a Gopher Hole? ====================================== Chances are you don't, but since you already have one you may as well do something with it! Probably the best reason to maintain a Gopher Hole is to allow public access to files without exposing them to the slatternly way of the web. Your Gopher Hole is safe from the prying eyes of casual surfers and nefarious bots... Lesson 3: Okay, I'm sold... now what? ===================================== First off, you need to decide what type of Gopher Hole you'd like... are you just looking for a convenient place to store files or would you like a customized Gopher Hole replete with outside links and explanatory text? If the former suits you then you simply delete the "gophermap" file in your gopher directory. To do this via the RetroNET Master Control Program (patents pending), just do this: - At the Main Menu hit [3][RETURN] for the Utilities Menu - Type [1][RETURN] to "EDIT USER FILES" - From the Files Menu hit [5][RETURN] After a couple of seconds you will see your Gopher directory opened in Lynx. To delete your gophermap, simply select it with the UP/DOWN keys and then hit [R] and [Y] or [N], depending on whether you actually know what you're doing... Assuming you've bravely deleted your gophermap (don't worry, you can make another one if you need to), you're now ready to stuff your hole full of whatever you please. Stop giggling, and skip the next section... Lesson 4: I'm an anal-retentive git and I want complete control! ================================================================ Well, it takes all kinds... doesn't it? Fortunately, here at RetroNET we run the Bucktooth server which allows you, the user, to take full advantage of the convenience of the gophermap. The gophermap file is simply a text file placed in your gopher directory which tells Bucktooth how to display things... the format is quite straight-forward, so you shouldn't have any trouble figuring it out. It is, however, a little finicky and the slightest error can cause your whole Gopher Hole to close up. Here's a sample gophermap file: This line is displayed as plain text 0This is a textfilefilename 1This is a gopher directory/path/ 1This is a gopher directory on another servergopher.floodgap.com hThis is a URLURL:http://retro-net.org Obviously the s should be replaced with actual tabs, but aside from that it's not it's not rocket surgery. One thing to watch out for, though: for semi-obvious reasons, you shouldn't have any TABs in the displayed text! Another foible is that filepaths need to absolute relative to the gopher root directory, so all paths should start with "/username/" An astute observer may have noticed the seemingly random character prepended to the links... this is included to tell Bucktooth exactly what kind of file you expect it to dish out. For your convenience, here's a list: * 0 = plain text file * 1 = directory menu listing * 2 = CSO search query * 3 = error message * 4 = BinHex encoded text file * 5 = binary archive file * 6 = UUEncoded text file * 7 = search engine query * 8 = telnet session pointer * 9 = binary file * g = Graphics file format, primarily a GIF file * h = HTML file * i = informational message * s = Audio file format, primarily a WAV file Now that doesn't quite look up-to-date, but it will do for now! Lesson 5: Now publish! ====================== Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that you now have something worthwhile in your Gopher Hole... no one will ever know unless you publish it to the server! Thankfully RetroNET staff has spent precious moments making this easy for you... simply navigate back to the Files Menu (quit Lynx, if it's still running) and hit [6][RETURN]... hit it hard, just to be sure. This bold action will launch the gopherpub script which will first show you what manner of carnage it intends to inflict and give you the option to chicken out. It should be noted at this point that gopherpub isn't very smart or kind -- first it completely trashes your public Gopher Hole and then it copies the files from your ~/gopher directory to it. Make sure you really want to publish your files and smack [Y], gopherpub will show you what it's doing and *hopefully* leave you with an updated Gopher Hole. Lesson 6: Where do I go from here? ================================== I've told you everything I know... if you want more, you're on your own! * exhaustive insofar as I'm tired from typing it up... the article itself is probably fraught with errors and omissions. Please submit corrections to admin@retro-net.org