README

   1 ReadMe for Dev-Editor 3.1
   2 =========================
   3
   4 Description
   5 -----------
   6
   7 Dev-Editor is a simple CGI based editor written in Perl and licensed under the
   8 terms of the Artistic License, which allows remote changes to files and
   9 directory structures on a web server. That's useful if you aren't able to access
  10 the files on your homepage directly, for example if you are on holiday.
  11
  12 Installation
  13 ------------
  14
  15 First, you have to copy the files into a directory on your web server where you
  16 are able to execute scripts (in most cases, this is "cgi-bin"). I suggest to
  17 create a sub directory for Dev-Editor.
  18 Then, you have to change the first line of devedit.pl: Just replace
  19 /usr/bin/perl by the path to your Perl interpreter.
  20 If you are on a UNIX based system, you have to set devedit.pl as executable
  21 (chmod 755 in most cases).
  22 You will also need to configure Dev-Editor. See the next section for details.
  23
  24 Note, that the directory where you installed Dev-Editor should be protected by
  25 HTTP Authentication. If you don't do that, everybody will be able to access
  26 Dev-Editor and use it for evil purposes.
  27
  28 Configuration
  29 -------------
  30
  31 Open the file devedit.conf. This file contains keys and values separated by a
  32 "=" sign. Lines beginning with a "#" sign are ignored.
  33 Here is a list of the configuration options currently available:
  34
  35 Option                   Description
  36 ------                   -----------
  37
  38 fileroot                 The root directory Dev-Editor is allowed to access.
  39                          Nobody is allowed to access the files and directories
  40                          above this directory. Dev-Editor needs write access to
  41                          this directory and to the sub directories.
  42
  43 httproot                 This is the equivalent HTTP URL to the root directory.
  44                          It's just used for visual output, so it doesn't need to
  45                          be correct.
  46
  47 startdir                 Here you may define the default directory Dev-Editor
  48                          opens on start.
  49
  50 max_file_size            Here you may define a maximum size for files (Bytes).
  51                          If the user wants to view or edit a file larger than
  52                          this defined size, Dev-Editor denies file access (but
  53                          the file can still be copied, renamed or removed).
  54                          If this is empty or 0, any file can be viewed or
  55                          edited.
  56
  57 timeformat               The format of the time shown in directory listings.
  58                          These are the most important placeholders:
  59
  60                          %a - short day name (Sun to Sat)
  61                          %A - long day name (Sunday to Saturday)
  62                          %b - short month name (Jan to Dec)
  63                          %B - long month name (January to December)
  64                          %d - day of the month (01 to 31)
  65                          %H - hour in 24 hour clock (00 to 23)
  66                          %I - hour in 12 hour clock (01 to 12)
  67                          %m - month of the year (01 to 12)
  68                          %M - minutes (00 to 59)
  69                          %p - AM or PM
  70                          %S - seconds (00 to 59)
  71                          %y - two digit year (03)
  72                          %Y - four digit year (2003)
  73                          %% - percent sign
  74
  75                          There are a lot of other placeholders. A complete list
  76                          is found at:
  77                          http://www.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/7908799/xsh/strftime.html
  78                          Note that some systems don't support some of the
  79                          placeholders (for example %T on Windows).
  80
  81                          This format is also used to format the system time in
  82                          the About dialogue.
  83
  84 use_gmt                  Set this option to 1 if you want to use Greenwich Mean
  85                          Time (GMT/UTC) in directory listing and in the About
  86                          dialogue instead of the local time.
  87
  88 hide_dot_files           Set this option to 1 if you want to hide files or
  89                          directories beginning with a dot (e.g. ".htaccess") in
  90                          directory listing.
  91                          The files are just hidden in the directory listing,
  92                          you can still access them typing the name into the
  93                          "Go to directory/file" box.
  94
  95 forbidden                Specify a list of filenames the user is not allowed to
  96                          access. The filenames have to be relative to the
  97                          virtual root directory (they must also begin with a
  98                          slash) and have to be separated by space characters. If
  99                          a filename contains space characters, you have to put
 100                          it into double quotation marks ("/file name").
 101
 102 disable_commands         Specify a list of commands the user is not allowed to
 103                          execute. The commands have to be separated by space
 104                          characters.
 105                          If you add "@write" to the list, all writing commands
 106                          (for example edit, copy, rename etc.) are disabled.
 107
 108 userconf_file            Specifies the path to a file which contains
 109                          user-dependent configuration options (see next section
 110                          for details).
 111
 112 error_file               The path to the file which defines the error messages.
 113                          The file has the same format as this one.
 114
 115 template_file            The path to the file which defines the paths to the
 116                          template files. The file has the same format as this
 117                          one.
 118
 119 User-dependent configuration
 120 ----------------------------
 121
 122 If you have placed Dev-Editor inside a directory protected using HTTP
 123 authentication, you may override some default configuration values for a defined
 124 list of users. You may override the values for the following configuration
 125 options:
 126
 127 - fileroot
 128 - httproot
 129 - startdir
 130 - hide_dot_files
 131 - forbidden
 132 - disable_commands
 133
 134 For overriding configuration values you need a special configuration file. The
 135 path to this file is defined using the "userconf_file" configuration option in
 136 the main configuration file (add the option if necessary). This file consists of
 137 key-value-pairs and sections, marked by a string encapsulated in square brackets
 138 (perhaps you know this format, it is nearly the same as the Windows INI files).
 139 Each section in this file describes an individual configuration, whereby the
 140 name of the section is the username for whom this configuration should be used.
 141 Here is an example:
 142
 143 [homer]
 144 fileroot = /var/www/homer/htdocs
 145 httproot = /
 146
 147 This sets the physical file root directory to "/var/www/homer/htdocs" and the
 148 virtual HTTP root to "/" - but only for the user whose HTTP authentication
 149 username is "homer".
 150
 151 Using the "aliases" option, you may also define some other usernames for whom
 152 this configuration should be used:
 153
 154 [homer]
 155 fileroot = /var/www/homer/htdocs
 156 httproot = /
 157 aliases = marge bart
 158
 159 Using this, the users whose usernames are "marge" and "bart" use the same
 160 configuration as "homer". You can place an arbitrary number of usernames
 161 seperated by whitespaces here.
 162 Note: If one of the users mentioned as an alias and an individual configuration
 163 section for this user exists too, the one mentioned as an alias is ignored.
 164
 165 If there are some files marked as inaccessible using the "forbidden"
 166 configuration option in the main configuration file, but some users should have
 167 access to these files, you may clear the default value of "forbidden":
 168
 169 [homer]
 170 fileroot = /var/www/homer/htdocs
 171 httproot = /
 172 forbidden =
 173
 174 Using this, "homer" has access to all files in "/var/www/homer/htdocs".
 175
 176 Notes
 177 -----
 178
 179 Symbolic links are treated as files, no matter where they point to. The user is
 180 just allowed to see the path where the link points to, he is allowed to delete
 181 the link, to rename it and to overwrite it by renaming an other file. Nothing
 182 else is allowed.
 183 Accessing a symbolic link pointing to a directory also caused a very strange
 184 effect: It was possible to access this directory, but you could not access the
 185 objects in it.
 186 I had to do it in this way because of the very stupid behaviour of abs_path()
 187 from the Cwd module: This function is just able to detect the absolute path of
 188 directories.
 189 Hard links are not affected by this.
 190
 191 ------------------------------------------------
 192
 193 (C) 1999-2000 Roland Bluethgen, Frank Schoenmann
 194 (C) 2003-2009 Patrick Canterino
 195
 196 E-Mail: patrick@patshaping.de
 197 WWW:    http://devedit.sourceforge.net/