Configuration File Structure

Normally, you will never need to look at the configuration file, because you can modify most of the parameters using the setup server described in "The Setup Server" section. This section describes the format of the file and provides detailed information on individual AOLserver parameters.

The configuration file is normally the nsd.ini file in the AOLserver home directory (the directory where AOLserver was installed). You must specify the configuration file when you start up AOLserver with the -c command line flag on either Unix or Windows NT, or when you manually install the Windows NT AOLserver service.

The configuration file is in the same format as a Microsoft Windows .INI file, a plain text file that can be modified with an ordinary text editor such as vi or emacs on Unix or Notepad on Windows. The file is made up of named sections with one or more parameters. Each section heading is of the form "[ns/...]". Each parameter is composed of a parameter name, an equal sign, and a parameter value. The parameters of a section continue until a new section is defined or until the end of the file.

In most cases, AOLserver ignores the case of both the parameter names and their values, but application programs can be written to access configuration data case-sensitively. (See the Tcl API and the C API chapters for more information.)

The AOLserver Windows NT SETUP program and the Unix nsbootstrap script create a minimal nsd.ini file for you to customize.

Configuration File Hierarchy

Although there are a large number of configurable parameters for AOLserver, most of them are not required. Also, the parameters are organized into a hierarchy branching off of the following main sections, letting you configure AOLserver at a global level, configure each virtual server, and configure each database you will be accessing. This hierarchy of sections allows you maximum flexibility to provide exactly the capabilities you need on each virtual server, including where pages will be stored and which databases will be accessible.

• Parameters: This part of the configuration file contains parameters that apply to the AOLserver process:
  • [ns/parameters] specifies parameters such as the AOLserver home directory.

• Setup Server: This part of the configuration file contains parameters that apply to the built-in setup server:
  • [ns/setup] specifies parameters for the setup server.

• Servers: This part of the configuration file configures the virtual servers that will be running within the AOLserver process. It is the top level in a hierarchy of sections for each server.
  • [ns/servers] lists and names all of the virtual servers.

  • [ns/server/server-name] configures an individual virtual server.

  • [ns/server/server-name/aliases] configures URL-to-file mapping for the virtual server.

  • [ns/server/server-name/cgi] configures CGI (Common Gateway Interface) for the virtual server. See also the CGI interpreters and CGI environment configuration sections. For example, you can configure the perl.exe interpreter to be invoked for all CGI's that end in .pl. for additional CGI configuration.

  • [ns/server/server-name/db] configures database connections used by the virtual server.

  • [ns/server/server-name/mimeicons] specifies .gif icon files for each MIME type used when building directory listings.

  • [ns/server/server-name/mimetypes] maps file name extensions to content-type headers.

  • [ns/server/server-name/shtml] configures server-parsed HTML for the virutal server.

  • [ns/server/server-name/tcl] configures Tcl for the virtual server.

  • [ns/server/server-name/modules] lists the modules available to each virtual server.
    • [ns/server/server-name/module/nslog] configures the access log module loaded into a virtual server.

    • [ns/server/server-name/module/nsnlog] configures the network logging module loaded into a virtual server.

    • [ns/server/server-name/module/nsperm] configures the permissions module loaded into a virtual server.

    • [ns/server/server-name/module/nssock] configures the sockets module loaded into a virtual server.

    • [ns/server/server-name/module/nsssl] configures the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) module loaded into a virtual server.

    • [ns/server/server-name/module/nstext] configures the full text module loaded into a virtual server.

    • [ns/server/server-name/module/tclstate] configures a Tcl-only module for maintaining state loaded into a virtual server.

• Database Drivers and Pools: This part of the configuration file configures the database drivers (the type of database you will be using) and the database pools (connections to the database).
  • [ns/db/drivers] lists the database drivers available to AOLserver. Currently internal database drivers are available for Illustra and ODBC. External database drivers are available for Illustra and Sybase.
    • [ns/db/driver/illustra] configures the Illustra database driver. (The ODBC driver needs no configuration.)

    • [ns/db/driver/extill] configures an external database driver for Illustra.

    • [ns/db/driver/extsyb] configures an external database driver for Sybase.

  • [ns/db/pools] lists the database pools available to AOLserver.
    • [ns/db/pool/pool-name] configures a database pool, which determines the database to access and how many connections there will be to it.

• CGI Interpreters: This section allows you to configure the interpreters to execute for CGI scripts that end with certain file extensions. For example, you can configure the perl.exe interpreter to be invoked for all CGI's that end in .pl.
  • [ns/interps/interps-name] defines an interps section for CGI modules.

• CGI Environment: This section allows you to configure environment variables in addition to the standard CGI environment variables for all CGI's or specific CGI interpreters.
  • [ns/environment/environment-name] defines an environment section for CGI modules.

• SGI IRIX Sproc-based Threads: This section configures sproc-based threads on either IRIX 5.3 or 6.2 (not the pthread-based approach available on IRIX 6.2). The parameters in this section are not accessible through the setup server and must be set directly in the configuration file.
  • [ns/threads] configures sproc-based threads.

The parameters for each of the configuration file sections are described below. Starting on Example Configuration Files of this chapter, there are example configuration files for various AOLserver capabilities.

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