README

This is yaws, a webserver for dynamic content written in Erlang.


To build and install


0. Get and install an Erlang system (http://www.erlang.org)

1. If you've cloned the source from github and you want to build using
   configure and make, note there is no ./configure script in the
   source, so create one:

# autoconf

1.b Install build-deps. On Ubuntu/debian this is pretty much equal to
# apt-get build-dep yaws

2. You can build using rebar:

# rebar compile

  or via configure and make:

# ./configure --prefix=/usr/local

  If using rebar, you'll get a local installation with yaws in
  $HOME/bin and the yaws configuration file in $HOME/yaws.conf. If
  using configuration and make, the build will be configured by
  default for installation under /usr/local including var files in
  /usr/local/var/run/yaws and etc files in /usr/local/etc/yaws.

  NOTE: With configure, you can also change the target directory for
  etc and var directories by using:

  --localstatedir=DIR     for files that should go in /var
  --sysconfdir=DIR        for files that should go in /etc
  --disable-pam           If we for some reason do not want pam support
  --with-extrainclude=DIR Will add DIR to the include path
                          May be useful if e.g. pam is installed
		          somewhere where its usually not found
  --with-defaultcharset=String  Will set the default charset used
                        in generated page headers. Usually never needed.

  This way you can precisely control where you install Yaws (This is
  useful for computers where you do not have right access to the
  standard systemdirs).

  For example:

    ./configure --prefix=/home/install/yaws --localstatedir=/home/install/yaws/var --sysconfdir=/home/install/etc

2b. Note to packagers (rpm, deb ...) All install targets support the
    DESTDIR variable. Thus, if we do

    ./configure --prefix=/usr; make

    we can subsequently do:

    DESTDIR=/foo/bar make install

    All yaws files will be installed under DESTDIR, but all
    code will assume yaws should be installed under /usr.

3. make

    This will build the system.

   make docs

    (Optional) You can issue this command if you want to build Yaws
    documentation.

   make local_install

    This will create an executable script in the $HOME/bin directory
    and a config file in $HOME/yaws.conf. This is for developers
    only. This is the only type of installation "rebar compile"
    supports.

4. To test the build, start it as

   ./bin/yaws -i

   If you used rebar to compile yaws, you can alternatively start yaws
   with

   $HOME/bin/yaws -i

   Either approach will start a webserver at http://0.0.0.0:8000 .
   Terminate through ^C, or ^G followed by q, or

   > init:stop()

   NOTE: If you've used rebar to build the system, none of the
   following directions apply. With rebar only local installations are
   supported.

5. as root make install

6. as root start as

   /usr/local/bin/yaws -i

   This starts an interactive system.

7. With the default yaws.conf file, this will create a webserver at
   http://${host} and one at https://${host}

8. as root edit /usr/local/etc/yaws/yaws.conf

9. Create content in /usr/local/var/yaws/www

10a. Start as /usr/local/bin/yaws --daemon --heart
     This will start a daemon (--daemon) which will be autorestarted when/if
     it crashes or hangs (--heart)
     Also, for most unices, we create proper start scripts in
     /etc/init.d (sysconfdir)

10b. Or start interactive system as /usr/local/bin/yaws -i

11.  Example: Here is how I compile/start the yaws system that runs
     at http://yaws.hyber.org (Ubuntu server system)

     # autoconf
     # ./configure --sysconfdir=/etc
     # make && make install
     # /etc/init.d/yaws start