WAISSERVER

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: Tue Apr 28 1992
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NAME

waisserver - serves WAIS requests

 

SYNOPSIS

waisserver [ -p [ port_number ] ] [ -s ] [ -d directory ] [ -e [ pathname ] ] [ -l log_level ] [-u user ] [ -v ]
waisserver.d
[ same arguments ]

 

DESCRIPTION

Part of the Wide Area Information Server system.

waisserver will take WAIS requests from a TCP port or standard-io and return the appropriate response. If the name of the command is waisserver.d, then it is assumed it is running from inetd, and it uses stdio for its I/O sockets. See the examples below for inetd.conf.

In addition, waisserver can act like an anonymous FTP server. When the server is given a document of type "FTP" as a relevant document, it will build a result list from the directory of the file. Subdirectories may be listed using by adding them to the relevant document list.

Note that a minimal level of security is present in two forms:

1. The server will never present directories above the default server directory (-d option, described below).

2. The server will only build a directory listing from a file of type FTP, and that file must be in the specified database.

 

OPTIONS

-p [ port ]
Listen to the port. If the port is supplied, then that port number is used. If it is not supplied then the Z39.50 port (210) is used.
-s
listen to standard I/O for queries.
-d directory
Use this directory as the default location of the indexes. Therefore if the directory were /usr/local, then the database foo would be found in /usr/local/foo (see waisindex for how to create an index)
-e [ filename ]
Redirect error output to pathname, if supplied, or to /dev/null. Error output defaults to stderr, unless -s is selected, in which case it defaults to /dev/null.
-l log_level
set logging level. Currently only levels 0, 1, 5 and 10 are meaningful: Level 0 means log nothing (silent). Level 1 logs only errors and warnings (messages of HIGH priority), level 5 logs messages of MEDIUM priority (like client init info). Level 10 logs everything.
-u user
Set the server's user id to the user specified after attaching the tcp-port. This is only used if the server is started as root.
-v
Print the current version and date of the server.
 

EXAMPLES

The following are examples of waisserver usage:
waisserver -p 8000 -d wais-sources -e server.log
Runs waisserver as a standalone server, using tcp port 8000 on directory wais-sources writing messages to server.log

Some example inetd.conf entries (note, these must be on one line in inted.conf):

hpux 7.0/800, Interactive/386 2.2.1:

z3950 stream tcp nowait root /etc/waisserver waisserver.d
-d /wais-sources -e /server.log

Ultrix 4.1:

z3950 stream tcp nowait /etc/waisserver waisserver.d
-d /wais-sources -e /server.log

Also, add the next line to /etc/services, and tickle your YP server:

z3950 210/tcp # wide area information server (wais)  

SEE ALSO

waissearch(1), waisindex(1), waissearch-gmacs(1), xwais(1), xwaisq(1), inetd(8C), inetd.conf(5)

Wide Area Information Servers Concepts by Brewster Kahle.
Brewster@think.com  

DIAGNOSTICS

The diagnostics produced by the waisserver are meant to be self-explanatory.  

BUGS

Malformed protocol packets can cause the server to dump core (segmentation violation). These are logged in the server's log file.


 

Index

NAME
SYNOPSIS
DESCRIPTION
OPTIONS
EXAMPLES
SEE ALSO
DIAGNOSTICS
BUGS

This document was created by man2html, using the manual pages.
Time: 20:43:50 GMT, June 11, 2022