src/thttpd-2.27/cgi-src/redirect.8

   1 .TH redirect 8 "23 September 1995"
   2 .SH NAME
   3 redirect - simple redirection CGI program
   4 .SH SYNOPSIS
   5 .B redirect
   6 .SH DESCRIPTION
   7 .PP
   8 Three steps to set up a redirection:
   9 .PP
  10 1. Make sure your web server is set up to allow CGI programs.
  11 .PP
  12 2. Make a symbolic link from the file or directory you want to redirect,
  13 pointing at this program in the CGI bin directory.
  14 .PP
  15 3. Add an entry to the file ".redirects" in the directory where your
  16 http server runs CGI programs.  For most servers, this is the
  17 directory where the given CGI program lives.  The format of the
  18 file is a bunch of lines with a filename, whitespace, and the new
  19 URL.  For example:
  20 .nf
  21   /test/oldfile.html    http://www.acme.com/test/newfile.html
  22 .fi
  23 The easiest way to figure out precisely what filename to put into .redirects
  24 is to set up the symlink and then click on it.
  25 You'll get back a "404 Not Found" page which includes the filename
  26 as received by the redirect program, and that's what you want to use.
  27 .PP
  28 You can also add a wildcard specification to redirect whole groups of files.
  29 For example:
  30 .nf
  31   /wildtest/*          http://www.acme.com/test-
  32 .fi
  33 will cause an access to the /wildtest/somefile.html to be redirected to
  34 http://www.acme.com/test-somefile.html. (Note that the asterisk need not
  35 be preceded by a slash.)
  36 .PP
  37 Note: this is designed for thttpd (http://www.acme.com/software/thttpd/)
  38 and using it with other web servers may require some hacking.  A possible
  39 gotcha is with the symbolic link from the old file pointing at this
  40 script - servers other than thttpd may not allow that link to be run
  41 as a CGI program, because they don't check the link to see that it
  42 points into the allowed CGI directory.
  43 .SH "SEE ALSO"
  44 thttpd(8)
  45 .SH "BUGS / DEFICIENCIES"
  46 .PP
  47 It would be really cool to have this program look for
  48 the .redirects file in the same directory as the file being redirected,
  49 instead of in the binaries directory.  Unfortunately, this appears
  50 to be impossible with the information CGI gives, plus the non-standardized
  51 but widespread practice of running CGI programs in the directory where
  52 the binary lives.  Perhaps CGI 1.2 will address this.
  53 .PP
  54 The wildcard mechanism is very primitive.
  55 In particular, any characters that follow the asterisk are blithely
  56 ignored.
  57 .SH AUTHOR
  58 Copyright © 1995 by Jef Poskanzer <jef@mail.acme.com>.
  59 All rights reserved.
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