I can create an index but nothing comes back in search

stan_jones · Post by **stan_jones** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 1:30 pm

I have a directory with an index.html file that has within it urls to 6 html files contained in the same
directory. The directory is currently available to anyone on the Internet in case someone can help
and wants to see what I see. The url is http://www.dot.ca.gov/stan/index.html

bin/gw http://www.dot.ca.gov/stan/index.html gives me what look to be normal indexing messages.
Entering bin/gw -st "select * from html returns a list of the urls. This is good.

Going through the web interface from my box that created the index of www/stan (not avail to the public)
and entering a word (such as SPACE) that is contained in the html in the search window returns
nothing.

I am running Webinator 2.56 release 20000620 on IRIX 6.5.13

Post by **John** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 1:53 pm

If you look at the HTML source of the result page are there any messages? That would be where any errors are displayed in HTML comments.

stan_jones · Post by **stan_jones** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 2:13 pm

YES




<HTML>
<HEAD><TITLE>Search: SPACE</TITLE></HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR=white >
<TABLE WIDTH=600 BORDER=0 CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0>
<FORM METHOD=get ACTION="/cgi-bin/texis/webinator/newsearch/">
<INPUT TYPE=hidden NAME=db VALUE="db">
<TR><TH ALIGN=RIGHT><FONT FACE=helvetica SIZE=-1>Search for this:</FONT></TH><TD><INPUT SIZE=30 name=query value="SPACE"> <INPUT TYPE=submit name=submit VALUE="Submit"> <input type=submit name=cmd value="Options"></TD></TR>
</FORM>
</TABLE>







No documents match the query. </BODY></HTML>

stan_jones · Post by **stan_jones** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 2:30 pm

I blew away the "db" tree
su - webinatr
bin/gw http://www.dot.ca.gov/stan/index.html
I set permissions on the webinator directory to be 0777 owned by userid webinatr
when i look at permissions in newly created webinator/db directory they
look like 0600
the web server runs as a nobody
maybe that causes the web messages above

Post by **John** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 2:42 pm

The cgi-bin/texis program (and gw) should be setuid to the same user, in your case webinatr, so that there won't be such issues.

Post by **mark** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 2:44 pm

The "texis" and "gw" programs should have been made setuid on install. If they are not you will have to make sure the file ownerships and perms are correct yourself each time you update the database. One simple solution is to chmod the database dir to 777 and all of the files in it to 666. Better is to make texis and gw setuid to the same user (webinatr in your case).

stan_jones · Post by **stan_jones** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 3:09 pm

The responses have been helpful. I am getting search results.
As stated, I had given webinator 0777 permissions and was frustrated
when gw seemed to take away "other" permissions.

Then it occurred to me. I "chmod 04777 /www/cgi-bin/texis"

SEARCH THEN RESPONDED. !!!!

I am now concluding that webinator doesn't want the webserver to have normal http
access to the webinator "db" files EXCEPT via cgi-bin/texis since they are only useful
to the webinator product and need to be processed by webinator programs.

Thank you to all who sent me eMail and to John (whoever you are)

*<:)--stan--<

stan_jones · Post by **stan_jones** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 3:17 pm

...oops ..... and Mark
I saw your notes right after I thought about the set uid
The install doesn't work as sent by Thunderstone for unix.
The reason is that on normal multi-user unix systems the
cgi-bin is not owned by webinatr and so the install could not
write to cgi-bin. On the other side, /www/pub/ is usually not
webinatr or similiar owned so the install could not create /www/pub/webinator
unless the "root" set them up that way temporarily for the install
to have a chance. I have spent many anquishing days trying to
set up a script that does what it needs to and documents what
"root" needs to help with. I am lucky since I "own" the box and
everything in it.

Thanks again John and Mark, whereever you are.

*<:)--stan

Post by **mark** » Fri Nov 02, 2001 3:45 pm

Glad you got it working.

The general assumtion is that if you you're not allowed to install cgi programs, it's for a reason. Only trusted users may do that. Or some people can place cgi programs somewhere under their home directory and run them from there. It depends on the server setup. Also, the Webinator 4 resolves much of that by letting it run as root and having you specify what non-root user webinator should run as.