The Netscape Application Programming Interface (NSAPI) is a set of ANSI C functions and header files that help you create functions to use with the directives in server configuration files. The Netscape Commerce and Communications Servers use this API to build the regular functions for the directives used in both magnus.conf and obj.conf. (These regular functions are described in Chapter 4.)
A copy of original data stored locally so that it doesn't have to be retrieved again from a remote server when requested.
The European Laboratory for Particle Physics (CERN) invented the World Wide Web to share information among research groups. This is where the CERN proxy prototype was produced.
Common Gateway Interface—an interface for external programs to “talk”
to the HTTP server. Programs that are written to use CGI are called CGI programs or CGI scripts. CGI programs do things such as handle forms or perform output parsing not normally done by the server.
The common logfile format is the format used by the server for entering information into the access logs. The format is the same among all of the major servers, Netscape Commerce and Communications servers, CERN httpd, and NCSA httpd.
Domain Name System. The system used by hosts on a network to associate standard IP addresses (such as 198.93.93.10) with hostnames (such as www.netscape.com). Machines normally get this translated information from a DNS server, or look it up in tables maintained on their systems.
A DNS alias is a hostname that the DNS server knows points to a different host—specifically a DNS CNAME record. Machines always have one real name, but they can have one or more aliases. For example, www.yourdomain.domain might be an alias that points to a real host called realthing.yourdomain.domain, where the server currently exists.
A directory on the server host that contains the files, images, and data you want to present to users accessing the server.
A text editor that can also be used to read email and news.
The expiration time of the returned document, specified by the remote server.
Fancy indexing provides more information than simple indexing. Fancy indexing displays a list of contents by name with file size, last modification date, and an icon reflecting file type. Because of this, fancy indexes might take longer than simple indexes for the client to load.
The last section of a filename that typically defines the type of file (for example, .GIF and .HTML). For example, in the filename index.html, the file extension is html.
The format of a given file. For example, a graphics file doesn't have the same file type as a text file. File types are usually identified by the file extension (.GIF or .HTML).
A cross-platform image format originally created by CompuServe. The acronym stands for Graphics Interchange Format. GIF files are usually much smaller in size than other graphic file types (BMP, TIFF). GIF is one of the most common interchange formats.
Terminating the process, and starting it up again.
A document that exists on the server and acts as a catalog or entry point for the server's contents. The location of this document is defined within the server's configuration files.
A name for a host of the form host.domain.dom, which is translated into an IP address. For example, www.netscape.com is the host www in the subdomain netscape and com domain.
HyperText Markup Language is a formatting language used for documents on the World Wide Web. HTML files are plain text files with formatting codes that tell browsers such as the Netscape Navigator how to display text, position graphics and form items, and display links to other pages.
HyperText Transfer Protocol is the method for exchanging information between HTTP servers and clients.
An abbreviation for the HTTP daemon, a program that serves information using the HTTP protocol. The Netscape Communications Server is often called httpd.
A secure version of HTTP, implemented using the secure sockets layer, SSL.
A process that makes areas of an image active, letting users navigate and obtain information by clicking the different regions of the image with a mouse. Imagemap can also refer to a CGI program called “imagemap,” which is used to handle imagemap functionality in other httpd implementations.
Internet Protocol address—a set of numbers, separated by dots, that specifies the actual location of a host on the Internet.
Documents can often use a network navigator's capabilities to accept a search string and send it to the server to access a searchable index without using forms. In order to use ISINDEX, you must create a query handler.
An extension to the IMG SRC tag used in an HTML document to tell the server that the named image is an imagemap.
The last modification time of the document file, returned in the HTTP response from the server.
A message digest algorithm by RSA Data Security, Inc., which can be used to produce a short digest of data of any size, that is unique with high probability, and it is mathematically extremely hard to produce a piece of data that will produce the same message digest.
A message digest produced by the MD5 algorithm.
Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions. This is an emerging standard for multimedia e-mail and messaging.
Network Information Service. This is a system of programs and data files that local area networks use to collect, collate, and share specific information about hosts, users, filesystems, and network parameters throughout a network of computers.
The National Center for Supercomputing Applications is a research organization at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
A file on IRIX hosts that store IRIX user login names, passwords, and user ID numbers. It is also known as /etc/passwd, because of where it is kept.
Directories not inside the document root that are in an IRIX user's home directory, or directories that are under the user's control.
Random Access Memory. The physical semiconductor-based memory in a computer.
A term used in HTTP and proxy access authorization that helps the user identify what part of the system is asking for an HTTP or proxy user name and password.
A system by which clients accessing a particular URL are sent to a different location, either on the same server or on a different server. This is useful if a resource has moved and you want the clients to use the new location transparently. It's also used to maintain the integrity of relative links when directories are accessed without a trailing slash.
Any document (URL), directory, or program that the server can access and send to a client that asks for it.
The most privileged user available on IRIX hosts. The root user has complete access privileges to all files on the host.
A method that NCSA httpd used for some of its configuration, including directory remapping and CGI activation.
The server daemon is a process that, once running, listens for and accepts requests from clients.
A directory on the server host dedicated to holding the server program, configuration, maintenance, and information files.
The opposite of fancy indexing—this type of directory listing displays only the names of the files without any graphical elements.
Firewall software that establishes a connection from inside a firewall to the outside when direct connection would otherwise be prevented by the firewall software or hardware (for example, the router configuration).
Causes the server to internally restart (that is, reread its configuration files) by sending the HUP signal (signal number one) to the process. The process itself does not die, as it does in hard restart.
Secure Sockets Layer. A software library establishing a secure connection between two parties (client and server) used to implement HTTPS, the secure version of HTTP.
A function that converts a date and a time to a string. It's used by the server when appending trailers. strftime has a special format language for the date and time that the server can use in a trailer to illustrate a file's last modified date.
The most privileged user available on IRIX hosts (also called root). The superuser has complete access privileges to all files on the host.
Abbreviation for symbolic links, which is a type of redirection used by the IRIX operating system. Sym-links let you create a pointer from one part of your filesystem to an existing file or directory on another part of the filesystem.
A protocol where two hosts on the network are connected to each other and support terminal emulation for remote login.
A specified time after which the server should give up trying to finish a service routine that appears hung.
A program on IRIX systems that shows the current state of system resource usage. (See also the gr_top(1), gr_osview(1), and ps(1) reference pages.)
The highest category of hostname classification, usually signifying either the type of organization the domain is (.com is a company, .edu is an educational institution) or the country of its origin (.us is the United States, .jp is Japan, .au is Australia, .fi is Finland).
A unique number associated with each IRIX user on a host.
Uniform Resource Locator—the addressing system used by the server and the client to request documents. It is often called a location. The format of a URL is protocol://host[:port]/document
A sample URL is http://www.sgi.com/index.html.
A database in the Netscape cache that contains all the URLs found in the cache, and links them to the cache files. You can browse this database using the Cache Manager.
A process that repairs and updates a URL database that has been damaged by a software failure, a system crash, a disk breakdown, or a full filesystem.