NAME

.cache - description files for the GoFish gopher server

DESCRIPTION

The GoFish gopher server uses .cache files for directory listings. A serve as a directory page. GoFish will serve *any* page that resides inside the chroot jail and has read permissions for the gopher uid/gid.

However, unless the caller has prior knowledge of a file, only files specified in the .cache file will be displayed.

The .cache file does not need to contain only the files in the current directory. Any file in gopherspace, and this means external as well as internal files, can be put in the .cache.

FILE FORMAT

The .cache file is an ascii text file. It is sent to the client as the directory listing. This means that the .cache file must match the gopher spec. Here is my take on a BNF for GoFish.

tab - is the ASCII tab character as per the gopher spec
<type> - can be any gopher type but should match the filetype in some way
<desc> - is a description of the file. This field can contain any ascii text except tab
[019] - GoFish allowed file types. See below.
<pathname> - is the path for the file, rooted at the chroot jail home
<server> - is the server name. This does not have to be local.
<port> - is the port number. Usually 70.

EXAMPLE

0Text File	0/text.txt	domain.com	70
hHTML File	0/text.html	domain.com	70
9Binary File	9/binary.tgz	domain.com	70
Iimage.gif	9/image.gif	domain.com	70
1Directory	1/asubdir/	domain.com	70

FILE TYPES

At a basic level GoFish only understands two types of file: text (0) and binary (9). Directory specifications (1) are special in the GoFish knows to concat the .cache to the end of the specification. But it is then treated as a text file.

There is a distinction between text and binary files because the gopher spec says that text files end with a period (.) on a line by itself. Binary files are sent raw. Most modern clients have no problem with sending a text file marked binary. In fact, both Netscape and IE will display the final . from a text file. However, for old clients, you should specify the text files as such.

The gopher type at the start of a line can be more expressive. This tells the client what type of file it is. For example, an html file will be processed by Netscape/IE as an html file. A binary file will popup a dialog box asking if you want to save the file. An image will be displayed if possible.

FILE PERMISSIONS

GoFish must run as root to be able to accept connections on the privileged port 70. However, it does not need to be root to serve the files. GoFish drops to a non-privileged user while opening the file. This means you can protect special files if you want. GoFish has no checking, it will server any file that the user knows the name of.

AUTHOR

Written by Sean MacLennan

REPORTING BUGS

Report bugs to <headgopher@seanm.ca>.