While going through the config I've come up with a fair number of questions. I'm hoping that many of the answers will be easiest to find by asking the user community who work with the server daily. Some of these I am asking simply because I need confirmation, but for a good portion of them I simply don't have the information I need. � Please give a look through these questions and give what answers you can.� Feel free to email me if any of the questions are not clear.
Thanks much, again.
Scott
1) � Is it possible to have the output of the config file variables sent to a file? Or is that already done in a log file? � It might answer some of my questions if I can have the data that is the result of the transaction to compare with the transaction.
2) If I am setting up more than one server per file then I need to have a servername and serverdesc variable for each server, correct? Additionally, server specific sections need to be duplicated for each server as well, correct?
3) � What's the difference, exactly, in the function of servername and serverdesc? � I can guess the purpose of the servername variable but what is common usage for serverdesc?
4)� Under Global Server Parameters there are two active parameters:� one sets the home parameter to be the same as the string output from the homedir variable and the other sets debug to false. � All the other parameters are inactive. � None of the parameters within this section reference the 'home' parameter. � What purpose does this parameter serve in this section? �
5) � What are debug, notice, and dev severity and what does each indicate to the user?� I understand that they affect output to the log, but I'm not quite sure on the differences between the three.
6) PreferredCharsetssupports "output encoding arbitration."� This would seem to mean that there is some indication, in the header of the incoming request, as to what the output charset would be.� Is that accurate? If not, how does the arbitration occur? And how does AOLserver decide between the provided "preferred" character sets?
7)� The mime-types for default and for noextension are both "*/*".� What does this mean?� What kind of mime-type is that?
8) I want to be sure that the following definitions are correct, so please review.
Encoding - the charset that pages can be/are stored as.
MIME type - the charset in which the server expects to deliver certain file types to the requestor.
Is that accurate?�
9) For delivery of content does AOLserver do any encoding based on MIME type or does this just add the charset to the content-type header?� If that is the case, that MIME just tells AOLserver which charset to add to the header, does mapping the file extension to the charset handle the encoding?
10)� There is a a content-type for application which then performs what looks like a call to excel for it's charset.� Does this call activate excel, if available? Or does it just let the browser know that this file needs excel to display? I'm thinking that it is the second.� Is there a list of common application names for reference form the content-header in this fashion?
11) What is the measure for stacksize?� is it in items stored or in memory used?
12)� Servername and Serverdesc are set as global variables at the top of the config file.� Why, in the servers section, are the variables output into parameters of the same name? and why do this in a section with no other commands or variables?� I think the answer to this may extend from the answer to my earlier question about defining servers and whether more are added, as necessary.
13)� When enabletclpages is set to true and a .tcl file is returned as a page, what happens to the tcl in the page? Does the code display as a page?
14)� Allowing more than one connection per thread has a higher resource toll on the machine but allows the server to handle more users. Correct? Or is there another purpose for this?
15)� flushcontent "flushes all data before returning."� I'm not exactly sure of the meaning for this.� Flushes data from where? The log?� The connections? And before "returning" what? and to where?
16)� What is the default max # of connections?� Max keepalive is 100. Is it the same?
17) Maxdropped is commented out in the example config.� If this is commented out, is there a default # of dropped connections that AOLserver will allow before restart or does this parameter have to be enabled for restart to occur after # of dropped connections?
18)� The max # of threads in the example config is 2.� Is that accurate? In the sample-config.tcl the max # is set to 20, even though that line is commented out.� Also, if this line is not enabled, is there a max # of threads set by default?
19)� minthreads is provided as a way to tune your server.� How would adjusting this upwards from zero (is that the default?) help speed up the server?� I can see that it would save startup time with regard to actually starting the thread, but it would eat up resources with idle threads that would then timeout and need to be restarted. Does starting a thread take that long?
20)� The ADP section has several parameters named "map."� How can they all have the same parameter name (e.g., map) without overwriting each other?� OR, is "map" the type of parameter and the value of the parameter, the "key", is actually the name as well? Similar to how the key defines the unique fields in a database?
21)� What actually happens when a page is parsed as an .adp? Does telling the server that the file is an .adp tell it to expect or look for Tcl commands?
22)� The errorpage parameter is commented out in the example config and in the sample-config.tcl.� What gets returned if there is an error in a .adp page if this is commented out? A generic browser error?� Also, if this parameter is used does the error page get returned for all page errors or only when there are errors in parsing an .adp?
23)� rollhour appears to expect a time value.� What format is it looking for?
24)� maxbackup refers to old log files, correct?
25)� Does logreqtime mean the time the request is actioned is logged or does it mean that the time it takes to fill the request is logged?
26)� What is the exact function for the parameters provided in the CGI section?� I understand that a directory is being provided for GET and POST to work against, possibly more than one directory, the format is confusing.
ns_param map "GET /cgi /usr/local/cgi"
What is the ouput of this that becomes the value of the parameter map?�
27)� What is the purpose of the "home" parameter in the Global Server Parameters section?� It isn't referenced elsewhere in the section provided in the example config.� Is it referenced by a module?� Should it be changed based on individual server setup to reflect a different "home" for each server?
28)� If debug is set to on under Global Server Parameters then debug messages are sent to the log. Correct? How does relate to the 'severity' of the logging?
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