Installation & Getting Started

The latest version of Robin Hood can be found under the Robin Hood entry at BeBits.
Robin Hood requires libHTTP 1.0b to run. libHTTP 1.0b is included with this distribution of Robin Hood; it is also available separately with source code.

Installing libHTTP

As long as all of the executables remain in their original directory, they will be able to find libHTTP in the lib directory. Optionally, you may move the file lib/libHTTP.so to "/boot/home/config/lib/." This will allow the executables to be placed anywhere you wish and permits other apps to use libHTTP.

Installing the Add-On Modules

As long as the folder robin_hood_modules remains in the same folder as the rhdaemon, they will be found. Optionally, this folder may be moved to "/boot/home/config/add-ons/."

404 Template File

The 404 Handler looks for a file named "404.html" in the root of your web directory. A sample 404.html file is provided which you can use. If you don't have a template 404 file, you will get a plain "404 File Not Found" message when a file could not be found.

File Permissions

Robin Hood respects the file permission attributes of the files in your web directory. If you find you are being asked for a password when viewing your web-site, you probably need to fix the permission attributes. Separate permissions are maintained by the file system for owner, group, and other users. Each class is further sub-divided into read, write, and execute permissions. Robin Hood will require a password for a file if others do not have read access to the file; CGIs require execute access.

Access permissions can be changed with the "chmod" command. If you wish to make your entire web directory public, use the command:
chmod -R o+r path
where path is the path to your web directory. The CGI directory permission should be set with:
chmod -R o+x path
where path is the path of the CGI directory.

Robin Hood Executables

Robin Hood includes serveral executable components. The user interface and the server are separate. The server can continue running in the background even after the UI has exited.

• rhdaemon
  This is the Robin Hood server. It runs in the background and has no visible UI. It can be started by launching it from the tracker, the command-line, or from the Robin Hood Console. The rhdaemon can be placed anywhere you like as long as libHTTP is in the /boot/home/config/lib/ directory. If you wish to have the server start automatically on startup, add the following line to your UserBootscript:
  path/rhdaemon &
  where path is the location of the rhdaemon on your computer.
• RHConsole
  This is a graphical console for RobinHood. It displays a connection log, reports on the status of the server, has controls for starting and stopping the server, and can open the Robin Hood configuration file. It includes a filter menu; this allows you to control what is displayed in the log. RHConsole does not have to be running for the server to be running.
• RHLog
  This is a command line console for the rhdaemon. It outputs log entries to stdout and can filter what types of entries are displayed. It should reside in the /boot/home/config/bin/ directory for convenient access. It can be made to log all server transactions to the file RHLog by adding the following line to your UserBootscript: rhlog >> /boot/home/config/setting/RHLog &
  It could also be used over a telnet session to monitor the web server. Type "rhlog --help" for a list of filtering options.

The Virtual Hosts File contains the configuration info for the rhdaemon. You can open this file from the "File" menu of RHConsole or by opening /boot/home/config/settings/virtual_hosts. This file specifies the port of each server, the Webroot and Index Document associated with each Virtual Host name, and the Virtual Resources and Realms of each Virtual Host. The format of the virtual hosts file has changed since the initial release of Robin Hood (version 0.9). The file has been renamed for this reason.

• Server
  An independant web server with its own collection of virtual hosts. Each server runs on its own TCP port; the default TCP port for HTTP is port 80. Other ports may be accessed by using the following syntax from your browser:
  http://host-name:port/path
  Example: http://www.foo-bar.org:2100/
• Virtual Host
  It is possible for one web server to service multiple domain names. For example, you may own the domains www.foo-bar.org and www.mr-happy.com and wish to host both on the same machine. Virtual Hosts provides the mechanism by which this can be done. If the host was not specified in the request or the host specified does not exist in the Virtual Hosts file, the Virtual Host named Default-Host is used.
• Webroot
  Each Virtual Host has its own virtual root directory. For example, if the Webroot of the Virtual Host www.foo-bar.org was "/boot/home/public_html/", the URL http://www.foo-bar.org/foo/bar.html would refer to the file "/boot/home/public_html/foo/bar.html" on your computer. It is not possible to access files outside of the virtual root directory without using a symbolic link.
• Index
  This is the Index Document to be used for each Virtual Host. It will be appended to the URL before parsing if a directory URL was requested. For example, if the Webroot of the Virtual Host www.foo-bar.org was "/boot/home/public_html/" and the Index Document was "index.shtml", the URL http://www.foo-bar.org/ would return the file "/boot/home/public_html/index.shtml" on your computer. The Index Document is set to "index.html" by default if not specified.
• Virtual Resource
  Each Virtual Host maintains its own list of Virtual Resources. Virtual Resources provides the means to define resouces which don't actually exist as a file on your computer. A virtual resource is created dynamically by one of the loaded add-on modules as needed. For example, the RHDirectoryHandler can create a directory listing when the "index.html" file is missing and it can create PNG images for Tracker icons.
  
  Virtual Resources are also used to define Virtual MIME types. A Virtual MIME type changes the MIME type of a file for the purpose of selecting which add-on module to use. For example, all files ending in ".cgi" could be treated as CGIs instead of their native MIME types.
• Realm
  Each Virtual Host has a list of Realms associated with it. When a resource is requested for which public access has not been granted, the resource's Realm defines the user name and password required to access the resource. Realm membership is defined by one or more file patterns. If no Realms are defined for a Virtual Host, all files belong to the Realm "Sherwood." "Sherwood" has the same user name and password as set in the Network Preferences panel.

CGI Setup

CGIs are detected by MIME type. All files with the MIME type "application/x-vnd.CGI" will be dispatched to the CGI Handler add-on module (if it's installed). The default Virtual Hosts file contains a Virtual Resource which will cause all files ending in .cgi and all files located within the cgi -bin/ directory to be treated as CGIs. You can change this behavior if you wish by editing the Virtual Hosts file.
You can find more information about CGIs and some sample CGIs at The CGI Resource Index.

PHP Setup

PHP is a server-side, cross-platform, HTML embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly. The default Virtual Hosts file contains a Virtual Resource which will cause all files with the MIME type "application/x-httpd-php" or ending with ".php" to be treated as PHP.
You can find more information about PHP at PHP.net.

SSI Setup

Server Side Includes provide a mechanisim for creating dynamic HTML pages. A SSI file (usually ends with ".shtml") looks like a normal HTML file, but contains directives to the server to inline other text elements in the document from other sources. The source can be a static text document (like a HTML document), another SHTML document (which will also be processed), a CGI, or a shell command. SHTML documents are created on the fly by the server and the client never sees the original SHTML file. Files with a MIME type of "text/x -server-parsed-html" will be processed by the SSI Handler before delivery. The default Virtual Hosts file contains a Virtual Resource which will cause all files ending with ".shtml" be treated as SSIs.
See NCSA HTTPd Tutorial: Server Side Includes for more information on using SSIs.

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