NAME

default-install - Configure LinkController to run in a basic way.

DESCRIPTION

This is an attempt to build a default installation of link-controller to make it plug in and play. This is designed for an installation where the system adminstrator will run LinkController whilst users will use the central database of links, but repair their own web pages. This would be suitable for use by e.g. a web hosting company. We want the following attributes.

reasonable security
near instant usability
easy control by root
accountability
No network traffic if nobody uses link controller.

Currently the default installation is designed for the following model..

There is a linkcont user and a group lcuser. A program running as the link-controller user collects link lists from each user on the system who is in the group from the file

       ~$user/.link-control-links

The script /etc/cron.daily/linkcontroller then runks link checking every night based on those links. The link checking runs as the linkcont user.

We then log the activities of link controller to /var/log/link-controller

OPTIONS

--help

This option gives a full summary of the options and their aliases and short forms.

--all

This option is the same as ``--cron --config --user-config --directory --create-user''. That is to say it does everything that is needed to get LinkController running. However it doesn't activate any users. You should activate users to use LinkControlller with --user and/or --group.

--cron

This option installs two cron scripts. One /etc/cron.daily which runs LinkController and one in /etc/cron.weekly which does a database cleanup. This should mean that link controller is run automatically each night, which hopefully is your network low usage time.

--config

Install the configuration files. This creates /etc/link-control.pl

--base-dir

This option can be used in during building a package (e.g. RPM) of LinkController. It will put all of the files created under the directory given. This doesn't however mean that the installation will work in that location. It is assumed that the files will either be linked or moved into their normal locations by some other means. In the case of RPM this means using the --build-root option at package build time.

--disable

With the --disable option link controller reverses the actions it would have taken normally.

N.B. --disable does not stop anyone from running linkcontroller themselves. It is just that link controller will not run from the linkcont user. In order to safely disable the use of link controller, either remove it completely and stop your users installing programs (and editing or creating any executable files) or disconnect your network connection!!

--user and --group

These options activate users by putting them into the linkcont group. The --group option does this for all of the members in a particular group.

BUGS

This mode of operation requires that the users home directory is readable to the linkcont user. A crontab like mechanism should maybe be considered?