Installation

This page tells you how to install and run the Generic Perl Version on Linux and similar systems as well as on web servers. If you want you can also read the Installation on Mac OS X.

INTRODUCTION

The prsslist program is written in the Perl computer language. In order to run, it requires a copy of the Perl language system which is commonly found preinstalled on most Linux and similar systems, as well as on most web servers.

This page is oriented towards users with technical experience who are comfortable with configuring and running programs from the command line or setting up web CGI programs.

The system requirements are: Internet connection if uploading the RSS files by FTP, 200KB+ disk space, Perl language system that includes the library modules:

• LWP::UserAgent
• Net::FTP
• Time::Local.

USING IT ON YOUR SYSTEM

Installation

Follow these instructions to install and run prsslist:

• Make sure that you have Perl installed on your system. When you have Perl installed, you can run Perl programs from the command line by executing “perl programfile” or if you are running a web server, by serving a Perl program whose permission is set to “Execute”. You can check that Perl is installed and see the version information by executing the command perl -v.
• Read the License Agreement to make sure that you understand the restrictions and rights that apply to this program. The source code is covered by the GNU GPL. The Generic Perl Version is available for free and comes with no warranty of any kind.
• If you do not agree to the above license, do not download or use the program.* You may not use or copy the program except under terms of the license.
• Download the Local Generic Perl Version by following these steps
  

  
  
  
  git clone git://github.com/lantrix/prsslist.git
  cd prsslist
  
  
  

• You run the program locally by executing the command:
  

  
  
  
  perl prsslist.pl option values
  
  
  

  
  *You can get a list of options by using the “-h” option. When executing the program, you can exit before it’s finished by pressing Ctrl-C.

Using the program

After you start the program running, you interact with it by accessing the URL it lists. By default, you need to open the following local URL with your browser:

http://127.0.0.1:6555
You normally quit by using the “Quit” command in the user interface.

Only the following files are needed for local execution. All others may be deleted.

• prsslist.pl
• prsslist.pm
• prsslistLicense.pm

prsslist maintains one or more files locally to save all the feed information. By default, those files are stored in the current directory. The files are named “prefix.feed.name.txt”, where “prefix” is “listdata” by default and “name” is a name you give to each feed when you create it (for example, “listdata.feed.dblog.txt”). The -d string option can be used to set a different datafile prefix than the default “listdata”. The prefix may include path information to use a different directory, e.g., “~/prsslist/data/feeddata”.

If the program displays an error message when run complaining about a missing module, such as LWP, or LWP::UserAgent, you can get the missing module from CPAN. Most Perl installations include the CPAN.pm module to automate this downloading process. See the Mac Perl Setup description to get an idea how to use CPAN.pm. CPAN.pm documentation should be available on your computer by using the command “perldoc CPAN”.

Run on a Web Server

You run the program remotely by installing it on a web server and running it using CGI. (Note the security warning, below.)

The following files are needed for CGI execution:

• prsslistcgi.pl
• prsslist.pm
• prsslistLicense.pm

For example, you could install it in the cgi-bin/prsslist directory and invoke it with a browser with the following URL:

• http://www.you.com/cgi-bin/prsslist/prsslistcgi.pl

Before installing prsslist for remote access, make sure that you are aware of the security issues it may raise. For example, the “Local Filename” setting lets the user save the result anywhere the program has access. When run remotely, you may want to protect the program with a password (such as by using .htaccess) so that only authorized users can run it. For this reason, install and use remote access with caution.

Also, if you are installing prsslist in a new directory, be aware that prsslist needs to have permission to create and modify the data files, and some cases a temp file used to do FTP, in the working directory. Therefore, make sure that when run by the web server daemon prsslist has permission to create files in the directory (for example, that the directory is in the web server’s group “apache” with write permission to the group).

Uninstall

Delete the files you downloaded and extracted.