Installation

The following section describes how to install MHonArc on your system.

• System Requirements
• Downloading MHonArc
• Extracting the MHonArc Distribution
• Installing with install.me
  • install.me Notes
• The Perl 5 Way
• Win32 Notes
• Alternate Operating Systems
• Manual Installation
• Post Installation Configuration
  • Default Resource File
  • Site Initialization Library
• Resource File Editing

System Requirements

The following is required inorder to use MHonArc:

• Perl 5 is installed. If you do not have Perl 5, goto <http://language.perl.com/> for download information.

• Getopt::Long and Time::Local modules are installed. These modules are part of the standard Perl distribution.

• The following modules are optional:

  • Digest::MD5: Used for creating IDs for messages without message-ids. This module helps MHonArc detect already archived messages for messages without message-ids.

  • Fcntl, Symbol: Used for flock() based archive locking (if specified by the user). See LOCKMETHOD resource for more information.

  MHonArc will still function if the above listed modules are not available.

Downloading MHonArc

The homepage for MHonArc is <http://www.mhonarc.org/>. The homepage list various sites that you can download MHonArc. If you are familiar with Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), MHonArc can be downloaded from <http://www.perl.com/CPAN/authors/id/EHOOD/>.

MHonArc is distributed in the following formats:

• tar-bz2: MHonArcX.X.X.tar.bz2
• tar-gzip: MHonArcX.X.X.tar.gz
• zip: MHonArcX.X.X.zip

where X.X.X represents the version number.

Alternate distribution formats for MHonArc may be available, like Linux RPM. Alternate distribution formats are not covered in this document.

Extracting the MHonArc Distribution

After downloading MHonArc, it is best to move the file to a temporary location for extraction. To extract the distribution under Unix-like systems, use one of the following commands based upon the distribution format you downloaded:

tar-bz2

    shell> bzip2 -dc MHonArcX.X.X.tar.bz2 | tar xvf -

tar-gzip

    shell> gzip -dc MHonArcX.X.X.tar.gz | tar xvf -

zip

    shell> unzip MHonArcX.X.X.zip

For Win32 systems, you can use a program like WinZip to extract the tar-gzip or zip formats. If using Cygwin, you can use the Unix-based extraction methods.

After extraction, the subdirectory MHonArcX.X.X will have been created containing all the files comprising MHonArc.

You will now want to change your current directory to MHonArcX.X.X for the next step.

Installing with install.me

Provided in the MHonArc distribution is a Perl program, install.me that will install MHonArc on your system. To run the program, type the following at your shell prompt:

    shell> perl install.me

The installation program will ask you a series of questions on where the perl executable is and where to put MHonArc files. Just hit <CR> to accept the default values listed in ()'s. Note, the default values are determined by the configuration of perl on your system. If you choose the defaults, you may need to possess root/admin privileges to have a successful install.

install.me can take several options on the command-line to affect what is done during installation. The following is the list of options available:

  -afs                  : Skip permission checks (useful if AFS)
  -batch                : Run in batch mode (do not ask questions)
  -binpath <path>       : Directory path to install programs/scripts
  -docpath <path>       : Directory path to install documentation
  -help                 : A message summarizing options available
  -libpath <path>       : Directory path to install library files
  -filelist <file>      : List of files to install (def="FILELIST")
  -manpath <path>       : Directory path to manpages
  -nobin                : Do not install programs
  -nodep                : Skip module dependency check
  -nodoc                : Do not install documentation
  -nolib                : Do not install library files
  -noman                : Do not install manpages
  -perl <pathname>      : Pathname of perl interpreter
  -prefix <path>        : Set prefix for installation directories

For example, if you do not want to install the documentation, do the following:

    shell> perl install.me -nodoc

Later on, if you decide you want to install the documentation, but not re-install the other files, do the following:

    shell> perl install.me -nobin -nolib -noman

If you want to install files relative to your home directory, do the following:

    shell> perl install.me -prefix $HOME

install.me Notes

• The "#!" line in the installed programs are set to point to the perl executable specified in the installation process. This is convienence for those using systems that support the "#!" notation.

• The installation lib directory is added to each program's search path so each program can find the libaries needed for proper execution. Therefore, you should NOT have to set your PERL5LIB environment variable if you install the library files in a location not in the default perl library search path.

• If you specify paths that do not exist, the install.me program will create the paths for you. If running in interactive mode, you will be prompted before each path is created.

• install.me supports environment variable interpolation in pathnames specified during interactive installation. For example, if you want to install the program files into your local bin directory, you can enter the following when prompted for the location to install executables: $HOME/bin. Also, if the '~' (tilde) character is the first character of the pathname specified, it will be expanded to the value of the HOME environment variable. Therefore, the following are equivalent: $HOME/bin and ~/bin.

• The -afs option should only be needed if installing MHonArc onto AFS and using an older version of Perl 5. It should not be needed for Perl 5.005 or later.

• If you want to abort the installation, just enter the termination character. For Unix systems, it is normally Ctrl-C; for Win32 systems, it is normally Ctrl-Z.

The Perl 5 Way

Of course, you can install MHonArc the standard way under Perl 5:

    shell> perl Makefile.PL
    shell> make
    shell> make install

If you want to install in a specific directory, try:

    shell> perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/tmp/myperl5
    shell> make
    shell> make install

Win32 Notes

• The main programs will automatically be converted to DOS batch files. Hence, if the path location of the main programs is in your PATH, you should be able to invoke them like any other program. Note, the path to the perl executable must be in your PATH, also.

• The main programs will also be copied to ".pl" files. Therefore, if you have .pl associated with Perl in the registry, you can invoke the programs directly (if the path location of the main programs are in your search path). For example:

      shell> mhonarc.pl ...
  

  This is known to work under WinNT and under the Cygwin bash shell.

  This is better than going though the batch file mechanism since I/O redirection does not work when invoking a batch file.

• In the logo directory of the distribution is a BMP file mhaicon.bmp. You can copy the image into your Windows Icon directory. Then through the file types editor of the file explorer, you can specify mhaicon.bmp as the icon for MHonArc resource (.mrc) files.

  This method of associating the icon to MHonArc resource files is known to work with Win9x systems.

Alternate Operating Systems

In many cases, the install.me program will work for other operating systems. Please contact the author on any success stories for other operating systems, and please send any patches, if required.

Manual Installation

If install.me will not work properly for your system, here are the steps to install MHonArc manually:

• Copy files in the lib directory to the library location you desire.

• Copy the program files to the location you want them installed. After copying, you must edit the each file as follows:

  • Edit the "#!/..." line (the first line of each file) to be the complete pathname of your perl interpreter. Note, this step is only required for systems (Unix) that support "#!".

  • Add a new line right after the "#!/..." line to contain the following:

        use lib '/path/to/lib/files';
    

    where "/path/to/lib/files/" is the path to where copied the library files to.

    Note, if the location you copied the libraries are already part of Perl's standard library search path, you do not need to add the "use lib" statement.

Post Installation Configuration

After installation, you may want to do some site-specific configuration.

Default Resource File

You have the ability to create a default resource file to make site-wide defaults for MHonArc. See the DEFRCFILE resource on valid pathname locations for the default resource file. For more information on what can be put in a resource file, see the Resources section.

Site Initialization Library

If you do not know Perl, ignore this section.

When MHonArc opens an archive for processing, MHonArc will attempt to execute the instructions in the file mhasiteinit.pl. This file allows you to make site customizations not possible through a default resource file. mhasiteinit.pl should be placed in the MHonArc library directory as specified during installation. A sample mhasiteinit.pl file is provied in the examples directory of the distribution to get you started, which includes comments on some of the things you can do with mhasiteinit.pl.

Resource File Editing

If you are a Vim user, <http://www.vim.org/>, a syntax file for MHonArc resource files is included in the examples directory: mhonarc.vim. Vim is known to run on a variety of operating systems, and is free software.

To use mhonarc.vim, copy mhonarc.vim to an appropriate location and add something like the following to your .vimrc file:

au BufNewFile,BufRead *.mrc	so $HOME/share/vim/syntax/mhonarc.vim

Of course, change the pathname to mhonarc.vim to wherever you copied it to.

Now, any file with .mrc extension will put Vim into MHonArc resource file highlighting mode. The mode is best used with color-capable terminals.

$Date: 2002/05/27 20:07:10 $
MHonArc
Copyright © 1997-2002, Earl Hood, mhonarc@mhonarc.org