1. What is LysKOM?
==================
LysKOM has a lot in common with netnews, but LysKOM is intended for
local discussions (instead of worldwide). LysKOM consists of a server
process and several client programs. The server process maintains a
data base of persons, conferences and articles. The clients connect
to the server and let the users browse the database for unread
articles.
LysKOM is much faster than netnews - almost as fast as irc or ICQ! -
but like in netnews the articles are saved so that you don't have to
be logged in to receive the news.
As mentioned above, you need a client to be able to do something
useful with LysKOM. At this time there are several clients available.
The most popular client is written in elisp and requires Gnu Emacs or
XEmacs to run. There are also web clients and a MS Windows client. See
<URL:http://www.lysator.liu.se/lyskom/> for availability of clients.
A LysKOM server has been running at Lysator since July 25th 1990. You
can connect to it and test it out if you like to get a feel for what
LysKOM is. The IP address of the server is kom.lysator.liu.se. Of
course, you need a client to test it. On that particular server most
of the discussions are done in Swedish.
See the file NEWS for information about changes, or the various
ChangeLogs for more detailed information.
2. Documentation
================
doc/lyskomd.texi Instructions for maintaining a LysKOM server.
Also contains a chapter for hackers that want
to extend or modify the server.
doc/Protocol-A.texi Documentation of the protocol used between the
clients and the LysKOM server.
NEWS What is new in this release?
README This file.
INSTALL Generic install instructions (see below for
lyskomd-specific instructions).
HACKING Information that may be useful if you want to
change lyskomd.
COPYING The license for lyskomd (GNU GPL).
AUTHORS List of authors.
3. Installation
===============
1. Select a location where you want the LysKOM database and server
binaries to reside. We recommend something like /usr/lyskom
(the default), /usr/local/lyskom or /opt/lyskom.
WARNING: Do not use /usr/local as the prefix! lyskomd was
written with the assumption that it should have a prefix of its
own, and it creates files such as etc/pid under the prefix you
use. (Fixing this is on the TODO list.)
2. From the top directory of the server sources, run configure:
$ ./configure --prefix=/usr/local/lyskom
The prefix defaults to /usr/lyskom. There are many other
options that you can give to the configure script. Most of them
are documented in the generic INSTALL file. There are a few
LysKOM-specific options, but except for --with-language they are
only useful if you want to debug lyskomd. See the HACKING file
for more information about them.
You can use --with-language=sv to select that a Swedish database
should be installed (if no previous database exists). By
default, an English database will be installed.
3. Compile it:
$ make
4. If you like, you can run the test suite:
$ make check
There should be no errors. It is normal that some unsupported
tests are reported. You need DejaGnu 1.3 and Python to run the
test suite. They can be downloaded from
ftp://prep.ai.mit.edu/pub/gnu/dejagnu-1.3.tar.gz
ftp://ftp.python.org/pub/python/src/py152.tar.gz
5. Create a user that should own the database files. This file
assumes that the user is named "lyskom".
6. As "lyskom", install it:
$ make install
This will install the server and documentation. It will also
install an empty database, unless it finds an old database. The
empty database will contain four standard conferences and one
privileged user, "Administrator (for) LysKOM", with password
"gazonk". See "Database versions" below if you have an old
database -- you may have to convert it.
A sample config file will be installed in etc/config, unless
it already exists. If you are upgrading to a new version of
lyskomd you may have to edit the config file. The current
sample config file is in run-support/config.
7. Make sure updateLysKOM is run regularly by user lyskom. The
recommended way is to add a line such as this to the cron file
of the lyskom user:
0,10,20,30,40,50 * * * * /usr/lyskom/bin/updateLysKOM
If your cron does not support per-user cron files you will have
to arrange this in some other way.
The updateLysKOM will occasionally output a message to stderr
and exit with a non-zero exit status. It expects the cron to
send a mail to a LysKOM administrator with the output from the
program. Most sane cron systems does so. You may want to
create a .forward file for user "lyskom".
8. Wait for updateLysKOM to start the server, or run updateLysKOM
manually (as user "lyskom"). You are ready.
9. Read the documentation in doc/lyskomd.info, especially the
Administration chapter. It tells you how to shut down and
restart lyskomd. LysKOM needs your attention once in a while.
Here at Lysator we expunge old texts (with "dbck -g")
approximately once every 6 months. And restart the server every
two to three months.
10. We would like to know about where LysKOM servers are running.
If you start a server, please mail "kom@lysator.liu.se", and
tell us that you are running a server. (You are very welcome to
tell more about you, but that's not necessary).
4. Database Versions -- you may have to convert the database
============================================================
lyskomd version 2.0.0 uses a new file format for the database. If you
have been running earlier versions of lyskomd you must convert the
database by issuing the following command:
dbck -o 2 -F
You must, of course, use version 2.0.0 or later of dbck to do the
conversion. You can convert back the database to the old format with
dbck -o 1 -F (for lyskomd version 1.9.0)
dbck -o 0 -F (for ancient lyskomd versions)
5. Contact information
======================
If you find a bug, please send your bug reports to the email address
bug-lyskom@lysator.liu.se, but before you do, please check the
documentation and the file TODO to see if the bug is already known.
The latest release of the server can always be found from
ftp://ftp.lysator.liu.se/pub/lyskom/server/
This file and almost the entire lyskomd server is
Copyright (C) 1991-1999 Lysator Academic Computer Association
See also the AUTHORS file.