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Installation
The following section describes how to install MHonArc on your system.
NOTE Make sure to read the release notes before installing MHonArc,
especially if you are upgrading from a previous release.
* 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
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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 command can be
used to verify that the modules are installed on your system:
shell> perl -MGetopt::Long -MTime::Local -e ';'
If you get any error messages, you either have an incomplete
installation of Perl, or Perl is misconfigured.
* 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.
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Downloading MHonArc
various sites that you can download MHonArc. If you are familiar with
Comprehensive Perl Archive Network (CPAN), MHonArc can be downloaded from
MHonArc is distributed in either a tar/gzip file or a zip file. The tar/
gzip file will have a name like MHonArcX.X.X.tar.gz, and the zip file have
a name like 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.
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Extracting the MHonArc Distribution
After downloading MHonArc, it is best to move the file to a temporary
location for extraction. To extract a tar/gzip distribution, use the
following command:
shell> gzip -dc MHonArcX.X.X.tar.gz | tar xvf -
To extract the zip distribution, you can use a program like WinZip, or any
other program that supports zip archives. When extracting, make sure to
preserve the directory structure.
NOTE WinZip does support tar/gzip files.
After extraction, the subdirectory MHonArcX.X.X will have been created
containing all the files comprising MHonArc.
IMPORTANT Please read the file RELNOTES included in the MHonArc
distribution before continuing for any news about compatibility
with previous versions and/or important usage information.
You will now want to change your current directory to MHonArcX.X.X for the
next step.
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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
IMPORTANT You must be in the same directory as the install.me program when
you run it.
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
-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.
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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
NOTE install.me is actually called "behind the scenes" to install the
files.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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. The name of the resource file should be mhonarc.rc
and should be placed in the MHonArc library directory as specified during
installation. For more information on what can be put in a resource file,
see the Resources section.
NOTE It is advisable to create some local documentation for users
describing any settings you place in the site-wide resource file.
This will avoid confusion if site settings vary from default settings
described in the documentation, and it will help avoid invalid bug
reports.
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.
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Resource File Editing
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.
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01/09/05 22:03:29
[monicon] MHonArc
Copyright © 1997-1999, Earl Hood, mhonarc@mhonarc.org