[SixClub] Offer: help getting your logs online and dynamically updated -- you provide server

[mikea]

OK, not strictly 6m-related, but a way for you to make your logs
available for others to see. 

In a fit of pure and undiluted boredom the other day, I flanged up some
code to put my MixW logs online as a web page. You can see it at 
<http://mikea.ath.cx/hamshack/MixW2.log> if you're interested. 

And if you'd like something like that, but don't have the skills to make
it go, I'm offering my help, as described below. 

What I did, in detail: 

o	Installed the smbfs (samba filesystem) package on my home FreeBSD 
	server; This is built in to Windows, if you're running a Windows 
	webserver
o	Shared the directory containing the log file, so that it can be 
	read by the server
o	Wrote Perl code to read log files and produce an HTML page, as you
	saw at the URL above, if you went there
o	Made a link in my hamshack page to the place where the page should
	go
o	Put a line in my server's /etc/crontab to run the Perl code once a
	minute, reading the log and writing the output to the file that the
	link in my hamshack page points to. 

What I already had running, and you'll need to get running: 

o	A home network. Mine is wireless, but the medium doesn't matter. The 
	important part is that the server and your logging machine can talk
	to one another using TCP/IP or carrier pigeons or something else
	that they have in common.
o	Samba (CIFS) filesharing. Macs do it, Windows does it, Linux does
	it, and the various BSDs do it. With OpenBSD/FreeBSD/NetBSD/Linux, 
	you probably will want to get SWAT (Samba Web Administration Tool) 
	running, too, so that you can share files from your server to other 
	machines, set up passwords, and so on. 
o	A webserver. This isn't anywhere near as hard as it looks, but your 
	ISP or other network provider has to permit you to run servers that
	can be seen by the rest of the world, or you have to have a server
	hosted somewhere else outside your home network, which Makes Things
	Rather More Interesting.
o	A hostname that can be used to refer to the server. Mine is
	mikea.ath.cx; yours will be whatever your provider and you can agree
	on.
o	A running Perl interpreter (part of most *BSD and Linux systems, and
	available on Windows at no cost)

What I offer: 

o	The code I use to build my page; see it at 
	<http://mikea.ath.cx/bin/log-2-html>
	I hereby explicitly release it into the public domain. 
o	Advice on getting all the bits and pieces working together if you
	run your own webserver, home network, and logging machine
o	Advice, but probably a good deal more vague, on getting all the bits 
	and pieces working together if your webserver is hosted externally

What I'm *NOT* offering: 

o	Any promises whatever that it will all work, that any part of it
	will work, that I'm responsible for any part of it, that there is 
	any guarantee, commitment, or promise to provide support, that I'm
	responsible for any problems you have with it, or that I'm 
	responsible for any problems caused by it. If it breaks, you may
	well get to keep both (or all) the pieces.

Takers?

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin