Creating Web Pages in AFS

Overview

All university web space is being allocated in AFS. This file storage is accessible with paths beginning /afs/isis .

If you are unfamiliar with AFS, please see the help documents Introduction to AFS , and Installing the AFS client on Windows XP/2000/NT .

AFS Organization

Space in AFS is organized on the function of the unit, such as department, student organization, campus project, etc. Files are addressed /afs/isis/function/id , e.g. /afs/isis/depts/geology , /afs/isis/orgs/student/studgov , /afs/isis/projects/genome . Your web space will be in the directory /afs/isis/function/id/public_html .

Editing web files

To edit web pages, please see Putting Group Web Pages on the UNC Web and Introduction to AFS . Those documents describe the access methods to edit the files. There are explicit directions on how to set up the permissions for your AFS web space. By default, the files outside your public_html directory are accessible only by yourself and other members of the primary group for your area. Your public_html directory, however, will be created with the correct permissions for others to view the pages, and for you to modify them. If you want to allow other people to edit the files, you can put their onyens in the appropriate group, as described in the document.

You will need to ensure that all your local path names are relative (e.g. abcd) rather than absolute (e.g. http://www.unc.edu/abcd ). This will allow the pages to continue to work if they are moved to another location.

AFS and CGI Scripts

If your group utilizes cgi-bin scripts, the scripts will be placed in a separate subdirectory at the top level of your AFS hierarchy. This separation is done for security reasons. You can change the name of this cgi-bin directory, in which case (1) your html references will need to be changed and (2) you will need to open a ticket at help.unc.edu to redirect the web servers to the new directory.

As you work with your files and modify the groups allowed to edit them, you must retain the group atn:webhosts on the directories. This group is made up of the ITS web servers. These servers need to be able to read the pages in public_html and below, and need to have l (lookup) permission on the directory containing public_html . If this group is not on the ACL of either directory, the web pages for your unit will not be accessible. Similarly, the cgi-bin directory must have atn:webhosts rl permissions.


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