Python Community Server
=======================
         --> alpha test v0.05

PyCS is still unstable.  It's suitable for running a web server on - it's 
running http://www.pycs.net/ quite happily - but it may require some hacking to 
get it to work on your system.

Here are some notes to get you going.


DEPENDENCIES
	
	Medusa - http://www.nightmare.com/medusa/
	
		Unpack this into the same dir as PyCS.
	
	
	MetaKit - http://www.equi4.com/metakit/python.html
	
		Install this as usual.  Put Mk4py.so and metakit.py into your 
		PyCS dir if it doesn't work.
	
	
	xmlrpclib - http://www.pythonware.com/products/xmlrpc/
	
		Just install this as you usually would.


NOTES

	Installation:
	
		To install, first edit pycs.conf and change the settings to ones 
		that make sense for you.  'serverhostname' should be your host, 
		and 'serverport' should be the port you want to run on.  The 
		server runs on port 5445 by default - change this to 80 if you 
		don't have another server running on the same machine.
		
	
	Virtual Hosting:
	
		If you already have a copy of Apache running on your box and 
		want PyCS to only serve requests for a certain (virtual) host or 
		group of hosts, you can accomplish this with mod_rewrite and 
		mod_proxy.
		
		Put the following in your VirtualHost block:
	
			RewriteEngine On
			RewriteRule ^(.+) http://127.0.0.1:5445/~~vhost~~/%{HTTP_HOST}$1 [P]
		
		This way, Apache will send the requested hostname through to the 
		PyCS server, allowing it to work out virtual hosts on its own. 
		See rewrite.conf for more info on how to do this.
		
		Here's a more complete example of a VirtualHost block that 
		proxies requests through to a PyCS server.
		
		
		        DocumentRoot /var/www/external
		        ServerAlias pycs.net rcs.myelin.cjb.net
		        ServerAlias pycs.net *.pycs.net
		        ServerName pycs.net
		
		        ErrorLog /var/log/apache/rcs-error.log
		        CustomLog /var/log/apache/rcs-access.log combined
		
		        RewriteEngine On
			RewriteRule ^(.+) http://127.0.0.1:5445/~~vhost~~/%{HTTP_HOST}$1 [P]
		
		
		This tells Apache that requests for pycs.net, *.pycs.net and 
		rcs.myelin.cjb.net should be sent through to the PyCS using the 
		~~vhost~~ syntax (see rewrite.conf for more info), and that 
		logging should go to /var/log/apache/rcs-{error,access}.log.
		
	
	Security:
	
		You'll want to run PyCS as an unprivileged user.  It will do 
		this automatically one day, but for the moment it just runs as 
		whoever started it.  Create another user, copy all the files 
		into their home dir, give them rwx to the www/ directory and rx 
		to everytihng else, and run as them.
	

	Logging:
	
		It dumps its log to stdout at the moment; pipe that to where you 
		want the log to go.  There's a logging framework built into 
		Medusa, but I haven't told it where to send things yet.


CONCLUSION

	If anyone wants to fix anything or add features, go ahead!
	
	BUT: join the mailing list and announce what you're about to do first, 
	so everyone else knows not to work on the same thing.

	To join the list, mail pycs-request@myelin.co.nz and put 'subscribe 
	pycs' in the body of your message.

	Cheers,
		Phil 

OFFICIAL WEB PAGES

	Project:

		http://www.pycs.net/
		http://pycs.sourceforge.net/

	Author:

		http://www.myelin.co.nz/