From owner-freebsd-questions  Tue May 28 12:09:22 1996
Return-Path: owner-questions
Received: (from root@localhost)
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id MAA22177
          for questions-outgoing; Tue, 28 May 1996 12:09:22 -0700 (PDT)
Received: from mistery.mcafee.com (jimd@mistery.mcafee.com [192.187.128.69])
          by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id MAA22171
          for <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>; Tue, 28 May 1996 12:09:20 -0700 (PDT)
Received: (from jimd@localhost) by mistery.mcafee.com (8.6.11/8.6.9) id MAA19058; Tue, 28 May 1996 12:27:24 -0700
From: Jim Dennis <jimd@mistery.mcafee.com>
Message-Id: <199605281927.MAA19058@mistery.mcafee.com>
Subject: Re: BBS's and Menu System
To: zgabor@CoDe.hu (Gabor Zahemszky)
Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 12:27:23 -0700 (PDT)
Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, root@netpc.com
In-Reply-To: <199605281540.PAA01600@CoDe.CoDe.hu> from "Gabor Zahemszky" at May 28, 96 03:40:31 pm
X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL24]
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org
X-Loop: FreeBSD.org
Precedence: bulk




> > does anyone know of any good menu systems for use in shell accounts?
> 1)  You can use the (pd)ksh's and bash's select command to generate simple
> menus, or

> 2)  Get the dialog utility (or write your own command with libdialog - as
> the sysinstall command)
> and make little shell scripts to generate a menu.

	In the ports collection there is an 'mshell-1.0' (apparently
	developed by NYX).  It appears to be a menuing system designed
	to be used as a shell.

	It is also possible to compile 'Lynx' with local execution
	enabled.  You can then create html pages that provide a 
	very flexible menuing interface.

	Personally I'd look at the latter option for several reasons:

	*	You probably already know how to write HTML.  Lynx
		local execution links are just a URL of the form:

			<A href="lynxprog:/usr/bin/foo">
		Run The Foo Program (from the /usr/bin dir)</A>

		('lynxprog' is for interactive programs, 'lynxexec'
		is for non-interactive program (like 'ls') and 
		'lynxcgi' is an unusual one that allows local execution
		of cgi scripts -- which I don't completely understand
		I just execute normal CGI through the httpd on the 
		localhost)


	*	You can integrate your menus with their own documentation.

	*	You can integrate your menus and documentation with 
		your internal webserver (if you have one) and with 
		the world-wide-web itself.

	*	There's built in, full screen, menu oriented ftp
		(including non-anonymous using links like:
		 "ftp://user@ftp.host.org/path")

	*   It's quick.

	* 	You can create forms and tie them into your CGI scripts
		(for things like account and alias requests)

    *	You can use the "DirEd" features to allow users to access
		a variety of file management functions with through the 
		same menu interface (using URL's like: "file://localhost/~")
	
	*	You can allow your more advanced users to edit their own
	 	menu and other files.  This may be particularly handy
		if they have a ~/public_html directory to maintain.

	*	There are a number of restrictions that can be specified
		on the command line (and can be used to provide some minor
		security limits on some users).

	* 	I suspect that you could statically link it, and your 
		other "approved" binaries and run the whole shebang in a
		chroot'd environment.

	Another option would be 'Midnight Commander' which has 
	extensive custom menuing capabilities in addition to its
	elegant (ncurses/color) full-screen file management interface.

Jim Dennis,
System Administrator,
McAfee Associates