Date: Tue, 28 May 1996 12:27:23 -0700 (PDT) From: Jim Dennis <jimd@mistery.mcafee.com> To: zgabor@CoDe.hu (Gabor Zahemszky) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, root@netpc.com Subject: Re: BBS's and Menu System Message-ID: <199605281927.MAA19058@mistery.mcafee.com> In-Reply-To: <199605281540.PAA01600@CoDe.CoDe.hu> from "Gabor Zahemszky" at May 28, 96 03:40:31 pm
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> > 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
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