Richard and all
(i'm replying directly to the list, as i've already mailed Richard, and
this is probably of enough global interest. One of the problems with this
list is that i almost always get people's summaries so shortly after their
initial request that i don't have time to inject my knowledge on something
directly to the original poster. Then i just learned that the list will
reject anything with "Subject: Re: ..." argh, okay, try again...)
(this gets long and somewhat technical, but for those who really want to
control their UNIX netscape installs at the system level should look into
it).
(For the sake of brevity, i will not include my configurations here, but will
make them available at:
http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dowdy/netscape_cfg/
with a README file in that directory. You might want to view this stuff
first before reading this letter, as this letter is more obtuse than
looking at the scripts and the README.
)
You can also get the "Mission Control Desktop" package which costs $$$ to
maintain this type of control of netscape at the system level. I'm really
torqued that netscape doesn't provide any "out of the box" system-level
configuration ability.
This KSH "front-end" thing that Bob Vickers provided is what i *used* to
do until i got hold of the Netscape Client Customization Kit for Windows
(last i read, this was FREE if you signed up on their web page and adhere
to their regulations for its use). It contains a JAVA application called
"config_ed". You can run this on a UNIX platform, but it does include
a few configuration variables specific to Windows :-( (and might miss
some for UNIX). However, if you only use "config_ed" to *encode* an
existing "config.jsc" file into a "netscape.cfg" file, it's perfectly
adequate. (the CCK download, if i recall was something ungodly like 150MB
or something, of which 'config_ed' is like 350KB, argh).
If you were to, (god forbid), mocha-decode the "config_ed" package and
reverse engineer the encoding scheme used to build the "netscape.cfg"
encoded file, you might find that it's a simple ROT7 algorithm with a
(secret) keyed MD5 checksum heading (and subsequent ROT-7 to decode). But
you aren't allowed to do that to make yourself a standalone encode/decode
application that would be oh so much more convenient!!!
Even UNIX netscapes will read the encoded 'netscape.cfg' file. This is
better than hacking on the users' 'preferences.js' files, as it provides
a FALLBACK setting, instead of overriding a user's setting. (You can
also "LOCK" settings to keep them from being changed in the users
preferences.js if you like that kind of thing) Additionally, via this
mechanism, you can change menus (like the HELP menus), and add stuff to
the ABOUT: screen...
Now, i used to have a 'netscape.cfg' that only had some lines in it that
did something like:
// Point the browser to a plain-text file we can *EASILY* modify
config("autoadmin.global_config_url","file:/tools/cs/netscape-4.5/config.jsc");
This file was then encoded into the 'netscape.cfg' file netscape wants,
and i could then easily modify the *REAL* configuration that netscape was
fooled into accessing.
This works in ns4.5, but not in 4.08 ("You can't use an autoadmin
reference using FILE:"), which says to me that netscape figured out
this "workaround" to their $$ Mission Control Desktop $$ package (which
serves autoadmin configurations via HTTP). ARGH. So now i still have
to go through a modify->encrypt cycle to get the 'config_ed' output
'netscape.cfg' that netscape wants. (i haven't tried this in netscape 4.51
yet.).
--stephen
--
Stephen Dowdy - Systems Administrator - CS Dept - Univ of Colorado, Boulder
dowdy_at_cs.colorado.edu - 303-492-6196 - http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dowdy/
{ NO Cold Sales Calls !!! }
----- End Included Message -----
--
Stephen Dowdy - Systems Administrator - CS Dept - Univ of Colorado, Boulder
dowdy_at_cs.colorado.edu - 303-492-6196 - http://www.cs.colorado.edu/~dowdy/
{ NO Cold Sales Calls !!! }
Received on Thu Apr 15 1999 - 18:58:19 NZST