Miva Support Tech Note #2
Renaming Files/Aliases To Avoid Compatibility Problems
February 11, 2000

email: support@miva.com
Web: http://www.miva.com/support
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In this tech note:
* Staying Backwards Compatible When Changing Configurations
* Using A Second Renamed Miva Binary File For A Secure Server
* Changing Script Aliases To Avoid Conflicts Local Cgi Apps
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* Staying Backwards Compatible When Changing Configurations

If you are implementing the use of the redirectonly and/or
validextensions configuration options for the first time
(See tech note #1) but want to avoid backwards compatibility
problems with sites that may be using urls like:

site.com/cgi-bin/miva?path/file.mv

And:

site.com/path/file.mv

You can do the following.

Your CGI-redirect would currently be set up in your srm.conf
or httpd.conf like:

# === BEGIN MIVA CONFIGURATION ===
AddType application/x-miva .mv
Action application/x-miva /cgi-bin/miva
# === END MIVA CONFIGURATION ===


If you make a copy of the 'miva' binary file and name it
'miva-redirect' you can then change your CGI-redirect to:

# === BEGIN MIVA CONFIGURATION ===
AddType application/x-miva .mv
Action application/x-miva /cgi-bin/miva-redirect
# === END MIVA CONFIGURATION ===

Then in a copy of the 'miva.conf' named 'miva-redirect.conf'
you can set:
redirectonly=yes

And comment out or remove the:
validextensions=.mv,.hts

This will allow urls to .mv files (Or other extensions
assigned with similar Add Type directives) yet disallow
urls like:

somesite.com/cgi-bin/miva-redirect?file.mv

But in the miva.conf you can comment out or remove the:
redirectonly=yes

And make sure you have a line like:
validextensions=.mv,.hts

This would allow urls like:
somesite.com/cgi-bin/miva?path/file.mv

Or:
somesite.com/cgi-bin/miva?path/file.hts

But not allow similar urls to files with any other extensions.


NOTE: This will allow users to call files of alternate
extensions such as .htm, .pl, .foo directly if additional
AddType's are added to the srm.conf, httpd.conf, or to an
.htaccess file on a given site like:

AddType application/x-miva .htm
AddType application/x-miva .pl
AddType application/x-miva .foo

But will not allow their use if the Action directive is used
like:

Action application/x-miva /cgi-bin/miva

The reason being that there would already be an action set
to the /cgi-bin/miva-redirect which has no validextensions
restrictions, but actions set to /cgi-bin/miva will be restricted
to the validextensions set in the miva.conf

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* Using A Second Renamed Miva Binary File For A Secure Server

Another good use of a copied and renamed Miva binary file is
when there is a need for configurations for a secure server
that differ from the non-secure server. You can name a copy
of the binary something like 'smiva' or 'miva-ssl' and then
have an 'smiva.conf' or 'miva-ssl.conf' file with configuration
options specific for those needs.

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* Changing Script Aliases To Avoid Conflicts Local Cgi Apps

If you want to run The Miva Binary from a global cgi-bin, --
for space saving, ease of configuration, etc. -- and conflicts
with cgi applications running in local cgi-bins, you can change
the ScriptAlias in the httpd.conf or srm.conf file.

It would normally look like:

# === BEGIN MIVA CONFIGURATION ===
ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/
AddType application/x-miva .mv
Action application/x-miva /miva-bin/miva
# === END MIVA CONFIGURATION ===

And you could would change it to:

# === BEGIN MIVA CONFIGURATION ===
# Set alias for global cgi-bin to be called miva-bin
ScriptAlias /miva-bin/ /home/httpd/cgi-bin/
AddType application/x-miva .mv
Action application/x-miva /miva-bin/miva
# === END MIVA CONFIGURATION ===

This causes the .mv files to use an alias of /miva-bin/
which won't conflict with the calls to /cgi-bin/ when trying
to run applications in a local cgi-bin.
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Non-Internet Access Information
Miva Corporation
2629 Ariane Drive
San Diego, CA 92117
858-490-2570: voice - For Support Press 3
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All other trademarks are the property of their respective
owners. This document is copyright 2000 Miva Corporation.
All rights reserved.
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-Jeff Huber
Support Manager
Miva Corporation