Installation

Here's how to install an ACME News system:

1. Pick a userid to run ACME News as. This should not be root, and should also not be the userid your web server runs as. All subsequent unpacking, compiling, and installing should be done as this userid.
2. Unpack the tarfile in your web directory:

   cd [webpath]
   gunzip acmenews_[date].tar.gz
   tar xpf acmenews_[date].tar
   

3. cd acmenews_[date]
4. cd src
5. Edit the Makefile, take a look at the CONFIGURE options. If your system's web directory is in a non-standard place, you will have to change the CGI_DIR define to match. You may also have to change the OS-dependent defines, for instance if you're on a Solaris machine.
6. make
7. If that worked ok, make install
8. cd ..
9. bin/fix_paths
10. bin/news_update (This important step merges in the user and conference databases from your current ACME News installation, if any, and creates a symbolic link called acmenews that points to the new installation.)
11. Add cron jobs as follows:

    1  *  *  *  *   [webpath]/acmenews/bin/news_hourly
    2 23  *  *  *   [webpath]/acmenews/bin/news_latenight
    2  0  *  *  *   [webpath]/acmenews/bin/news_midnight
    3  0  *  *  0   [webpath]/acmenews/bin/news_weekly
    4  0  1  *  *   [webpath]/acmenews/bin/news_monthly
    

    (I.e. put that stuff in a file, change the [webpath] to match your setup, and feed it to crontab.)
12. Make sure your web server is configured correctly:
    • It must support CGI. For Apache this means editing httpd.conf and adding "ExecCGI" to the Options line:

      diff  -r1.1 httpd.conf
      358c358
      < Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
      ---
      > Options Indexes FollowSymLinks ExecCGI
      

    • It must support index.cgi for directory indexes. For Apache this means editing httpd.conf and adding "index.cgi" to the DirectoryIndex line:

      diff  -r1.1 httpd.conf
      401c401
      < DirectoryIndex index.html
      ---
      > DirectoryIndex index.html index.cgi
      

    • It must allow use of .htaccess files to override global options. For Apache this means editing httpd.conf and changing "AllowOverride None" to "All":

      diff  -r1.1 httpd.conf
      365c365
      < AllowOverride None
      ---
      > AllowOverride All
      

    This is actually a fairly common set of config options, so if someone else has installed your server it may already be set up this way. Otherwise, don't forget to kill and restart httpd after making these changes.
13. Take your browser to the acmenews directory and log in. If this is a first-time installation, use userid admin, password admin.
14. Go to the Admin page and start customizing. Don't forget to change admin's password.