Hi George, On Thu, 11 Oct 2001, George Sanderson wrote:
> Is there anything special about putting things, like, [OT] in the subject > line, other than being informative? See attached. 73, Ged.
This document is named "admin.txt". Introduction to The mod_perl Mailing List ----------------------------------------- Ninety percent of the questions asked on the List have already been asked before, and answers will be found at one of the links below. Before you post to the mod_perl List, please read the following. Hopefully it will save you (and everyone else) some time. Except where noted the language of all documents is English. 1. What is mod_perl? http://perl.apache.org/guide/intro.html#What_is_mod_perl 2. What you need to know to be able to use mod_perl You need to know about Apache, CGI and of course about Perl itself. There are links to extensive resources covering these and other topics on the mod_perl home - see below for the URI. If you already have Perl on your machine then it's likely that you already have the Perl documentation. Try typing `perldoc perldoc' and `man perl'. 3. How to get help with mod_perl itself http://perl.apache.org is the mod_perl home, it has links for everything related to mod_perl. 3.1. Documentation which comes with the distribution Read the documents which came with mod_perl, particularly the ones named INSTALL, README and SUPPORT. Also read the documents to which they refer. Read all the relevant documentation about your operating system, any tools you use such as compilers and databases, and about the Apache Web server. You will get a much better response from the mod_perl List if you can show that you have made the effort of reading the documentation. 3.2. Other documentation There are dozens of references to many authoritative resources at http://perl.apache.org/guide/help.html These references cover many topics other than mod_perl itself. See also the section below about the mod_perl Guide. 4. How to get on (and off!) the mod_perl mailing List Traffic on the mod_perl List can be high at times, several hundred posts per week, so you might want to consider subscribing to the mod_perl Digest List as an alternative to the mod_perl List. 4.1. To get on the Lists There are two stages to getting on the list. Firstly you have to send a mail message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> You will receive a reply with detailed instructions. Secondly you have to do what it says in the instructions. After you are subscribed you will receive a messsage with lots of useful information about the List. Read it. Print it, even. Save a copy of it. You *can* get another copy of it, but then you'll feel silly. 4.2. To get off the List Instructions on how to unsubscribe are posted in the headers of every message which you receive from the List. Basically you have to send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Instructions on how to get help are also posted in the headers of every message which you receive from the List. Send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> 5. To post to the List "Posting" to the List is just sending a message to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. Your message will not be accepted unless you have first subscribed, see the section above. Do not post questions to <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, except to subscribe to the list! Please do not post to the List to unsubscribe. 5.1. Private mail Please do not send private mail to List members unless it is invited. 5.2. Other tips 5.2.1. PLEASE read the information in sections 1, 2 and 3 above before posting. Please also try to see if your question has been asked recently, there are links to searchable archives of the List on the mod_perl home page <http://perl.apache.org>. 5.2.2. The "Subject:" line is important. Choose an *informative* "Subject:" line for the mail header. Busy List members will skip messages with unclear subjects. See also 5.2.8 below. 5.2.3. To save time and to keep badwidth usage to a minimum, please keep posts reasonably short, but please make it clear precisely what you are asking. If you can, send a *small* example which reproduces your problem. Please do not send long scripts which cannot easily be understood. Please do not send large attachments of many kilobytes, if they are needed then put them on the Web somewhere or say in your message that you can send them separately if they are needed. 5.2.4. Don't forget that the people reading the list have no idea even what operating system your computer runs unless you tell them. Include at least the information requested in the document entitled SUPPORT which you will find in the mod_perl distribution. You can see an <A HREF="http://perl.apache.org/maillist/goodpost.html";> excellent example</A> of a post with good supporting information on the mod_perl site. The followup posts show you how easy the writer made it for the person who replied to deduce the problem and recommend a solution. 5.2.5. Sometimes you will not get a reply. Try again after a few days. Sometimes the replies you get will be very short. Please do not worry about that. People are very busy, that's all. 5.2.6. Post in PLAIN TEXT. Do not post in HTML. Microsoft users in particular should take careful note of this. Use either the US-ASCII or ISO-8859-1 (Latin-1) character set, do not use other character sets which may be designed for those who do not speak English and which may not be displayable on many terminals. If you ignore this advice then the chances are greater that your message will not be read. 5.2.7. If you include error messages in your post, make sure that they are EXACTLY the messages which you saw. Try not to say things like "the computer said something about not recognizing a command". Try instead to say something like this: "When logged in as root I typed the command `httpd -X' at the console and on the console I saw the message Syntax error on line 393 of /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf: Invalid command 'PerlHandler', perhaps mis-spelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration [FAILED]" 5.2.8. It can be helpful if you use a tag [in square brackets] in the "Subject:" line, as well as the brief description of your post. It does not matter whether you use [UPPER CASE] or [lower case] or even a [Mixture Of Both] in the tag. Some suggested tags are: ADMIN Stuff about running the List. ADVOCACY Promoting the use of mod_perl, printing T-shirts, stuff like that. Please don't start another discussion about whether we should put this on a different list, we've been there before. ANNOUNCE Announcements of new software tools, packages and updates. ASP Joshua Chamas' implementation of Perl embedded in HTML. BENCHMARK Apache/mod_perl performance issues. BUG Report of possible fault in mod_perl or associated software - it's better if you can send a patch instead! DBI Stuff generally concerning Apache/mod_perl interaction with databases. FYI For information only. JOB Any post about mod_perl jobs is welcome as long as it is brief and to the point. Note: Not "JOBS". MASON Jonathan Swartz' implementation of Perl embedded in HTML. NEWS Items of news likely to be interesting to mod_perlers. OffTopic Or [OT] Off-topic items, please try to keep traffic low. PATCH Suggested fix for fault in mod_perl or associated software. QUESTION Questions about mod_perl which is not covered by one of the more specific headings. RareModules Occasional reminders about little-used modules on CPAN. RFC Requests for comment from the mod_perl community. SITE Stuff about running the Apache/mod_perl servers. SUMMARY After investigation and perhaps fixing a fault, and after an extended discussion of a specific topic, it is helpful if someone summarizes the thread. Don't be shy, everyone will appreciate the effort. If you can't find a tag which fits your subject, don't worry. If you have a very specific subject to discuss, feel free to choose your own tag, for example [mod_proxy] or [Perl Sections] but remember that the main reasons for the "Subject:" line are to save people time and to improve the response to your posts. 5.2.9. If you are replying to a post, please include SHORT excerpts from the post to which you are replying so that others can follow the 'thread' of the conversation without having to wade through reams of superfluous text. If you are lazy about this the messages can get very long indeed and become a burden to the other people who might be trying to help. 5.3. The mod_perl List is NOT for general Perl and Apache questions. You could try one of the comp.lang newsgroups. From time to time there are efforts to start a dedicated Perl mailing List and these usually result in a message or two on the mod_perl List, so it might be worth your while to search the archives, see 5.2.1. Please note that there are now separate mailing lists for EmbPerl and Mason, but although we keep trying to get a separate List off the ground for "Advocacy" it always seems to end up back on the mod_perl List. The majority view is tolerant of off-topic posts, but it is considered impolite to post general Perl and Apache questions here. The best you can hope for is a private reply and a polite reminder that the question is off-topic for this List. If you catch someone on a bad day, you might not get the best. There are often bad days in software development departments... 6. Replying to posts 6.1. The "Subject:" line Make sure that you include the exact "Subject:" from the original post, unmodified. This makes it much easier for people (and for the mail software) to deal with the mail. If you must change the subject line then please append the words "was originally" plus the original subject line to your new subject line so that folks can see what is going on. 6.2. If you know that the intended recipients are subscribed to the List, there is no need to send messages both to them and to the List. They will get more than one copy of the message which is wasteful. 6.3. Private replies It is helpful to keep most of your replies on the List, so that others see that help is being given and so they do not waste time on problems which have already been solved. Where it is appropriate to take a discussion off the List (for example where it veers off-topic, as often happens), say so in a message so that everyone is aware of it. 6.4. Flames The readers of the mod_perl List aren't interested in that kind of thing. Don't get involved. 7. The mod_perl Guide You absolutely *must* read the mod_perl Guide. It is a large document, you probably will want to download it and read it off-line. If you get the source (see below) it comes with a build file to turn the .pod (Plain Old Documentation) source into HTML, .ps (PostScript) and .pdf (Portable Document Format). You will need at least Perl version 5.005 to build it. If you browse the Guide on-line you can use one of the search engines to find things in it. If you build and browse your own local HTML copy of the Guide, some of the links in it will not work unless you are connected to the Internet. Some people prefer to work offline, using tools like `grep' or `mc' to search the .pod source directly. 7.1. Finding the Guide The URL of the Guide is: http://perl.apache.org/guide The sources are available from CPAN and other mirrors: http://www.perl.com/CPAN-local/authors/id/S/ST/STAS A long time ago it was called the "mini-guide" and you might still find it called that in some older documents. It is now over 600 pages long, so it is not really "mini" any more. 7.2. Corrections and contributions - getting the Guide source Corrections and additions to the Guide are welcome. The original is kept in .pod format, and it is converted to other formats by Perl code. The Guide changes rather frequently (the CVS snapshot is updated every six hours!) so if you want to make a contribution make sure that you get the latest version of the Guide source from http://stason.org/guide-snapshots and make your changes to the .pod source only. In the first instance, post your changes to the mod_perl List for comment. ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This document is named "admin.txt". Its URI is "ftp://ftp.jubileegroup.co.uk/pub/mod_perl/admin/admin.txt"; This version dated 18 December 2000. This document is maintained by Ged W. Haywood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Disclaimer: >/dev/null ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 11 Jun 2000 Initial publication for comment 18 Dec 2000 Minor corrections and additions
