Archive It!

The fastest and easiest way to back up your web site.

Copyright 1999 Quicomm

 

Installation and Use


1. Before configuring Archive It!, you should determine:

a. The full path name of the zip application on your server (typically /usr/contrib/bin/zip, /usr/local/bin/zip, etc.)

b. The full path name of your root web site (typically /u/web/your_login/www, but this will highly depend on how your hosting company has setup your site root directory).

c. The full path name of your cgibin directory (also desiginated as cgi-bin, cgi-local and typically something like /u/web/your_login/cgibin)

(Note: if you have successfully run our test script, then you have already completed Steps 2 and 3 and can directly proceed to step 4)

2. Create the directory Archive_It somewhere on your site. IF POSSIBLE, this directory should lie outside the path of your www directory. Record the full path name of this directory (typically something like /u/web/your_login/Archive_It).

3. Create the directory Archives within the Archive_It directory. Set the permissions on this directory to 777, which is read, write, execute for owner, group, and all.

4. Edit the file archive_it.htm. Replace the string YOUR_WEB_SITE in the FORM call with the correct URL to the archive_it1.cgi script which will be uploaded into your cgi directory.

5. Upload the files archive_it.htm and archive_it_results.htm into the Archive_It directory.

6. Open the Perl script archive_it_config.cgi in a plain text editor. Modify each of the five defined variables with information appropriate for your web site.

Specifically:

#your chosen password to run the archive_it script
$Password = "Your Chosen Password";

# this path is the full path of the Archive_It directory which you created on your site
$MasterArchiveDirectory = "/u/web/your_login/Archive_It";

# this path is the full path of your cgi directory on your web site
$CGIDirectory = "/u/web/your_login/cgibin";

# this path is the full path of the directory under which all directories will be listed for archiving
# it should be the upper most directory of your web site

$TopDirectory = "/u/web/your_login/www";

# this path is the full path to run the zip application (can be just zip if the app is in the default path of cgi sessions)
$ZipPath = "/usr/contrib/bin/zip";

Save these changes.

7. Upload the Perl scripts archive_it.cgi, archive_it1.cgi and archive_it_config.cgi to the cgi directory of your web site.

8. Change the permissions on each of these script files so that they will run on your server (typically 755, which is read, write, execute for owner, and only read and execute for group and all others).

9. You are now all set to run Archive It!. You call the script directly from your browser, such as:

http://www.mysite.com/cgibin/archive_it.cgi

Provided everything has been setup correctly you will see the Archive It Directory and File selection table. The first time the script is run, all Directories and Files in your root directory are selected (checked). Uncheck any of those that you do not wish to archive. Then select the number of archives you wish to retain (the oldest archives over this number will be automatically deleted and replaced with a new archive). Finally, just click the Archive It! button. That's it!

The next time you wish to archive your site you will just have to run the script

http://www.mysite.com/cgibin/archive_it.cgi

and click the Archive_It! button.

IMPORTANT: If you could not place the Archive_It directory in a path outside of your www path, then this directory (and all of your archives) may be accessible to outside intruders. For this reason you should either apply .htaccess priviledges to the Archive_It directory OR change the permissions on this directory to 700 (read, write, execute only for the owner).

We also strongly recommend that you routinely download the latest of your archives for safekeeping on your desktop machine.