NPAC Development Servers FAQ

General hints

Error Logs

It is always worth looking at the server error logs for a fuller explanation of why your program failed. These can be found in:

/home/B6H/development/newton_server/logs/error_log /home/B6H/development/deneb_server/logs/error_log /home/B6H/development/kayak_server/logs/error_log

for newton, deneb and kayak respectively logs are deleted every night. The simplest way off looking at the last few errors in the log file is to use the Unix tail command.

Copying files

It is possible to copy files directly from newton and deneb onto the NPAC WWW server. The server document root is mounted on newton and deneb as:

/usr/local/archives/public/html/

The class directories are located in projects/.

Specific Questions

My CGI program gives "403 Forbidden" messages.

Check the permissions on the CGI program. CGI programs must be executable by the server process. This usually means world executable. Change this using

chmod w+rx
[filename]

My Java applet gives "Applet can't start: java.lang.ClassFormatError"

Maybe this copy of the Java applet is corrupted in some way. Check the following:

Make sure you can run this copy of the applet from the appletviewer.
If you have another copy of the applet that works check they are the same using the Unix diff command. You may have transfered the applet using ftp in ASCII mode which would corrupt it. Either transfer the file using ftp in binary mode or use Unix cp to copy it.

I Cannot access the NPAC Internal server with my browser

The NPAC Internal Server can only be accessed from within the npac.syr.edu domain. Run your browser on one of these machines in order to access the internal server.

My C/C++ code doesn't run on the development server

Make sure that the code you are running is compiled for the same machine architecture as the web server you are trying to run it on. Errors like those below in the server error log mean that the server has found your CGI program but doesn't recognise it as a binary executable. It will try to execute it as a shell script with predictable results.

UX:sh (T): ERROR: \201^C^A^K^A@: Not found
UX:sh (T): ERROR: ^WXÔâ^H^C^HÂb^H\200\220^A^B\200^D^A@^J^A@P^D^A@^Fã\234# @P^C

Recompile your code on a machine of the same type in order to get it to run correctly.

Written by Ade Miller, 1st Feb 1996.
Last updated 22nd Apr 1996.