FWIW ... Here's how I got it to run.
First, I unzip/untar on a Windows machine, then FTP the files to the server in the right layout, but it means I need to set file permissions on Unix (and so will you). The program does _NOT_ appear to require any configuration data to be set up first, or to be written to disk. BTW.. if you don't have your path to perl on your server set to both /usr/local/bin/perl and /usr/bin/perl (or it's somewhere else completely) you will have to edit the first line of the mysql.cgi file as well.
Install into a directory, for example:
/cgi-bin/mysqlman/
The directory permissions should be set to 755, which is the Unix default. You then want to set the file mysql.cgi to 755, so you can run it.
Now, for security reasons, you might also want to make sure that this directory is protected, the same way you protected the .../admin directory of your Links SQL install.
Actually, _if_ you don't remember how you did it, you could install this program into the ..../admin directory of the Links program, and put it into a subdirectory ..../admin/mysqlman and it would be password protected by default. (I didn't try this, but there is no reason why it shouldn't work out of the box).
You still need to make sure all the directories it creates are 755, and the mysql.cgi program is chmod 755 as well. Everything else can be 744. (rwxr--r--)
Then, all you need to do is run the /cgi-bin/mysqlman/mysql.cgi program.
Enter your database host (for most people on a dedicated server it will be localhost, but the name will be whatever you used for the Links SQL connect -- you can check one of the .def files to find out. Whatever is in your:
$db_host = 'localhost';
Line should work.
Then enter your database ID and Password,a nd you should be up and running.
Now, theoretical concerns.... if you don't password protect the directory, then the only protection you have on the access this program has to your data is what MySQL provides.
If you set MySQL up properly, then that shouldn't be a problem. BUT... MySQL is very difficult to set up properly (in that respect) so my suggestion is DO NOT RELY on MySQL security to protect your data!
Password protect access to the mysql.cgi script. That means you'll have to enter two passwords to get it running.
Now, on the other side... if you _DO_ have MySQL set up properly, and there are several databases, such as a DBMAN, LINKS SQL and BBS database, then you can give people who are helping you access to this program, and they will only be able to modify the databases their MySQL password allows them to have. IF it's the same password -- they have access to everything... but if you have separate passwords and IDs (links/pw_links, bbs/pw_bbs, etc) then MySQL security may be sufficient to protect each database.
If you don't understand any of this -- IGNORE IT --- and just password protect the directories like you did for Links.
Hopefully the promised README will be more clear than this, but this is for those people who just can't wait :)
First, I unzip/untar on a Windows machine, then FTP the files to the server in the right layout, but it means I need to set file permissions on Unix (and so will you). The program does _NOT_ appear to require any configuration data to be set up first, or to be written to disk. BTW.. if you don't have your path to perl on your server set to both /usr/local/bin/perl and /usr/bin/perl (or it's somewhere else completely) you will have to edit the first line of the mysql.cgi file as well.
Install into a directory, for example:
/cgi-bin/mysqlman/
The directory permissions should be set to 755, which is the Unix default. You then want to set the file mysql.cgi to 755, so you can run it.
Now, for security reasons, you might also want to make sure that this directory is protected, the same way you protected the .../admin directory of your Links SQL install.
Actually, _if_ you don't remember how you did it, you could install this program into the ..../admin directory of the Links program, and put it into a subdirectory ..../admin/mysqlman and it would be password protected by default. (I didn't try this, but there is no reason why it shouldn't work out of the box).
You still need to make sure all the directories it creates are 755, and the mysql.cgi program is chmod 755 as well. Everything else can be 744. (rwxr--r--)
Then, all you need to do is run the /cgi-bin/mysqlman/mysql.cgi program.
Enter your database host (for most people on a dedicated server it will be localhost, but the name will be whatever you used for the Links SQL connect -- you can check one of the .def files to find out. Whatever is in your:
$db_host = 'localhost';
Line should work.
Then enter your database ID and Password,a nd you should be up and running.
Now, theoretical concerns.... if you don't password protect the directory, then the only protection you have on the access this program has to your data is what MySQL provides.
If you set MySQL up properly, then that shouldn't be a problem. BUT... MySQL is very difficult to set up properly (in that respect) so my suggestion is DO NOT RELY on MySQL security to protect your data!
Password protect access to the mysql.cgi script. That means you'll have to enter two passwords to get it running.
Now, on the other side... if you _DO_ have MySQL set up properly, and there are several databases, such as a DBMAN, LINKS SQL and BBS database, then you can give people who are helping you access to this program, and they will only be able to modify the databases their MySQL password allows them to have. IF it's the same password -- they have access to everything... but if you have separate passwords and IDs (links/pw_links, bbs/pw_bbs, etc) then MySQL security may be sufficient to protect each database.
If you don't understand any of this -- IGNORE IT --- and just password protect the directories like you did for Links.
Hopefully the promised README will be more clear than this, but this is for those people who just can't wait :)