NAME

minivend - an e-commerce and general HTTP database display system

SYNOPSIS

minivend [--options] [file]

VERSION

4.0

DESCRIPTION

MiniVend is a database access and retrieval system focused on e-commerce. It allows customers to select items to buy from catalog pages. The program tracks user information in sessions and interacts with an HTTP server through sockets.

MiniVend has many, many, functions and features; they are too numerous to describe in this venue. Complete information can be found at its web site:

http://www.minivend.com

MiniVend requires Perl 5.005 or higher; more information on Perl can be seen at:

http://www.perl.com

OPTIONS

MiniVend uses the Getopt::Long module, and most options will be recognized if they uniquely identifiable. The canonical forms are:

-a, --add

Add a catalog to the system. Information taken from the input file (or standard input). Implies reconfig=catalog. Example:

echo "Catalog simple /catalogs/simple /simple.cgi" | bin/minivend -a

The information is in the form of a standard MiniVend catalog line, and must be in the single-line format.

-b catalog, --build=catalog

Build static page tree for catalog.

-d dir, --dir=dir

Directory for VendRoot. This is where the MiniVend configuration file will be looked for (if not redefined with -f), and where the log file will go (if not redefined with the ErrorFile directive).

-e name, --exclude=name

Exclude catalog from this startup.

-f file, --config=file

Configuration file to use (default is minivend.cfg in VendRoot).

--files spec

File specification to build (perl regexp OK) for static page tree

-h, --help

Display help on command line options.

-i, --inetmode

Run with internet-domain socket only. Normally MiniVend runs with both UNIX- and internet-domain sockets (except on Windows).

--kill [signal]

By default, kills the server ungracefully with signal KILL (9, usually). The optional signal will be sent instead if supplied.

-q, --quiet

Suppress informational messages on startup. Only errors are shown.

--reconfig=name

Cause only catalog name to re-read its configuration.

--remove=catalog

Remove a catalog from operation; any future requests will get a not-found message.

-r, --restart

Stop and restart the server. This may take a long time if many catalogs are in use, and will temporarily take the system offline. If you want to change a UserTag, use the --add option instead.

--serve

This is the default if no mode options (--reconfig, --kill, --restart, etc.) are supplied.

--stop

Stop server gracefully with a TERM signal.

-t, --test

Report problems with config files; causes a complete configuration of the Minivend server but no server start.

-u, --unix

Run with unix-domain socket only. Normally MiniVend runs with both UNIX- and internet-domain sockets. This will not work on Windows.

-v, --version

Display program version.

-D, --DEBUG

Run foreground in debug mode. It is normal to receive warnings about various things.

Directive=value

Set a MiniVend global directive upon start (or --restart). Example:

minivend SocketPerms=0666

This will start the server and override the default of SocketPerms or the value set in minivend.cfg for this instance only. Any --restarts must re-specify the directive if it is still to have that value.

name:Directive=value

Set a MiniVend directive for catalog name upon start (or --restart). Example:

minivend simple:VendURL="http://localhost/cgi-bin/simple"

This will start the server and override the default of VendURL for the value set in catalog.cfg for this instance only. Any --restarts must re-specify the directive if it is still to have that value.

LICENSE

MiniVend comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute and modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

COPYRIGHT

Copyright 1995-2000, Mike Heins. All rights reserved except as in the license.

AUTHOR

Mike Heins, <mikeh@minivend.com>. Please do not contact the author for direct help with the system. Use the Minivend mail lists:

minivend-users@minivend.com (English, subscribe at majordomo@Minivend.com)
minivend-de@minivend.com    (Deutsch, subscribe at majordomo@Minivend.com)

General information and documentation for Minivend is at:

http://www.minivend.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Original author of the Vend was Andrew Wilcox. MiniVend was based on Vend 0.2, with portions from Vend 0.3; both were produced in 1995.

Contributions to MiniVend have been made by:

Andreas Koenig         
Birgitt Funk           
Bob Jordan             
Brian Bullen           
Bruce Albrecht         
Christian Mueller
Don Grodecki           
Frank Bonita           
Gunnar Hellekson       
Heinz Wittenbecher     
Keiko                    
Jochen Wiedmann
Larry Leszczynski
Marc Austin
Michael McCune
Mike Frager
Raj Goel
Stefan Hornburg   
Tim Baverstock
William Dan Terry
many others       

and, of course, the entire Perl team without whom MiniVend could not exist.