Last modified on 09/16/98

Installing The Board


	We just revised the makefile and it should make compilation and
installation a little easier.  There is now a makefile in the top level
directory.  You will be able to preform all operations from there.
Also we added the file Config.mk.  This file will contain definable options
that you will need to edit. Specificly you need to change the owner and group
settings to whomever will be running the bbs. You can also change the
directories that the software will install into.  By default it will install
into /theboard.  Before this version you were unable to change the base
directory for The Board because it was hardcoded into the source.  We
removed all entries of it so it should work no matter what diretory it is
located in but we have not done much testing of it so there might still be
some problems.  Also there are some options in the file src/include/config.h.

	To compile the system just type make.  This will build all of the
binaries.  Then type make install-full to install everything.  If you just
want to install the new binaries type make install.  You will only need to
do this if you are upgrading from a prior release.  If you are currently
running The Board on your system you do not want to run make install full as
it will replace all of your old data files with new ones.

	If you want to install The Board in a directory other than /theboard
you will have to edit Config.mk and src/include/config.h.  Just change the
entries for the base directory from /theboard to wherever ou want to put it.
After that you can compile it with make install-full.

	Once installed you need to configure the system.  The data directory
(/theboard/dat by default) contains most of the files that the system loads
on startup.  These are text files and can be edited with any text editor.


There should be five binaries in the bin directory.  They are:
	
	menu - This is the main component of The Board.  It is a menu shell
	       for The Board.  This is how The Board is started.  For most
	       users this will be set as there default shell.  It can also
	       be executed at the shell prompt.

	tbserver - This program needs to be running at all times.  It is
		   mainly used for internode comunications and is required
		   to be running in order to execute the menu shell.

	tbforum - This is the forum system.  It is executed with the forum
	          number as a parameter.  It is usually called from the menu
		  shell.

	tbfedit - This is the forum editor.  It is executed with the forum
	          number as a parameter.  It is usually called by tbforum
		  with the '*' command.  Tbforum will only execute it if the
		  user is the forum sysop.

	tbsystem - This program is for the sysop.  It is a console with some
	           sysop commands and monitoring utilities.  It is also used
		   to accept user pages and chat with users.


	You need to start tbserver in order to run any of The Board's
executables.  The best way to run it would be in your rc.local file.  This
way it gets started automaticly at boot time.  It doesn't take up any
processor time when not in use, it will just sit there till someone
connects.  It no long needs to be executed in the background.  Thanks to
Michael Stowe it now runs as a daemon.

	Once running you should be able to startup the menu shell by typing
menu at the prompt.


If you have any questions you can direct them to Darren Braun <dbraun@gte.net>

You can also post questions in The Board support forum that comes as a
sample forum with this system.

