Unix Services

"pubweb" Public Web Page service

The "pubweb" service, or Public Web Page service, provides an opportunity for users to easily share data on the web via their account on the ITD Unix Services managed scientific computing servers.  Any user with a valid BNL Unix account may use the pubweb.bnl.gov server.  If you do not have one, go to the BNL Account Request Form and request a "Unix Systems" account.

• Publishing - How to put files on the web
  • scp, sftp
  • Samba
• Your URL - How to reach your web page
  • SSL & HTTPS
• Access Control - Optional, controlling who can see your files.
• Design Guidelines - How to build your web page to match the look of the BNL web presence.
• Troubleshooting
  • File Permissions - HTTP 403 "forbidden" error
  • Using older URLs for pubweb.bnl.gov

Publishing

Use your preferred method for uploading files to your Unix Datacenter home directory.  These systems are listed under Scientific Computing.

Your web page is hosted in your home directory in a sub-directory named "www".  If one does not exist, then you should create one.  Any files you place in this directory will be available under your URL.

scp, sftp

All of the Scientific Computing are accessible via SSH.  This means that these systems also support either "scp" or "sftp".  "scp" and "sftp" are the basic methods to move files between Unix systems. 

Samba

Samba is only accessible on sun48.bnl.gov or fido.bnl.gov.  Through Windows Explorer (or your Samba client), you can access your home directory via either of these locations (using the user name "johndoe" as an example):

\\sun48.bnl.gov\johndoe
\\fido.bnl.gov\johndoe

Your URL

Content in $HOME/www is accessed in the form of the following URL.  $HOME represents the full directory path to your home directory on a Unix machine:

https://pubweb.bnl.gov/~username

Your website is accessible from off-site (and as such, you must not publish content which might be considered private, sensitive, or inappropriate).

SSL & HTTPS

As shown by the "https" portion of your URL, web pages on pubweb.bnl.gov are delivered over encrypted communication.  This is automatic and no effort is required by you to enable this service.

Access Control

ITD Unix Services has enabled Apache style access controls for web content hosted on pubweb.bnl.gov.  This is access control using a file named ".htaccess" in a given directory.

.htaccess access control files are well documented on the Apache HTTPD documentation web page (http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html), this information will not be repeated here.

Troubleshooting

File Permissions - HTTP 403 "forbidden" error

Improper file permissions may result in an HTTP 403 "forbidden" error.  This is something a user can check on their own but requires some basic knowledge of Unix.  For assistance, the following example commands using the user "johndoe".  Each example has the command needed to ensure that you

$HOME must be executable by other ( Command: chmod a+x $HOME ):

johndoe@ibm65 ~ $ ls -lad $HOME/
drwxr-x--x  24 johndoe johndoe   2560 Jan 18 13:46 /home1/johndoe/

$HOME/www must be executable and readable by others ( Command: chmod a+r $HOME/www ):

johndoe@ibm65 ~ $ ls -lad $HOME/www/
drwxr-xr-x   7 johndoe johndoe    512 Jan 14 10:46 /home1/johndoe/www/

Files within $HOME/www  also must be readable by others  ( Command: chmod a+r $HOME/www/index.html )

johndoe@ibm65 ~ $ ls -l $HOME/www
-rwxr-xr-x   1 johndoe johndoe     197 Jul 28 16:29 index.html

Using Old URLs for pubweb.bnl.gov

As some users know, URLs for pubweb.bnl.gov have not always been referenced via the  https://pubweb.bnl.gov/~johndoe format.  In the past, the the web pages have been referenced a variety of formats, including:

• http://pubweb.bnl.gov/users/johndoe
• http://pubweb.bnl.gov/users/johndoe/www
• http://pubweb.bnl.gov/people/johndoe

While none of these formats are the definitive URL for accessing web content on pubweb.bnl.gov, they will still work.  The web server is configured to use automatic URL rewriting in order to direct users from the old URL to the current format.  This way, users with links to their web pages from outside will not need to change those other web pages.

Last Modified: February 14, 2011

To reach ITD Unix Services for any support issues, please contact the ITD Helpdesk via email (itdhelp@bnl.gov) or call x5522.  In any communications, please include the name of the machine(s) in question, as well as their operating system, software package and other relevant information which will allow ITD to help you more effectively.

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