1. About this Document

1.1 Intended Audience

Everybody who wants to install a web server database but does not know which software is necessary and how it is installed should benefit from reading this text. This text provides all information necessary to get a SQL database for a web server going; it does not go into any detail of CGI programming, nor does it explain the SQL database language. Excellent books are available on both topics, and it is the intention of this text to provide a working platform based on which a user can then study CGI programming and SQL.

For getting a small scale SQL system running (not the notorious example of a major airline booking system, or space mission management database) it will be sufficient to have the software described in this text and the documentation accompanying it. The user manual of msql (a database introduced in this text) provides sufficient information on SQL for building your own database.

The reader of this text should have a working knowledge of how to obtain files via ftp if he has no access to CD-ROMs, and a basic understanding of how to build binaries from sources. Anyway, all steps explained in this text were tested on a real life system and should also work on the reader's system.

1.2 Conventions used in this text

A user command:

# make install

Screen output from a program:

Program installed. Read README for details on how to start.

Sample code of a file:

# My comment
char letter;