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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!lll-crg!dual!ucbvax!broome
From: broome@ucbvax.ARPA (Jonathan C. Broome)
Newsgroups: net.sources
Subject: remote manual server/client source available
Message-ID: <9814@ucbvax.ARPA>
Date: Fri, 9-Aug-85 21:32:58 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.9814
Posted: Fri Aug  9 21:32:58 1985
Date-Received: Mon, 12-Aug-85 07:41:50 EDT
Reply-To: broome@ucbvax.UUCP (Jonathan C. Broome)
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Lines: 50
Keywords: Want some extra disk space???

[ burp ... ]

I've seen a couple of requests for manual page servers lately, and just
happen to have written such a client/server pair that we have in use on 
some of our machines around here...  This is a feeler to see if anyone else
out in netland is interested in it.  If you would like a copy of the code,
MAIL me a note indicating so, and depending on responses received in the next
two weeks [I'm going on vacation], I will either mail directly or post the
source (it totals about 3K lines). 

=============================================================================
Jonathan C. Broome                   University of California at Berkeley
    ...!ucbvax!broome
    broome@ucb-vax.berkeley.edu
=============================================================================

=================================
Some stuff from the READ_ME file:
=================================

Features:

   o  Eliminates the space wasted by man pages on all hosts (except servers),
      allowing "man" access to machines with no or minimal disk (ie. uVAXes)

   o  Seeks out the server with the lowest load (assuming several are 
      available) and allows servers to be prioritized, resulting in the 
      fastest possible response (and best handling of downed hosts).

   o  Each server can set a load threshold so it can reject connections
      if becoming overloaded.

   o  Reduces the hassle of maintaining copies of man pages on multiple hosts.

   o  Because all users are accessing the same set[s] of pages, the chances of
      "hitting" a formatted page are much greater, leading to fewer waits.

   o  Allows users to have their own local set of man?/cat? directories,
      specified by MANPATH environment variable.

   o  MANPAGER / PAGER environment variable to specify output paginator

   o  Server has very flexible configuration file, accomodating source and
      formatted pages *anywhere* on the system. You can easily add sections
      (ie. "cad" or "usg" or "bsd" or ....)  Can be easily reconfigured for 
      multiple machine types, allowing one server to keep machine-specific 
      pages for multiple cpu types, catering specially to each client.

   o  DOES allow for local man pages for host-specific stuff (like Ingres),
      so you don't have to worry about it ....