Templeton: Frequently Asked Questions

We have included some of the more common questions asked about Templeton, as well as providing explanations and solutions.

Why isn't Templeton running registered? Why isn't Templeton loading my configuration files?

The most common problem is that the configuration file is not located where Templeton is looking. Because nearly everyone has a different computer configuration, the paths that Templeton checks are not hard-coded. Instead, Templeton looks in a few specific directories:

For Unix systems, it looks in the /etc directory.
For Unix systems, it looks in the /etc/local directory.

For all systems, it looks in the directory specified by the ETC environment variable. For non-Unix systems (OS/2, Windows, etc.) this is usually defined in the config.sys or autoexec.bat files. For Unix systems, this is usually found in the .login or .cshrc files. To find out where your ETC directory is, try one of the following commands on the command line.

Operating System	Command	Result
OS/2, Win95	set ETC	displays the path or "Not in environment" if it is not defined.
OS/2, Win95	echo %ETC%	displays the path or "ECHO is OFF/ON" if it is not defined.
Unix	echo $ETC	displays the path or a "variable undefined" error if it is not defined.

For all systems, it looks in the directory specified by the HOME environment variable. Although this is usually defined for Unix systems, it is not always defined for OS/2 or Windows systems. You can check if it is defined by using:

Operating System	Command	Result
OS/2, Win95	set HOME	displays the path or "Not in environment" if it is not defined.
OS/2, Win95	echo %HOME%	displays the path or "ECHO is OFF/ON" if it is not defined.
Unix	echo $HOME	displays the path or a "variable undefined" error if it is not defined.

For all systems, it looks in the current directory (where you started the program). Currently, Templeton does not look in the directory where the executable resides.

In each of these directories, Templeton looks for 5 files:

.ttonrc -- a common Unix naming convention.
.templetonrc -- a common Unix naming convention. This file is depricated and may be removed a later release.
tton.cfg -- the standard naming convention.
templeton.cfg -- the naming convention for systems which support long file names. This file is depricated and may be removed in a release.
templeto.cfg -- the naming convention for systems (FAT disk partitions) which do not support long file names. This file is depricated and may be removed in a release.

What is the registration code?

A number of people have inquired about the machine registration code. This code is machine specific and will probably not work if you purchase a new computer. Upgrading your current computer (periferals, hard drives, RAM, CPU, etc.) should not effect this code. Our policy is simple: if you are a registered user and you replace your current computer, we will replace your registration code at no charge. But, we reserve the right to refuse multiple (or rapidly requested) replacement registration codes.

How do restrictions work? How do "Allow" and "Deny" work?

Restrictions specify which URLs should be processed. There are two types of user-definable restrictions: Allow and Deny. The restrictions are ordered by how specific the restriction is. The more specific the restriction, the higher the priority of it.

When Templeton finds a new URL, it is checked against the restriction list. The first restriction (Allow or Deny) that it finds is used.

For example, checking HTM extensions would be processed in the following order:

*.htm
*.html
*.htm*
*htm*

The "*" is a wildcard -- non-specific -- so "*" is found after real letters. This order is independent of Allow/Deny commands (any of these can be an allow or a deny). For example, suppose you specified the following restrictions:

Allow *htm*
Deny *.htm
Deny *.htm*
Allow *.html

This would be ordered as:

Deny *.htm
Allow *.html
Deny *.htm*
Allow *htm*

This causes some "interesting" restriction combinations. For example:

Allow http://www.cs.tamu.edu/people/*

Deny *.gif
The "Allow" is more specific than the "Deny". So this tells Templeton to (1) retrieve everything in the "people" directory, and (2) if it's not in the "people" directory, then deny all GIFs. Thus, GIFs in the "people" directory are retrieved. If you do not want to retrieve any GIFs, then you need to include:

Deny http://www.cs.tamu.edu/people/*.gif
This is more specific than the "Allow" so it will occur first, denying all GIFs from the "people" directory.

Why is it done this way?
What if you do not want any GIFs except for the ones in the "foo" directory:

Allow http://host/foo/*.gif

Deny *.gif
If "*.gif" took precidence, then no GIFs would be retrieved (even when you want a few specific GIFs).

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