GoServe: Parameters on the GoServe command

Parameters on the GoServe command

Keyword parameters may be used when starting GoServe to set the protocol (one only) and the TCP/IP port used, the default data directory, and the action taken after a serious failure:

The 'HTTP' parameter
This indicates that GoServe is being used as a World-Wide Web server, using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). When this is specified, the default port number is 80, the well-known port for HTTP (this may be overridden as usual by the PORT parameter), and other enhancements are enabled, including:
- The TYPE option may (and should) be used on FILE responses from the filter.
- Automatic processing of both incoming and outgoing HTTP headers is enabled (see "Automatic HTTP processing").
- Tab characters have no special significance in request strings; the third argument passed to the filter is a 'clean' URI (see "Filter programs").
- STRING and CONTROL command responses are returned as HTML documents.
The 'GOPHER' parameter
This indicates that GoServe is being used as a Gopher server, using the Gopher Protocol. When this is specified, the default port number is 70, the well-known port for Gopher (this may be overridden as usual by the PORT parameter). The Gopher termination sequence (a line containing just a single '.') is added to TEXT files and STRING and CONTROL responses.
The 'PORT n' parameter
The default port number for the selected protocol may be changed for special applications by using the PORT parameter when starting GoServe, for example:
```
  start goserve http port 801
```
Servers started with different ports are independent; they use different filter programs, and maintain a different collection of options, window position information, audit file, etc.
Note that the port number is used as the required or default file extension for some files, such as the filter, programs called from the filter, and the audit/log files. This is so that the files for different ports don't conflict when in the same directory. Therefore, if you use port numbers greater than 999, you must be sure that the working directory for GoServe is on a disk that supports extensions of more than three characters (for example, an HPFS disk).
The 'DATADIR d' parameter
This sets the data directory name (path) that will be used for this port from the word following the keyword DATADIR. This name will be used until the name is changed using the 'DataDir' Options notebook page or by starting GoServe with a different DATADIR parameter. The name should normally include the drive on which the data is to be found.
The data directory name is not used directly by GoServe, but is made available to the filter program via the DataDir() function--hence allowing one filter to handle different data directories without "hard-coding" their names in the filter.
GoServe will convert backslashes ('\') in the name to URI form (forward slashes, '/'), and will add a trailing '/' if one is not present. For example,
```
  start goserve http datadir d:\myhome
```
would result in the directory specification 'd:/myhome/' being passed to the filter via the DATADIR() function.
The 'FILTER f' parameter
This sets the filter name that will be used for this port from the word following the keyword FILTER. This name will be used until the name is changed using the 'Filter' options notebook page or by starting GoServe with a different FILTER parameter. The filter must be in the GoServe working (current) directory, so no drive or directory path should be specified. For example:
```
  start goserve http filter myfilter.80
```
would result in the filter 'd:\goserve\myfilter.80' being used, if 'D:\goserve' is the working directory.
If no file extension is specified (that is, no period is found in the name), the port will be added as the extension.
The 'QUIETFAIL' parameter
Certain "catastrophic" errors (such as memory allocation errors, or a syntax error in the Rexx filter) are considered failures by GoServe; that is, they cause a message dialog to be displayed on the screen--once the message is acknowledged, GoServe ends.
The QUIETFAIL parameter can be used to prevent the failure message dialog being displayed:
```
  start goserve http quietfail
```
In this case, GoServe will end immediately after a failure (after attempting to audit the failure, as usual).

GoServe also accepts some experimental keyword parameters:

'TRACE' copies audit information to the PMprintf window (without GoServe timestamps); this does not affect auditing to the audit file. This lets you watch a trace of incoming requests, actions, and errors as they happen without needing to look at the audit file itself.
'REUSE' allows reuse of the port, even if some other application (or TCP/IP) has not released it.
'TEST' controls experimental features (such as sending a Message-ID header) and also adds an extra Test page to the options notebook. The Test features are undefined (that is, they may be removed in future versions of GoServe).
'DIAG' shows TRACE information together with additional details of GoServe operation (also using PMprintf). This diagnostic information is intended for development use and may change over time. If you are observing unexpected GoServe behaviour, the DIAG option may show helpful information. 'DIAG2' and 'DIAGMSG' may provide even more verbose diagnostic information. 'DIAG' implies 'REUSE'.

Any number of GoServe parameters may be specified; the parameters may be in any order. If a parameter with a value is specified more than once, the last value is used.

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