This is the webster server. It uses the webster library. This version of the server is really simple minded. It answers queries using the simple DEFINE protocol. Only the following commands are implemented : DEFINE <word> COMPLETE <word> ENDINGS <word> QUIT This server is made to be run from inetd. This method is quite costly because the CPU time is mostly done by forking and opening the dictionary. Typical usage on a black non-turbo station is 180ms for a NO-OP, and 350 ms for a simple define. Thus a version running in a single process (waiting for all queries) will soon be available. This version may even be multi threaded (for the sake of using threads). The single process is more cost effective if you answer quite a number of queries (plus the answers are really fast because the work to be done is really small for each). However the memory usage will be quite important because of the progessive mapping of the dictionary btree in memory. If you answer only few queries, you may keep using the inetd version. The websterd.conf file may contain the following commands : # Comment TEXT <One line of text> used by greetings in the next version ALLOW IPAdress Allows the specified machine to use this server. The address may be a single host or a network. It may be a name or a dotted quad. ALLOW IPAdress/Mask The mask must be 4 bytes in HEXA. DOMAIN DomainName Allows any machine whose names ends by the name to use the server. SYSLOG local<n> | user | daemon Uses the specified facility to log the messages. REQUIRE hostname Requires that any host connecting to the server have a name. TIMEOUT n Closes the connection when a client is idle for more than n seconds. PORT n Listens on port n if not started by inetd.
These are the contents of the former NiCE NeXT User Group NeXTSTEP/OpenStep software archive, currently hosted by Netfuture.ch.