Want to Get on the FastTrack?

By Rick Millhollin (rickm@oregon.uoregon.edu)

If you browse the web, you may want to take advantage of the new FastTrack web server on the VMScluster (see http://web-vms.uoregon.edu). FastTrack was installed as an alternative to--not a replacement for--the Ohio State University web server (see http://www-vms.uoregon.edu).

Advantages of FastTrack

FastTrack 3.01 offers several advantages over its VMS counterpart, the Ohio State University web server, e.g.:

1. It supports more standard CGI programs/scripts written in C, DCL, or Perl

2. It supports SSL security more easily

3. Compaq performed, and provides support for, the FastTrack VMS port

Advantages of the Ohio State Server

While FastTrack offers some appealing options, Ohio State's server retains some advantages:

1. It runs/initiates CGI programs faster

2. It can run CGI programs on any VMScluster node, while FastTrack runs them only on the node where FastTrack is running.

A Note on Directories. . .

If you want to use FastTrack to access existing web pages stored on the VMScluster, note that FastTrack, unlike Ohio State, looks for the "public_html" directory instead of the "www" directory. If you want to use a single directory for both, you can define an alias for the www directory by typing

$ set file www.dir/enter=public_html.dir

While this appears to create two directories, there is really only one copy of each file, and a change to one copy will automatically be mirrored in the other.

Documentation

Youõll find FastTrack documentation linked to both the Compaq and Netscape web sites, e.g.,

Compaq: See Compaqõs OpenVMS Documentation page at http://www.openvms.digital.com:8000/

Netscape: See the section titled "FastTrack for OpenVMS Documentation" at http://web-vms.uoregon.edu