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On this page is a collection of information pertaining to WebRef's webps script, which provides a browser-based front end to the familiar ps utility in UNIX/Linux. Here you'll find the latest webps zipped distribution file, a link to the latest changelog (also included in the distribution), basic features and requirements of the system, links to the individual release notes, and whatever else I can think of. To get started with webps, I recommend that you read this page in its entirety. While not mandatory, the release notes for the versions may also provide some potentially helpful pieces of information--especially from a developer's perspective--and may be beneficial both from an implementation and an educational perspective. i.e., even if you're not interested in using the webps script, you might want to read about some of the issues I've encountered in the development process; points that are elaborated upon in the release notes.
The key features and capabilities of the most recent version of webps include:
Have a look at our Demo page to interact with an actual, working (though limited) version of the webps script, which is pointed at my testing/development server.
To set up and use this system, you'll need a compatible version of ps running on your Linux/UNIX server, Perl 5.6 or later installed on your server, the Apache Web Server, access rights to create a directory outside the Web server's document root on your server and access to place scripts into your cgi-bin. Further, the Web user must have access to execute ps (it probably does, but I'm mentioning it just in case...).
An SSL server for delivery of the script is strongly recommended; otherwise, all the data that is transferred from the script to the browser will be delivered "in the clear," and potentially open to packet sniffers between you and your server. Since ps data can be somewhat sensitive in nature and may reveal important information about how your system works, it's strongly recommended that you protect that data stream as much as possible.
We define a "compatible version of ps" as one that allows you to list processes using your own user-defined format, using standard format specifiers. An easy way to verify this is to get to a console prompt on your server and type:
ps -eo pidIf you see a listing of pid numbers, then you're running a compatible version of ps.
On the client side, webps initially supports later versions of Firefox (2), Internet Explorer (7), Opera (9), and Safari (3). We'll expand that support for more browsers--as possible--if there's a need for it (or, you're welcome to tweak the HTML template pages to support additional browsers on your own).
You'll also need the following Perl modules installed on your system:
CGIXML::Simple (and XML::Parser)HTML::EntitiesHTML::TemplateFcntlDigest::MD5All but the HTML::Template module are typically installed
with your Perl distribution; HTML::Template (and any others
that may be missing) you can pick up from CPAN. Some systems may also
be missing XML::Simple and its required XML::Parser;
again, hit CPAN or your system-specific package manager to get these.
webps will work on a mod_perl server;
though it has not yet been optimized for this environment.
You can download the latest version of webps by clicking this link: webps.zip. The download is provided as a zipped file; use your favorite extractor to unzip it.
To view a list of changes from version to version, read the CHANGES.TXT file.
Refer to the README.TXT, included in the
Zip distribution, for setup instructions.
These articles contain notes pertaining to each individual release of webps. Developers who are learning Perl and/or AJAX may find these release notes of interest. The first release article (v.10) includes a basic how-to section as well as a description of the basic architecture of the script.
Created: July 2, 2007
Revised: August 29, 2007
URL: http://webreference.com/programming/perl/webps/index.html
