The YPLib Handbook

Jan Schaumann jschauma@netmeister.org 
Version 0.3 , Sat June 24 18:55:30 EST 2000


This Handbook describes YPLib Version 0.3


1. Introduction

2. Installation

     2.1 How to obtain YPLib
     2.2 Requirements 
     2.3 Compilation and installation 

3. Usage 

4. Copyright

5. Misc

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1. Introduction

How often did you have to pay late-fees to your library because you forgot the
due-date of your book(s)? How often did you wish that your local library would
just simply send you an email-reminder a couple of days before the book is due? Well, this now belongs to the past. YPLib 0.3 is a set of perl scripts which let you set up your own library. YPLib 0.2 sets up a text file containing the due dates of the books and their titles, and sends you an email-reminder say three days before the book is due.
YPLib 0.3 now also displays a short message and lists all books which are due
when you log in (optional).
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2. Installation

2.1 How to obtain YPLib 0.3

YPLib 0.3 can be obtained from http://www.netmeister.org/apps/yplib-0.3.tar.gz or
alternatively from
http://guinness.cs.stevens-tech.edu/~jschauma/yplib-0.3.tar.gz

2.2 Requirements

In order to use YPLib 0.3, you need the following programs installed on your
machine:

	* perl5.x available at http://www.perl.com
	# sendmail available at http://www.sendmail.org/

2.3 Installation 

tar zxvf yplib-0.3.tar.gz
cd yplib-0.3

If "sendmail" does not live in "/usr/sbin/sendmail", open "yplibd" and change
the path in the following line:
$sendmail = "/usr/sbin/sendmail";

If you are not using BASH, open "yplibd" and change the following line
accordingly:
my $shell = "$home/.bashrc";

Save the file and then

make install

You need superuser priviliges for this step.
Should you run into problems, report them to the the author at jschauma@netmeister.org


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3. Usage 

You need to run "yplib" first. The program will set up a directory "~/.yplib/"
where it keeps its files. YPlib will ask you for necessary information, which
can be changed at all times.
YPLib 0.3 will present you the following, rather self-explanatory menu:

	1. Change User Preferences
	2. Show current settings
	3. Rent a book
	4. List all books you checked out
	5. Return a book
	6. About YPLib 0.3
	7. Quit

Once you exit out of this, edit your crontab to contain the following entry:
0 0 * * * /usr/local/bin/yplibd
Referr to crontab(5) for more information on how to edit your crontab.
This needs to be done only once and NOT every time you run "yplib". From now on,
you can run yplib whenever you feel like it.

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4. Copyright

YPLib 0.3 Copyright 2000 Jan Schaumann, jschauma@netmeister.org 

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
the terms of the GNU General Public License as published
by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
option) any later version. 

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public
License for more details. 

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
this program; if not, write to the Free Software
Foundation, Inc., 675 Mass Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA. 


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5. Misc

Please take the time to visit these websites:

     http://www.aclu.org
	 http://www.amnesty.org
     http://www.worldwildlife.org
     http://www.ncadp.org

Take the time to think about it.

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