Merge branch 'master' of git://github.com/f1ori/yacy

readme.txt

@@ -1,18 +1,27 @@
-README for YaCy (C) by Michael Peter Christen; mc@yacy.net
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Please visit http://yacy.net for latest changes or new documentation.
-YaCy comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY!
-This is free software, and you are welcome to redistribute it
-under certain conditions; see file gpl.txt for details.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
 WHAT IS THIS?
 
-YaCy is a search engine for the Web (supporting also ftp).
-It is neither a search portal nor a portal software but a peer-to-peer
-software that works on principles similar to file sharing.
-The difference is that you do not share any kind of data but web indexes.
-YaCy also generates the indexes it organizes. YaCy is a web crawler for 
+YaCy is a search engine software. It takes a new approach to search
+because it does not use a central server. Instead, its search results
+come from a network of independent peers. In such a distributed network,
+no single entity decides what gets listed, or in which order results appear.
+
+The YaCy search engine runs on each user's own computer. Search terms are
+hashed before they leave the user's computer. Different from conventional
+search engines, YaCy is designed to protect the users' privacy.
+A user's computer can create with YaCy its individual search indexes and
+rankings, so that results better match what the user is looking for over time.
+YaCy also makes it easy to create a customized search portal with a few clicks.
+
+Each YaCy user is either part of a large search network (YaCy contains a
+peer-to-peer network protocol to exchange search indexes with other YaCy
+search engine installations) or the user runs YaCy to produce
+a personal search portal that can be either public or private.
+
+YaCy search portals can also be placed in intranet environment which makes
+YaCy a replacement for commercial enterprise search solutions. A network
+scanner makes it easy to discover all available http, ftp and smb servers.
+
+To create a web index, YaCy has a web crawler for 
 everybody, without censorship and central data retention:
 - search the web (automatically using all other YaCy peers)
 - co-operative crawling; support for other crawlers
@@ -20,11 +29,17 @@ everybody, without censorship and central data retention:
 - set up your own search portal
 - all users have equal rights
 - comprehensive concept to anonymise the users' index
+
 To be able to perform a search using the YaCy network, every user has to
 set up their own node. More users are leading to higher index capacity
 and better distributed indexing performance.
 
 
+LICENSE
+YaCy is published under the GPL v2
+The source code is inside the release package (see /source and /htroot).
+
+
 WHERE IS THE DOCUMENTATION?
 
 Documentation can be found at:
@@ -39,7 +54,7 @@ all these locations into one search result.
 
 DEPENDENCIES? WHAT OTHER SOFTWARE DO I NEED?
 
-You need java 1.5 or later to run YaCy.
+You need java 1.5 or later to run YaCy, nothing else.
 Please download it from http://www.java.com
 
 YaCy also runs on IcedTea6.
@@ -54,43 +69,86 @@ HOW DO I START THIS SOFTWARE?
 Startup and Shutdown of YaCy:
 
 - on Linux:
-to start: execute startYACY.sh
-to stop : execute stopYACY.sh
+to start: execute ./startYACY.sh
+to stop : execute ./stopYACY.sh
 
 - on Windows:
 to start: double-click startYACY.bat
 to stop : double-click stopYACY.bat
 
 - on Mac OS X:
-to start: double-click startYACY.command (alias possible!)
-to stop : double-click stopYACY.command
+please use the Mac Application and start or stop it like any
+other Mac Application (doubleclick to start)
 
 
 HOW DO I USE THIS SOFTWARE, WHERE IS THE ADMINISTRATION INTERFACE?
 
-YaCy is a server process that can be administrated and used
-with your web browser: open
+YaCy is a build on a web server. After you started YaCy,
+start your browser and open
 
    http://localhost:8090
 
 There you can see your personal search and administration interface.
 
 
-ANY MORE CONFIGURATIONS?
+WHAT IF I INSTALL YACY (HEADLESS) ON A SERVER
+
+You can do that but YaCy authorizes users automatically if they
+access the server from the localhost. After about 10 minutes a random
+password is generated and then it is not possible to log in from
+a remote location. If you install YaCy on a server that is not your
+workstation, then you must set an administration account immediately
+after the first start-up. Open:
+
+http://<remote-server-address>:8090/ConfigAccounts_p.html
 
-- after startup, you see the configuration page in your web browser.
-  just open http://localhost:8090
-  all you have to do (should do) is to enter a password for your peer
+and set an administration account.
 
-- You can use YaCy as your web proxy.
-  This is an option, you don't need to do that.
-  Simply configure your internet connection to use a proxy at port 8090.
 
+DEVELOPER:
+
+YaCy was created with the help of many. About 30 programmers have helped,
+a list of some of them can be seen here: http://yacy.net/en/Join.html
+Please join us!
+
+
+HOW TO GET THE SOURCE CODE AND HOW TO COMPILE YACY YOURSELF?
+
+The source code is inside every YaCy release. You can also get YaCy
+from https://gitorious.org/yacy/rc1
+Please clone our code and help with development!
+The code is licensed under the GPL v2.
+
+Compiling YaCy:
+- you need java 1.5 and ant
+- just compile: "ant clean all" - then you can "./startYACY.sh"
+- create a release tarball: "ant dist"
+- create a Mac OS release: "ant distMacApp" (works only on a Mac)
+- create a debian release: "ant deb"
+- work with eclipse: within eclipse you also need to start the ant build process
+  because the servlet pages are not compiled by the eclipse build process
+after the dist prodecure, the release can be found in the RELEASE subdirectory
+
+
+ARE THERE ANY APIs OR HOW CAN I ATTACH SOFTWARE AT YACY?
+
+There are many interfaces build-in in YaCy and they are all based on http/xml and
+http/json. You can discover these interfaces if you notice the orange "API" icon in
+the upper right of some web pages in the YaCy web interface. Just click on it and
+you will see the xml/json version of the information you just have seen at the web
+page.
+A different approach is the usage of the shell script provided in the /bin
+subdirectory. The just call also the web interface pages. By cloning some of those
+scripts you can create more shell api access methods yourself easily.
 
 
 CONTACT:
 
-If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the author:
+Our primary point of contact is the german forum at http://forum.yacy.net
+There is also an english forum at http://www.yacy-forum.org
+We encourage you to start a YaCy forum in your own language.
+
+If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact the maintainer:
 Send an email to Michael Christen (mc@yacy.net) with a meaningful subject
 including the word 'yacy' to prevent that your email gets stuck
 in my anti-spam filter.
@@ -100,5 +158,5 @@ feel free to ask the author for a business proposal to customize YaCy
 according to your needs. We also provide integration solutions if the
 software is about to be integrated into your enterprise application.
 
-Germany, Frankfurt a.M., 05.11.2010
+Germany, Frankfurt a.M., 26.11.2011
 Michael Peter Christen