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 Readme.local   

This file describes in further detail dailystrips' 'local' mode of operation.

Normally, dailystrips generates the URLs to the selected strips and displays them on STDOUT for redirection into a file (--output lets you specify a file to save the HTML into automatically). However, this is usually inconvenient as you must first run the program manually, and then wait for your browser to download the images. Local mode, instead of putting the address of each image in the generated page, downloads the image and save a copy of it locally. The address in the generated page then refers to that downloaded image. With this, you do not have to wait for your browser to download the images from the 'net - they are already on your hard drive (or your own webserver - another way to set it up). The time savings really add up when you want to view the page more than once.

Method 1: (one system)
Create a directory (such as /home/user/dailystrips/) in which to store the downloaded images and output files.

Create a cron script like the following and put it in /etc/cron.daily (call it dailystrips.sh, etc)

 #!/bin/sh
 echo "dailystrips running:"
 su user -c "dailystrips --basedir /home/user/dailystrips --local all"
 												

Of course, change /home/user/dailystrips to the exact directory that you created. Also, change "su user.." to reflect an appropriate login (your own is best if you created a directory in your home directory) You should also change the "all" to reflect just the strips you want to see - the pver 220 strips would take a rather long time to download even with a fast connection.

By default, the program calls the output file 'dailystrips-YYYY.MM.DD' and creates 'index.html' as a symlink to this, so that you can make a bookmark to index.html in your web browser that will always take you to the latest page. If you need to change this, you'll have to edit the script.

For scheduling the time that dailystrips runs, you'll have to consider your time zone. I have found that running at 0600 EST (-0500) works well for my strips (see the contents of group 'andrew'). You may have to experiment a little to find the best time for the specific strips you download. One idea is to create a crontab entry to run dailystrips early in the morning and then a few hours later if the strips aren't all available at one time.

Method 2: (webserver/intranet)
This is the same as above - just locate the directory somewhere in your webserver's document root. Keep in mind that this should be for personal use only, as making the output publicly available on the internet constitutes copyright infringement, without permission from the strips' authors. As far as I know, though, it's within your rights to use this for personal use.

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Copyright ©2001-2003 Andrew Medico <amedico @ amedico . dhs . org>