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I have been trying to host my own Gopher server under OS X (specifically, Snow Leopard), but am finding the process somewhat frustrating.

After trying (and failing) to install myriad supposedly cross-platform server packages, I settled for Aftershock, as it is the only one which seems to 'work' – and I use that word very loosely.

Ideally, I would like to host the server without the need for any specialised software, but in order to do so I need to know the name of the 'root document' a Gopher client looks for when connecting (e.g. Web browsers expect a file called index on a web site). Unfortunately, RFC 1436 (the document which specifies the standards of the Gopher protocol) only mentions what this mystery file must contain, but not its name.

I have tried using !Gopher Links, .Link and .Links as file names, but all result in an "Unable to access document" error when viewed using the command-line browser lynx.

I was directed here by the friendly folk over at AskDifferent, so if anyone is able to assist, I will be most obliged!

HopelessN00b
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Applemeister
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    Gopher? Are you serious? Anyway, this is likely off-topic here as I can't imagine it to be in a professional environment. Please see the [FAQ]. – Sven Nov 19 '12 at 12:17
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    Just to satisfy my intensely piqued curiosity... why on earth do you want to run a gopher server? – HopelessN00b Nov 19 '12 at 12:32

1 Answers1

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The LinkFileName directive in the aftershock.conf file is where this file's name is described. The default value is .Link, which you state you've already tried. The software is written in Java, so I expect the formatting of the path value for the root directory GopherRoot will following any java-quirks relating to OSX path-naming.

sysadmin1138
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