README for PerlWebShell 0.1
Copyright (C) 2004 Florian Rossol <rossol@yola.in-berlin.de>
Copyright (C) 2000-2003 Martin Geisler <gimpster@gimpster.com>
Licensed under the GNU GPL. See the file COPYING for details.

What is PerlWebShell?
------------------
PerlWebShell is a shell wrapped in a Perl/CGI script. It's a tool you
can use to execute arbitrary shell-commands or browse the filesystem
on your remote webserver. This replaces, to a degree, a normal
telnet-connection. You can use it for transferring your site as a
compressed file, and then unpack it on the webserver, administration
and maintenance of your website using commands like ps, free, du, df
etc...

PerlWebShell is based on PhpShell
(http://www.gimpster.com/wiki/PhpShell) from Martin Geisler. In fact
it tries to be nearly the same with one little difference:
PerlWebShell uses Perl/CGI instead of PHP (not difficult to guess
cause of the name!). Also this README is based on Martins
README. Thanks Martin for releasing PhpShell under the GNU GPL.

Limitations
-----------
There are some limitations on what kind of programs you can run.  It
won't do no good if you start something like Netscape or even vi.  All
programs have to be strictly command-line programs, and they will have
no chance of getting user input after they have been lunched.  They
probably also have to terminate within some time, depending on the
settings of your ISP.

But you can rely on all the normal shell-functionality, like pipes,
output and input redirection, etc... 

Who am I?
---------
You may not be the same user when using PerlWebShell, as you are when you
upload your files with ftp. On some systems you will be 'nobody', on
other systems you will become 'httpd' or 'www-data'.  This is a rather
dangerous "feature" of PerlWebShell! So use it at your own risk --- I
wont be responsible if your account is closed or something like that
happens.

How to use it
-------------
Point your browser to perlwebshell.cgi. The rest should be selfexplaining. 

Download
--------
You can download PerlWebShell from http://yola.in-berlin.de/perlwebshell.
