Everybody who wants to install a web server database but does not know which software is necessary and how it is installed should benefit from reading this text. This text provides all information necessary to get a SQL database for a web server going; it does not go into any detail of CGI programming, nor does it explain the SQL database language. Excellent books are available on both topics, and it is the intention of this text to provide a working platform based on which a user can then study CGI programming and SQL. For getting a small scale SQL system running (not the notorious example of a major airline booking system, or space mission management database) it will be sufficient to have the software described in this text and the documentation accompanying it. The user manual of msql (a database introduced in this text) provides sufficient information on SQL for building your own database.

The reader of this text should have a working knowledge of how to obtain files via ftp if he has no access to CD?ROMs, and a basic understanding of how to build binaries from sources. Anyway, all steps explained in this text were tested on a real life system and should also work on the reader’s system.

It can be safely assumed that databases with a high volume of data or a complicated relational setup (like, perhaps, a lexical database for a living language) must be accessible to many users and operators at the same time. Ideally, it should be possible to use existing different hardware and software platforms that can be combined into the actual system. In order to reduce the implementation cost, only one system, the database server, needs to be powerful; the user stations typically just display data and accept user commands, but the processing is done on one machine only which led to the name client?server database. In addition, the user interface should be easy to maintain and should require as little as possible on the client side.

A system which meets these criteria can be built around the following items of protocols, concepts and software:
Linux
supplies the operating system. It is a stable Unix implementation providing true multi?user multi?tasking services with full network (TCP/IP e. a.) support. Except from the actual media and transmission cost, it is available free of charge and comes in form of so?called distributions which usually include everything needed from the basic OS to text processing, scripting, software development, interface builders, etc.

HTML
is the Hypertext Markup Language used to build interfaces to network systems like Intranets and the WWW, the World Wide Web. HTML is very simple and can be produced with any ASCII?capable text editor.

Browsers
are text?based (e. g. Lynx) or graphical (e. g. Mosaic, Netscape, Arena etc.) applications accepting, evaluating and displaying HTML documents. They are the only piece of software which is directly operated by the database user. Using browsers, it is possible to display various types of data (text, possibly images) and communicate with http servers (see next) on about every popular computer model for which a browser has been made available.

http servers
provide access to the area of a host computer where data intended for public use in a network are stored. They understand the http protocol and procure the information the user requests.

SQL
Structured Query Language is a language for manipulating data in relational databases. It has a very simple grammar and is a standard with wide industry support. SQL?based databases have become the core of the classical client/server database concept. There are many famous SQL systems available, like Oracle, Informix etc., and then there is also msql which comes

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