
Being a strong believer in code re-use, FilterProxy needs a number of other
pieces of software to work properly.  I know dependencies are a pain, but it's
a necessary evil.  Bear with me for a bit here and install this stuff.  Debian
users have it easy, skip down a few paragraphs.

FilterProxy also needs some external software (install these FIRST!):
    perl              http://www.perl.org (minimum version required: 5.005)
                      rpm package: perl
    zlib              http://www.cdrom.com/pub/infozip/zlib/
                      rpm package: zlib and zlib-devel
                      This is part of every linux distribution I've seen.
 *  libxml2           http://xmlsoft.org
                      rpm package: libxml2 and libxml2-devel
 *  libxslt           http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT 
                      rpm package: libxslt and libxslt-devel

And some perl packages too:

    Bundle::LWP       Available on CPAN
                      rpm package perl-libwww-perl
    HTML::Mason       Available on CPAN (http://www.masonhq.com)
                      rpm package: perl-HTML-Mason
    Time::HiRes       Available on CPAN
                      rpm package: perl-Time-HiRes
    Compress::Zlib    Available on CPAN (version 1.10 or greater)
                      rpm package: perl-Compress-Zlib
 *  XML::LibXML       Available on CPAN (required by XSLT module only)
 *  XML::LibXSLT      Available on CPAN (required by XSLT module only)
 *  Image::Magick     Available on CPAN (required by ImageComp module only)
                      Requires ImageMagick (http://www.imagemagick.org/).
                      rpm package: ImageMagick
     (*) means optional -- if you do not install these perl modules you can
     still use FilterProxy, but you will be unable to use the corresponding
     modules (XSLT, ImageComp).

To download packages from cpan, use the cpan shell (run the command 
'perl -MCPAN -e shell'):
  shell> perl -MCPAN -e shell

  cpan shell -- CPAN exploration and modules installation (v1.52)
  ReadLine support enabled

  cpan> install Bundle::LWP HTML::Mason Time::HiRes Compress::Zlib

---------------
| RedHat users:
---------------
You may be able to find binary rpm packages for some of these, but you're on
your own.  rpmfind.net may be useful.  Unfortunately, RedHat has not kept up
rpm packages for all CPAN modules.  You can find some of them in a directory
called DMA under redhat 7.1 (but not 7.2).  RedHat users should use the CPAN
method above for installing perl packages.  DO NOT install rpm packages from
other distributions (Mandrake, PLD, etc).  Many of them use odd version numbers
and paths that may conflict with the distribution you're using.

The easiest way is to use CPAN for most modules, but you will have to have a
minimal set of rpm's installed.  Get the following from the 'rawhide' directory
on your local redhat mirror, and install them: 
    perl-5.6.1
    perl-CPAN       (they recently seperated CPAN 
    perl-CGI        and CGI into their own packages)
    libxml2
    libxslt
Install FilterProxy from the tar.gz. (not rpm!) And then proceed to install the
other perl dependencies using the CPAN shell above.

---------------
| Debian users:
---------------
If you're a Debian user, use apt-get and look for the packages 'filterproxy'.
FilterProxy has been added to debian, so you can 
    'apt-get install filterproxy'
See here: http://packages.debian.org/unstable/web/filterproxy.html

Once all that is done, if everything works fine, just run FilterProxy.pl!  Tell
your browser to use the proxy on "localhost", port 8888.  (For netscape: 
Edit->Preferences->Advanced->Proxies->Manual Proxy Configuration) By default,
FilterProxy will use 'localhost' and port 8888, and only bind to localhost.  If
you wish for FilterProxy to be usable to people on other computers besides the
one it's running on, uncheck "localhost only" on the config page, and restart
FilterProxy.

Right now I recommend running FilterProxy as a regular user (not root) and
using a port >1024, I have added proxy authentication, but this method
is NOT secure.  Your password is sent unencrypted between the browser and
the proxy and third parties could potentially view your password.  It is,
however, better than nothing.  

The configuration for FilterProxy is all done using web-based forms.
You can modify the configuration of FilterProxy by accessing the url:

    http://your.hostname.here:8888/FilterProxy.html

Replace 8888 with the port you selected, and your.hostname.here with the name
of the host FilterProxy is running on.  If you're a perl junkie, the
configuration can also be changed by editing FilterProxy.conf, however, I
recommend that you initially use the web forms, to see how the data is
structured.

Good luck!

Bob McElrath <mcelrath+filterproxy@draal.physics.wisc.edu>.

