phd is an esoteric gopher server for small gopherholes.

point it at a directory and it'll serve up all its text files, sub-directories, and binary files over gopher. any .gph files will be served up as gopermaps and executable .gph files will be run as a script with their output served to the client, like cgi!

special files:

• header.gph: if it exists in a directory, its content will be shown above the directory's content. put ascii art in it.
• footer.gph: same, but will be shown below a directory's content.
• index.gph: completely replaces a directory's content with what's in this file.
• ??.gph: visiting gopher://yoursite/1/dog/ will try to render dog.gph from disk.
• .reverse: if this exists, the directory contents will be listed in reverse alphanumeric order. useful for phloggin'.

any line in a .gph file that doesn't contain tabs (\t) and doesn't start with an i will get an i automatically prefixed, turning it into a gopher information item.

any .gph file that is marked executable with be run as if it were a shell script and its output will be sent to the client. it will be passed three arguments: the query string (if any, the host, and the port. do with them what you will.

for example:

$ cat echo.gph
#!/bin/sh
echo "Hi, world! You said:" $1
echo "1Visit Gopherpedia	/	gopherpedia.com	70"

then:

$ gopher-client gopher://localhost/1/echo?something
[INFO] Hi, world! You said: something
[LINK] Visit Gopherpedia

or more seriously:

$ cat figlet.gph
#!/bin/sh
figlet $1

then:

$ gopher-client gopher://localhost/1/figlet?hi gopher
[INFO]  _     _                     _
[INFO] | |__ (_)   __ _  ___  _ __ | |__   ___ _ __
[INFO] | '_ \| |  / _` |/ _ \| '_ \| '_ \ / _ \ '__|
[INFO] | | | | | | (_| | (_) | |_) | | | |  __/ |
[INFO] |_| |_|_|  \__, |\___/| .__/|_| |_|\___|_|
[INFO]             |___/      |_|

usage

Usage:

    phd [options] <root directory>

Options:

    -p, --port      Port to bind to.
    -h, --host      Hostname to use when generating links.

Other flags:

    -h, --help      Print this screen.
    -v, --version   Print phd version.

Examples:

    phd ./path/to/site  # Serve directory over port 7070.
    phd -p 70 docs      # Serve 'docs' directory on port 70
    phd -h gopher.com   # Serve current directory over port 7070
                        # using hostname "gopher.com"

installation

binaries for linux, mac, and raspberry pi are available at https://github.com/dvkt/phd/releases:

• phd-v0.1.4-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
• phd-v0.1.4-linux-armv7.tar.gz (RPi)
• phd-v0.1.4-macos.zip

just unzip/untar the phd program into your $PATH and get going!

development

cargo run -- ./path/to/gopher/site

resources

• https://github.com/gophernicus/gophernicus/blob/master/README.Gophermap
• https://gopher.zone/posts/how-to-gophermap/
• rfc 1436

todo

• script/serverless mode
• systemd config, or something
• TLS support
• man page
• ipv6