README

GitUrl README
=============
Brian Hetro <whee@smaertness.net>

GitUrl provides a Tiny URL-like service.  Given a URL, it will produce
a shorter URI -- easier to remember, paste, or write down.

GitUrl requires the link:http://git.or.cz/[git] content tracker to operate.

Rationale
---------
GitUrl was created as an easy-to-configure alternate to Tiny URL in
situations where URLs may contain sensitive information, e.g., the
internal company network.  In these cases, it is trivial to set up
GitUrl on an internal web server to provide URL shortening service so
that URLs are not leaked to external service providers.

Installation
------------
GitUrl is a single shell script, typically called as a CGI program.
To set up GitUrl, follow these steps:

. Copy gurl to the desired CGI-enabled web server path.
. In that path, and as the web server user, set up a git repository
with "git init".  This repository tracks URLs added.
. You may have to modify the path to the shell and PATH in the gurl
script if your system has them in a different location.

Usage
-----
To obtain a shorter URL, navigate to
+http://your.server/gurl.location?'URL_to_shorten'+.  The shortened
URL is returned.

When retrieved, this URL redirects to the original URL given.

Backend
-------
The URL database is managed with git.  This has all sorts of interesting
consequences which you are encouraged to investigate.