What is msgfind?
                         ================

The msgfind.py script populates a MySQL database, mapping Subversion
mailing list message IDs to URLs.  This is mainly so we can build a
system that allows one to quickly determine a mailing list archive URL
given a message ID, but it's also partly insurance in case the mailing
list archives ever disappear, and we have to figure out what all those
URLs in our issue tracker mean.

There's a lot of interface and abstraction work left to do.  It can
only do one mailing list at a time, for example, and there's no way to
actually query the database, except manually.  But it does populate
the database, and as far as I know the data is as it should be.  My
next plan is to turn the 'counter' file into a database table, so we
can manage multiple lists at once.

                How to get it working, from scratch.
                ====================================

1. Create the database user.

   Make sure the mysql users 'msgfindrw' and 'msgfindro' exist, that
   the first has read/write access to an existing database named
   msgfind, and that the second has read-only access:

      $ mysql -u root -p
      Password: *******
      mysql> grant all on msgfind.* to msgfindrw@localhost 
               identified by 'SECRET';
      mysql> grant select on msgfind.* to msgfindro@localhost 
               identified by 'SECRET';
      mysql> ^D
      $ 

2. Create the database.

      $ echo "create database msgfind;" | mysql -u msgfindrw --password=SECRET
      $ cat create-msgfind.sql | mysql -u msgfindrw --password=SECRET msgfind

3. Please make sure that you have Python and the MySQLdb module installed.

4. Set up your web server to make 'msgfind' CGI-executable:

      Alias /msgfind /home/yourname/path_to_msgfind_working_copy
      <Directory /home/yourname/path_to_msgfind_working_copy>
          Options Indexes +ExecCGI
          <Files msgfind>
            SetHandler cgi-script
          </Files>
      </Directory>

5. Look over dev.sh, take a deep breath, run it.  This will populate
   the database with some messages.  You should interrupt it when you
   think you have enough data.

6. Test the database, by pointing your browser at 'msgfind':

      http://localhost/msgfind/msgfind?mid=BLAHBLAHBLAH

   You can also query the database directly, of course:

      $ mysql -u msgfindro -p msgfindro
      password: SECRET
      mysql> select * from messages where \
             message_id_header = '200004280600.BAA02369@floss.red-bean.com';
      [... see results ...]
      mysql> ^D
      $