USENIX Technical Program - Abstract - USENIX Annual
Conference, Freenix Session - June 2000
Webmin
A web-based system administration tool for Unix
Jamie Cameron, Caldera Systems
Abstract
This paper describes the design and implementation of the Unix
administration tool Webmin, available from https://www.webmin.com/webmin/
. Webmin allows moderately experienced users to manage their Unix system
through a web browser interface, instead of editing configuration files
directly. The most recent version supports Apache, Squid, BIND, Samba
and many other servers and services. It supports multiple operating
systems and distributions, different languages, multiple users each with
different levels of access, and SSL encryption.
The first part of the paper explains why Webmin was developed and the
initial design goals, and compares the design to other similar tools
such as Linuxconf. Subsequent sections cover the design and
implementation of the detailed multi-user security model, the
implementation of Webmin itself, how support for multiple operating
systems is handled and how internationalization works. Finally, two
Webmin modules are discussed in more detail and various problems
explained before the conclusion.
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