[ic] access_gating whole catalog?

[interchange-users@icdevgroup.org (Mike Heins)]

Quoting Mike Heins (mike@perusion.com):
> 
> I will certainly look at changing 4.9 and enabling it in the root
> directory as an option. I have not examined that code in quite some
> time, and it is always good to revisit previous decisions and see if
> they still make sense. 8-)

Looking at it, it seems to make sense only if I redo the entire
way this is all checked and specified. Or if I make the root
.access enable .access_gate checking in all subdirectories...
I am not sure of the implications of that.

I really hesitate to add yet another file test and corresponding
directory lookup. The routine that uses this, Vend::Util::readin,
is used in virtually every IC transaction.

I have long thought about incorporating Apache-style .htaccess control.
Part of the reason I did not originally is that Interchange has roots in
times when Apache was nowhere near as dominant as it is now -- it was
far from clear in 1996 (at least to me) what was going to happen.

Were I to do it, I would probably want to integrate with Apache
so that DBI authorizations and cookies from Apache::Session
could be shared. That would take a lot of work.

Since we are close to a code freeze on Interchange, and I have
several tasks to do before that happens, I will probably not
get to that sweeping a change.

So bottom line, I would like to keep .access checking the sam
and have any future work and complexity go toward something more
useful like emulating Apache Options settings.

-- 
Mike Heins
Perusion -- Expert Interchange Consulting    http://www.perusion.com/
phone +1.513.523.7621      <mike@perusion.com>

Software axiom: Lack of speed kills.