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Co-authored by Elise Bauer and Arvind Satyanarayan.
Tutorial cross posted on Movalog and Learning Movable Type

The installation instructions in the Movable Type Install Guide contain a section in the Configuration area called Enable Security Features. These instructions tell you to uncomment the Umask lines in your mt.cfg if your server is running cgiwrap or suexec. If you don't know what CGIwrap or suEXEC are, you may be tempted to skip this step. Don't. This step gives your MT installation extra security, which we will explain. (Note that this tutorial is only appropriate for MT installations on Linux/Apache web servers.)

What is CGIWrap or suEXEC?

CGIWrap and suEXEC are features installed by your web host that give extra security to your files in a shared server, or "virtual host", environment. Most Movable Type weblogs are hosted at commercial web hosts who are able to give their customers affordable server space by hosting the files of several customers on a shared server. In a shared server environment, CGIWrap and suEXEC allow your cgi files to be executed with you as the account "owner". The cgi scripts can then create files with more restrictive permissions (644) that keep others from editing your files, yet still allow you to edit them. Without CGIWrap or suEXEC, cgi scripts create html files that need to have more relaxed permissions (666) so that the account owner can manage those files.

htaccess files can give you extra control over your server, allowing you to password protect directories, enable server side includes, generate custom error messages, and block users by IP address among other things. (See this Guide to .htaccess for more information.)

An htaccess file is a simple ascii text file which you create or edit in a text editor. The dot (.) before the word htaccess indicates that .htaccess is a file extension. Some text editors will add on an additional .txt file extension when you save your document. When you upload it to your server however, make sure the final file is named .htaccess and set the file's permissions to 644. The (.) in .htaccess also makes the file "hidden" on a unix server. Some FTP clients do not show the .htaccess because of its hidden status. For such FTP clients you will need to specify the "-a" parameter which displays all files including those that are hidden. For example:

Plugins are bits of code that, once installed, extend the functionality of Movable Type. The word plugin is often used by software developers to describe a third party application that "hooks" into a main application to extend its functionality. Movable Type hosts an active plugin developer community whose plugins have greatly enhanced the capabilities of Movable Type. You can find a directory of MT plugins at http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/plugins/. To use a plugin, you will need to use an FTP program to load the plugin files to your server. When you upgrade your MT version, you must be careful not to overwrite your plugins file. Either that, or reload the plugins after the upgrade. Sometimes earlier MT version plugins will not work with the latest MT version. So make sure to check the documentation of the plugins before you install them to ensure compatibility.

Links:
Plugin Manager by Majordojo.

Updated February 21, 2007

If you are new to Movable Type and/or weblogs you may have encountered the term Permalink and wondered (as I did when I first read the term), what the heck is that?

A permalink is the permanent identifier to a specific weblog post or article. On Movable Type, a Permalink is usually a link to an entry's unique web page.

Clicking on the Permalink link will take the viewer to the page devoted to that entry, often with a place to leave comments.

Updated February 21, 2007

TrackBack is a feature of Movable Type (and Typepad) that allows you to let other sites know that you have linked to them, and lets you know when other sites have linked to you.

If enabled, the TrackBack feature will place a direct link on your Movable Type entry to entries from other sites that are linking to your entry. Conversely, if you place a link on your weblog entry that links to another site's entry, a link to your site will show up on the other site's entry.