In this message, I respond to several suggestions: On Thu, Jan 09, 2020 at 08:37:12AM -0500, Greg Wooledge & others wrote:
One way would be: https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_userdir.html
I thank you for the link.
More as an alternative to apache on an another host: - using the built-in webserver in 'hugo' - Python http.server
Thanks; I forgot about those. My aspirations are for a simple static web site, and I looked at hugo, jekyll, pelican, and other generators; but I did not find one which suits my primary need, which is to work hand-in-hand with LaTeX markup. But that is a separate matter...
Do your pages use any server side facilities like PHP or server side includes? If not, and your pages have purely static content, you can just view your pages as plain files on your local machine, no need for a web server.
I understand; that would work. But I have a computer sitting unused, and this gives me an excuse to install and get familiar with Buster before switching this, my main machine, from Stretch to Buster.
Step one: stop using FTP. Step two: SERIOUSLY. STOP USING FTP. Step three: I REALLY REALLY MEAN IT. IF YOU KEEP USING FTP, WE'RE DONE.
You have my attention; I am all ears. But I do have a web hosting account with Hostgator which provides shared hosting; and I am not aware of a mechanism other than FTP to get web content from here to that remote server. That being the case, I had no concern with using FTP within the confines of my LAN, which is comprised of two computers, together with a firewall (ipFire).
Approach one: You could just install apache2 on the development machine. There's really no need to transfer the content to a second host, just to bounce it back to the original host via HTTP. Point the apache configs at wherever your in-development content resides.
I currently am doing that.
(For this approach and for all the other approaches, it doesn't *have* to be apache2. You could use nginx, or lighttpd, or any other web server.)
I understand.
Approach two: You could configure the web server on the second machine to serve your content via a virtual host that's rooted somewhere other than /var/www/html. Then rsync your content to that location, using whatever user account you've configured to have write access to that location.
This, I think, is the approach suggested by the first response.
Approach three: You could give your user account ownership of, or group write access to, /var/www/html on the second machine and rsync your content there, if you are not using virtual hosts for some reason.
This is my first encounter with the term "virtual host"; but my first inclination was to change ownership of /var/www/html, or to make use of groups. But now it seems that my first concern should be with FTP to the server of Hostgator. And in the case of a remote shared server, I question whether rsync is an option. RLH
