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Gopher (protocol)

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Internet protocol suite
Application layer
Transport layer
Internet layer
Link layer
  • Mozilla Firefox versions 0.1 to 3.6, built-in support dropped from Firefox 4.0 onwards;[1] can be added back by installing one of the extensions by the Overbite Project[2]
  • Galeon version 2.0.7
  • Google Chrome, with extension only,[3] Burrow extension[4]
  • Internet Explorer for Mac version 5.2.3, PowerPC-only
  • Internet Explorer, dropped with version 6: Support removed by MS02-047 from IE 6 SP1 can be re-enabled in the Windows Registry.[5] Always uses port 70. Gopher support was disabled in Internet Explorer versions 5.x and 6 for Windows in August 2002 by a patch meant to fix a security vulnerability in the browser's Gopher protocol handler to reduce the attack surface which was included in IE6 SP1; however, it can be re-enabled by editing the Windows registry. In Internet Explorer 7, Gopher support was removed on the WinINET level.[6]
  • K-Meleon, dropped support
  • Konqueror, with plug-in only, requires kio_gopher plug-in[7]
  • Line Mode Browser, since version 1.1, January 1992
  • Lynx
  • Mosaic, version 3.0
  • NetSurf, under development, based on the cURL fetcher
  • Netscape Navigator, version 9.0.0.6
  • OmniWeb, since version 5.9.2 (April 2009), first WebKit Browser to support Gopher[8][9]
  • Opera, Opera 9.0 included a proxy capability
  • Pavuk, a web mirror (recursive download) software program
  • SeaMonkey, version 1.0 to 2.0.14, built-in support dropped from SeaMonkey 2.1 onwards; could be added back to some versions with the Overbite project,[2] but is no longer supported.
  • Epiphany, until version 2.26.3, disabled with switch to WebKit
  • WebPositive, a WebKit-based browser used in the Haiku operating system
  • libwww, versions 1.0c (December 1992) to 5.4.1 December 2006, libwww is a discontinued API for internet applications. A modern fork is maintained in Lynx

Browsers that do not natively support Gopher can still access servers using one of the available Gopher to HTTP gateways or proxy server that converts Gopher menus into HTML; known proxies are the Floodgap Public Gopher proxy and Gopher Proxy. Similarly, certain server packages such as GN and PyGopherd have built-in Gopher to HTTP interfaces. Squid Proxy software gateways any gopher:// URL to HTTP content, enabling any browser or web agent to access gopher content easily.

For Mozilla Firefox and SeaMonkey, Overbite[2] extensions extend Gopher browsing and support the current versions of the browsers (Firefox Quantum v ≥57 and equivalent versions of SeaMonkey):

  • OverbiteWX redirects gopher:// URLs to a proxy;
  • OverbiteNX adds native-like support;
  • for Firefox up to 56.*, and equivalent versions of SeaMonkey, OverbiteFF adds native-like support, but it is no longer maintained

OverbiteWX includes support for accessing Gopher servers not on port 70 using a whitelist and for CSO/ph queries. OverbiteFF always uses port 70. For Chromium and Google Chrome, Burrow[4] is available. It redirects gopher:// URLs to a proxy. In the past an Overbite proxy-based extension for these browsers was available but is no longer maintained and does not work with the current (>23) releases.[2] For Konqueror, Kio gopher[10] is available.

As the bandwidth-sparing simple interface of Gopher can be a good match for mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDAs),[11] the early 2010s saw a renewed interest in native Gopher clients for popular smartphones.

Gopher popularity was at its height at a time when there were still many equally competing computer architectures and operating systems. As a result, there are several Gopher clients available for Acorn RISC OS, AmigaOS, Atari MiNT, CMS, DOS, classic Mac OS, MVS, NeXT, OS/2 Warp, most UNIX-like operating systems, VMS, Windows 3.x, and Windows 9x. GopherVR was a client designed for 3D visualization, and there is even a Gopher client in MOO.[12][13] The majority of these clients are hard-coded to work on TCP port 70.[14]

Server software

Because the protocol is trivial to implement in a basic fashion, there are many server packages still available, and some are still maintained.

Server Developed by Latest version Release date License Written in Notes
Aftershock Rob Linwood 1.0.1 22 April 2004 MIT Java
Apache::GopherHandler Timm Murray 0.1 26 March 2004 GPLv2 or any later version Perl Apache 2 plugin to run Gopher-Server.
Atua Charles Childers 2017.4 9 October 2017 ISC Forth
Bucktooth (gopher link) (proxied link) Cameron Kaiser 0.2.9 1 May 2011 Floodgap Free Software License Perl
Flask-Gopher Michael Lazar 2.2.1 11 April 2020 GPLv3 Python
geomyid Quinn Evans 0.0.1 10 August 2015 2-clause BSD Common Lisp
geomyidae (gopher link) (proxied link) Christoph Lohmann 0.50.1 8 April 2022 MIT C REST dynamic scripting, gopher TLS support, compatibility layer for other gophermaps
GoFish Sean MacLennan 1.2 8 October 2010 GPLv2 C
Gopher-Server Timm Murray 0.1.1 26 March 2004 GPLv2 Perl
Gophernicus Kim Holviala and others 3.1.1 3 January 2021 2-clause BSD C
gophrier Guillaume Duhamel 0.2.3 29 March 2012 GPLv2 C
Goscher Aaron W. Hsu 8.0 20 June 2011 ISC Scheme
mgod Mate Nagy 1.1 29 January 2018 GPLv3 C
Motsognir Mateusz Viste 1.0.13 8 January 2021 MIT C extensible through custom gophermaps, CGI and PHP scripts
Pituophis dotcomboom 1.1 16 May 2020 2-clause BSD Python Python-based Gopher library with both server and client support
PyGopherd John Goerzen 2.0.18.5 14 February 2017 GPLv2 Python Also supports HTTP, WAP, and Gopher+
Redis Salvatore Sanfilippo 6.2.5 21 July 2021 3-clause BSD C Support removed in version 7[15]
save_gopher_server SSS8555 0.777 7 July 2020 ? Perl with G6 extension and TFTP
Spacecookie Lukas Epple 1.0.0.0 17 March 2021 GPLv3 Haskell
Xylophar Nathaniel Leveck 0.0.1 15 January 2020 GPLv3 FreeBASIC

See also

References

  1. ^ Strong, Robert; et al. (2007-07-14). "Bug 388195 – Remove gopher protocol support for Firefox". Bugzilla. Retrieved 15 June 2010.
  2. ^ a b c d "The Overbite Project". Floodgap. Retrieved 25 July 2010.
  3. ^ hotaru.firefly; et al. (2 May 2009). "Issue 11345: gopher protocol doesn't work". Issues - chromium. Retrieved 25 July 2011.
  4. ^ a b "Burrow: Gopherspace Explorer for Chrome". Chrome Web Store. Archived from the original on 26 Jan 2024. Retrieved 1 July 2019.
  5. ^ "Microsoft Security Bulletin MS02-047". Microsoft. 28 February 2003. Archived from the original on 4 July 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2007.
  6. ^ "Release Notes for Internet Explorer 7". Microsoft. 2006. Archived from the original on 4 August 2011. Retrieved 23 March 2007.
  7. ^ "Kio gopher". KDE UserBase Wiki. Archived from the original on 1 May 2018. Retrieved 1 May 2018.
  8. ^ Sharps, Linda (1 April 2009). "OmniWeb 5.9.2 now includes Gopher support". The Omni Group. Archived from the original on 14 August 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  9. ^ "A comprehensive list of changes for each version of OmniWeb". The Omni Group. 1 April 2009. Archived from the original on 7 August 2011. Retrieved 3 April 2009.
  10. ^ "Kio gopher". Retrieved 1 April 2017.
  11. ^ Lore Sjöberg (12 April 2004). "Gopher: Underground Technology". Wired News. Archived from the original on 12 October 2008. Retrieved 27 July 2011.
  12. ^ Riddle, Prentiss (1993-04-13). "GopherCon '93: Internet Gopher Workshop and Internet Gopher Conference". PrentissRiddle.com. Retrieved 2008-05-20.
  13. ^ Masinter, L.; Ostrom, E. (June 1993). "Collaborative information retrieval: Gopher from MOO" (PDF). The Proceedings of INET. Vol. 93.
  14. ^ Anklesaria, Farhad; McCahill, Mark P; Lindner, Paul; Johnson, David; Torrey, Daniel; Alberti, Bob. "The Internet Gopher Protocol (a distributed document search and retrieval protocol)". IETF Datatracker. Archived from the original on 25 July 2023. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Remove gopher protocol support. By yoav-steinberg · Pull Request #9057 · redis/Redis". GitHub.
  16. ^ "The lowdown on Archie, Gopher, Veronica and Jughead".
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