Changes between Version 1 and Version 2 of TracCgi

Timestamp:

Aug 25, 2011, 10:32:29 AM (13 years ago)

Author:

trac

Comment:

--

TracCgi

@@ -1 +1 @@
 = Installing Trac as CGI =
-
-To install Trac as a CGI script, you need to make the `trac.cgi` executable as a CGI by your web server.
 
 {{{
 #!div class=important
-  ''Please note that using Trac via CGI is significantly slower than any other deployment method, such as [TracModPython mod_python] or [TracFastCgi FastCGI] or even [trac:TracOnWindowsIisAjp IIS/AJP] on Windows.''
+  ''Please note that using Trac via CGI is the slowest deployment method available. It is slower than [TracModPython mod_python], [TracFastCgi FastCGI] and even [trac:TracOnWindowsIisAjp IIS/AJP] on Windows.''
 }}}
 
-If you're using [http://httpd.apache.org/ Apache HTTPD], there are a couple ways to do that:
+CGI script is the entrypoint that web-server calls when a web-request to an application is made. To generate the `trac.cgi` script run:
+{{{
+trac-admin /path/to/env deploy /path/to/www/trac
+}}}
+`trac.cgi` will be in the `cgi-bin` folder inside the given path. Make sure it is executable by your web server. This command also copies `static resource` files to a `htdocs` directory of a given destination.
 
- 1. Use a `ScriptAlias` to map a URL to the `trac.cgi` script
- 2. Copy the `trac.cgi` file into the directory for CGI executables used by your web server (commonly named `cgi-bin`). A word of warning, copying the file directly from the repository onto a windows server 2003 machine created difficulties. Rather create a new text file and cut and copy the text into the newly created file. You can also create a symbolic link, but in that case make sure that the `FollowSymLinks` option is enabled for the `cgi-bin` directory.
+== Apache web-server configuration ==
 
-The first option is recommended as it also allows you to map the CGI to a friendly URL.
+In [http://httpd.apache.org/ Apache] there are two ways to run Trac as CGI:
 
-Now, edit the Apache configuration file and add this snippet, file names and locations changed to match your installation:
+ 1. Use a `ScriptAlias` directive that maps an URL to the `trac.cgi` script (recommended)
+ 2. Copy the `trac.cgi` file into the directory for CGI executables used by your web server (commonly named `cgi-bin`). You can also create a symbolic link, but in that case make sure that the `FollowSymLinks` option is enabled for the `cgi-bin` directory.
+
+To make Trac available at `http://yourhost.example.org/trac` add `ScriptAlias` directive to Apache configuration file, changing `trac.cgi` path to match your installation:
 {{{
-ScriptAlias /trac /usr/share/trac/cgi-bin/trac.cgi
+ScriptAlias /trac /path/to/www/trac/cgi-bin/trac.cgi
 }}}
 
- ''Note that this directive requires the `mod_alias` module to be installed and enabled.''
+ ''Note that this directive requires enabled `mod_alias` module.''
 
 If you're using Trac with a single project you need to set its location using the `TRAC_ENV` environment variable:
@@ -36 +40 @@
 }}}
 
- ''Note that the `SetEnv` directive requires the `mod_env` module to be installed and enable. If not, you could set TRAC_ENV in trac.cgi. Just add the following code between "try:" and "from trac.web ...":''
+ ''Note that the `SetEnv` directive requires enabled `mod_env` module. It is also possible to set TRAC_ENV in trac.cgi. Just add the following code between "try:" and "from trac.web ...":''
 
 {{{
@@ -50 +54 @@
 }}}
 
-This will make Trac available at `http://yourhost.example.org/trac`.
-
 If you are using the [http://httpd.apache.org/docs/suexec.html Apache suEXEC] feature please see [http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/ApacheSuexec].
 
@@ -58 +60 @@
 == Mapping Static Resources ==
 
-Out of the box, Trac will serve static resources such as style sheets or images itself. For a CGI setup, though, this is highly undesirable, because it results in the CGI script being invoked for documents that could be much more efficiently served by the web server directly.
+Out of the box, Trac will pass static resources such as style sheets or images through itself. For a CGI setup this is '''highly undesirable''', because this way CGI script is invoked for documents that could be much more efficiently served directly by web server.
 
-Web servers such as [http://httpd.apache.org/ Apache HTTPD] allow you to create “Aliases” to resources, thereby giving them a virtual URL that doesn't necessarily bear any resemblance to the layout of the servers file system. We already used this capability above when defining a `ScriptAlias` for the CGI script, and we'll use it now to map requests to the static resources to the directory on the file system that contains them, thereby bypassing the processing of such requests by the CGI script.
+Web servers such as [http://httpd.apache.org/ Apache] allow you to create “Aliases” to resources, giving them a virtual URL that doesn't necessarily reflect the layout of the servers file system. We already used this capability by defining a `ScriptAlias` for the CGI script. We also can map requests for static resources directly to the directory on the file system, avoiding processing these requests by CGI script.
 
-Edit the Apache configuration file again and add the following snippet '''before''' the `ScriptAlias` for the CGI script , file names and locations changed to match your installation:
+There are two primary URL paths for static resources - `/chrome/common` and `/chrome/site`. Plugins can add their own resources usually accessible by `/chrome/plugin` path, so its important to override only known paths and not try to make universal `/chrome` alias for everything.
+
+Add the following snippet to Apache configuration '''before''' the `ScriptAlias` for the CGI script, changing paths to match your deployment:
 {{{
-Alias /trac/chrome/common /usr/share/trac/htdocs
-<Directory "/usr/share/trac/htdocs">
+Alias /trac/chrome/common /path/to/trac/htdocs/common
+Alias /trac/chrome/site /path/to/trac/htdocs/site
+<Directory "/path/to/www/trac/htdocs">
   Order allow,deny
   Allow from all
@@ -71 +76 @@
 }}}
 
-Note that whatever URL path you mapped the `trac.cgi` script to, the path `/chrome/common` is the path you have to append to that location to intercept requests to the static resources. 
+If using mod_python, you might want to add this too (otherwise, the alias will be ignored):
+{{{
+<Location "/trac/chrome/common/">
+  SetHandler None
+</Location>
+}}}
+
+Note that we mapped `/trac` part of the URL to the `trac.cgi` script, and the path `/chrome/common` is the path you have to append to that location to intercept requests to the static resources. 
 
 For example, if Trac is mapped to `/cgi-bin/trac.cgi` on your server, the URL of the Alias should be `/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/chrome/common`.
 
-Similarly, if you have static resources in a projects htdocs directory, you can configure apache to serve those resources (again, put this '''before''' the `ScriptAlias` for the CGI script, and adjust names and locations to match your installation):
+Similarly, if you have static resources in a project's htdocs directory (which is referenced by /chrome/site URL in themes), you can configure Apache to serve those resources (again, put this '''before''' the `ScriptAlias` for the CGI script, and adjust names and locations to match your installation):
 
 {{{
@@ -85 +97 @@
 }}}
 
-Alternatively, you can set the `htdocs_location` configuration option in [wiki:TracIni trac.ini]:
+Alternatively to hacking `/trac/chrome/site`, you can directly specify path to static resources using `htdocs_location` configuration option in [wiki:TracIni trac.ini]:
 {{{
 [trac]
-htdocs_location = /trac-htdocs
+htdocs_location = http://yourhost.example.org/trac-htdocs
 }}}
 
 Trac will then use this URL when embedding static resources into HTML pages. Of course, you still need to make the Trac `htdocs` directory available through the web server at the specified URL, for example by copying (or linking) the directory into the document root of the web server:
 {{{
-$ ln -s /usr/share/trac/htdocs /var/www/your_site.com/htdocs/trac-htdocs
+$ ln -s /path/to/www/trac/htdocs /var/www/yourhost.example.org/trac-htdocs
 }}}
 
@@ -160 +172 @@
 
 ----
-See also:  TracGuide, TracInstall, TracFastCgi, TracModPython
+See also:  TracGuide, TracInstall, [wiki:TracModWSGI], TracFastCgi, TracModPython