path: root/rt/README

# BEGIN LICENSE BLOCK
# 
# Copyright (c) 1996-2003 Jesse Vincent <jesse@bestpractical.com>
# 
# (Except where explictly superceded by other copyright notices)
# 
# This work is made available to you under the terms of Version 2 of
# the GNU General Public License. A copy of that license should have
# been provided with this software, but in any event can be snarfed
# from www.gnu.org.
# 
# This work is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
# WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
# MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
# General Public License for more details.
# 
# Unless otherwise specified, all modifications, corrections or
# extensions to this work which alter its source code become the
# property of Best Practical Solutions, LLC when submitted for
# inclusion in the work.
# 
# 
# END LICENSE BLOCK
RT is an enterprise-grade issue tracking system. It allows
organizations to keep track of their to-do lists, who is working
on which tasks, what's already been done, and when tasks were
completed. It is available under the terms of version 2 of the GNU
General Public License (GPL), so it doesn't cost anything to set
up and use.


        Jesse Vincent
        Best Practical Solutions, LLC
        March 2003

REQUIRED PACKAGES:
------------------

o   Perl 5.8.0 or later (http://www.perl.com).

 	(If you intend to use the FastCGI or SpeedyCGI support, you 
	 need to make sure that perl has been built with support for 
	 setgid perl scripts.)`

    Perl 5.6.1 is currently deprecated and will be officially desupported
    in a future release

o   A DB backend; MySQL is recommended ( http://www.mysql.com ) 
        Currently supported:  Mysql 4.0.13 or later. 
                              Postgres 7.2 or later.

                              Mysql 3.23.46 or newer with support for InnoDB 
			      is currently deprecated and will be officially
			      desupported in a future release.

o   Apache version 1.3.x or 2.x (http://httpd.apache.org) 
    with mod_perl -- (http://perl.apache.org ) 
    or a webserver with FastCGI support (www.fastcgi.com)

        mod_perl 2.0 isn't quite ready for prime_time just yet;
        Best Practical Solutions strongly recommends that sites use 
        Apache 1.3 or FastCGI.

        Compiling mod_perl on Apache 1.3.x as a DSO has been known 
         to have massive stability problems and is not recommended.

        mod_perl 1.x must be build with EVERYTHING=1

        RT's FastCGI handler runs setgid to the 'rt' group to
        protect RT's database password.  You may need to install
        a special  "suidperl" package or reconfigure your perl
        setup to support "setuid scripts" if you intend to use RT
        with FastCGI.

        Debian GNU/* 3.0+: the package which installs suidperl is
         called perl-suid, and should work without any tweaking.

        FreeBSD 4.2+: the package is called sperl, and should
         install a suidperl that just works 

        Conectiva Linux 6.0+: suidperl is installed by default when 
         perl is installed, but the program /bin/suidperl is not setuid. 
         You must use chmod to make it setuid.



o    Various and sundry perl modules
	A tool included with RT takes care of the installation of
	most of these automatically during the install process.

	The tool supplied with RT uses Perl's CPAN system
	(http://www.cpan.org) to install modules. Some operating
	systems package all or some of the modules required and
	you may be better off installing the modules that way.


GENERAL INSTALLATION
--------------------

This is a rough guide to installing RT. For more detail, you'll want 
to read 'Chapter 2: Installing' in RT's manual, available at
http://www.bestpractical.com/rt 

1   Unpack this distribution SOMWHERE OTHER THAN where you want to install RT

        Granted, you've already got it open. To do this cleanly:

                tar xzvf rt.tar.gz -C /tmp

2   Run the "configure" script. 

        ./configure --help to see the list of options
        ./configure (with the flags you want)

3   Satisfy RT's myriad dependencies. 

3.1   Check for compliance:
        
   perl sbin/rt-test-dependencies \ 
                --with-<databasename> --with-<web-environment>

        databasename is one of: mysql, postgres
        web-environment is one of: fastcgi, modperl1, modperl2

3.2   If there are unsatisfied dependencies, install them by hand or run:

        perl sbin/rt-test-dependencies \
                --with-<databasename> --with-<web-environment> --install
        

3.3   Check to make sure everything was installed properly:

        perl sbin/rt-test-dependencies \
                --with-<databasename> --with-<web-environment>

4   Create a group called 'rt'

5a  FOR A NEW INSTALLATION: 
        
        As root, type:
                 make install        (replace "make" with the local name for 
                                 Make, if you need to)

                       
                 make initialize-database 


        If the make fails, type:
                make dropdb 
        and start over from step 5a

5b  FOR UPGRADING: (Within the RT 3.0.x series)

        As root, type: 
                make upgrade     (replace "make" with the local name for 
                                  Make, if you need to)

        This will build new binaries, config files and libraries without
        overwriting your RT database. 
        
        It may then instruct you to update your RT system database objects 

6   Edit etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm in your RT installation directory, by specifying
    any values you need to change from the defaults in etc/RT_Config.pm

7   Configure the email and web gateways, as described below. 

8   Stop and start your webserver, so it picks up your configuration changes.

    NOTE: root's password for the web interface is "password" 
    (without the quotes.)  Not changing this is a SECURITY risk
    
9   Configure RT per the instructions in RT's manual.

    Until you do this, RT will not be able to send or receive email,
    nor will it be more than marginally functional.  This is not an
    optional step.


THE WEB INTERFACE
-----------------

RT's web interface is based around HTML::Mason, which works best with the mod_perl
perl interpreter within Apache httpd.  Alternatively, support for the FastCGI
(and plain CGI) interface is also provided as 'bin/mason_handler.fcgi'.

Apache 
        You'll need to add a few lines to your httpd.conf telling it about RT:

<VirtualHost your.ip.address>
    ServerName your.rt.server.hostname
    DocumentRoot /opt/rt3/share/html
    AddDefaultCharset UTF-8

    # this line applies to Apache2+mod_perl2 only
    PerlModule Apache2 Apache::compat

    PerlModule Apache::DBI
    PerlRequire /opt/rt3/bin/webmux.pl

    # this section applies to Apache 1 only
    <Location />
        SetHandler perl-script
        PerlHandler RT::Mason
    </Location>

    # this section applies to Apache2+mod_perl2 only
    <FilesMatch "\.html$">
        SetHandler perl-script
        PerlHandler RT::Mason
    </FilesMatch>
    <LocationMatch "/Attachment/">
        SetHandler perl-script
        PerlHandler RT::Mason
    </LocationMatch>
    <LocationMatch "/REST/">
        SetHandler perl-script
        PerlHandler RT::Mason
    </LocationMatch>
</VirtualHost>



SETTING UP THE MAIL GATEWAY 
---------------------------

An alias for the initial queue will need to be made in either your
global mail aliases file (if you are using NIS) or locally on your
machine.
 
Add the following lines to /etc/aliases (or your local equivalent) :

rt:         "|/opt/rt3/bin/rt-mailgate --queue general --action correspond --url http://localhost/"
rt-comment: "|/opt/rt3/bin/rt-mailgate --queue general --action comment --url http://localhost/"
                                            |                |             |
                            <queue-name>----/                |             |
                                                             |             |
               <correspond or comment depending on whether   |             |
               the mail should be resent to the requestor>---/             |
                                                                           |
                                            <URL for RT's web interface>---/


BUGS
----

To report a bug, send email to rt-3.0-bugs@fsck.com.

GETTING HELP
------------

If RT is mission-critical for you or if you use it heavily, we recommend that
you purchase a commercial support contract.  Details on support contracts
are available at http://www.bestpractical.com.

If you're interested in having RT extended or customized or would like more
information about commercial support options, please send email to 
<sales@bestpractical.com> to discuss rates and availability.


RT-USERS MAILINGLIST
--------------------

To keep up to date on the latest RT tips, techniques and extensions,
you probably want to join the rt-users mailing list.  Send a message to:

         rt-users-request@lists.fsck.com 

With the body of the message consisting of only the word:

        subscribe

If you're interested in hacking on RT, you'll want to subscribe to
rt-devel@lists.fsck.com.  Subscribe to it with instructions similar to
those above.

Address questions about the stable release to the rt-users list, and
questions about the development version to the rt-devel list.  If you feel
your questions are best not asked publicly, send them personally to
<jesse@bestpractical.com>.


RT WEBSITE
----------

For current information about RT, check out the RT website at 
        http://www.bestpractical.com/  

You'll find screenshots, a pointer to the current version of RT, contributed 
patches, and lots of other great stuff.


TROUBLESHOOTING
---------------

If the solution to the problem you're running into isn't obvious and you've 
checked the FAQ, feel free to send mail to rt-users@fsck.com (for released 
versions of RT) or rt-devel@fsck.com (for development versions).

Thanks!