SID-02428: Where is configure?

Status:	Answered	TWiki version:	6.1.0	Perl version:	5.14.2
Category:	CategoryInstallation	Server OS:	FreeBSD	Last update:	6 years ago

I'm trying to modify .htaccess.txt to work on a hosted web site (Nearly Free Speech). Line 9-11 says: # Replace {DataDir} with the value from configure # Replace {DefaultUrlHost} with the value from configure # Replace {ScriptUrlPath} with the value from configure

I can't figure out what configure refers to. Evidently, you have to set up htaccess before you can run the TWiki configure script on a shared server host. Using the URL, it displays the text of configure, rather than execute it. You can execute it (with limited success) by doing perl -T /home/public/twiki/bin/configure from PuTTY.

NFSHost sets up your web site in /home/public so I unzipped TWiki 6.1.0 into /home/public/twiki the bin would be /home/public/twiki/bin the pub would be /home/public/twiki/pub the url http://mysite.nfshost.com displays the index.html in /home/public

-- David Tremain - 2020-02-17

Discussion and Answer

configure refers to the configure script. Indeed, there is a chicken and egg problem since you can't run configure.

Setting TWiki up on a shared host is a bit tricky, but possible. In any case, for security I do not recommend placing TWiki in a public website directory. Steps:

• Place TWiki somewhere else on the server, such as /home/david/twiki
• Move the twiki/bin from the TWiki package to a cgi-enabled directory, such as /home/cgi
• Move the twiki/pub from the TWiki package to to the public directory, such as /home/public
• Run configure in the browser, such as =http://example.com/cgi/configure (some shared hosting require an extension, in which case rename configure to configure.cgi, among all other TWiki scripts)

-- Peter Thoeny - 2020-02-17

On NFS, they provide the following directories under /home conf logs (contains logs - access_log, error_log, and php-fpm.log) private (contains .config .cpan perl5 directories) protected (no subdirectories, php-fpm.conf and run-php.sh files) public (web site - /home/public/index.html is the default page) tmp (empty)

htaccess.cfg (they use Apache) is not available, so you have to use .htaccess in each directory From what I can see, all the needed packages for TWiki (perl, RCS, cpan, cgi, php) are installed as part of their base site package

I will try relocating the subdirectories and updating the configuration to point to the new locations.

-- David Tremain - 2020-02-29

I wound up with the following directories in the URL path: bin pub templates I have both bin and pub set so they have write permissions (for the user NFS uses to run the website - web) templates is not write-enabled

The other directories are in the /home/etc/twiki I gave lib, data, and working write rights

Do you see any potential problems with that setup?

From the distribution, Execute rights are not set on the bin/nul file, which throws a warning in the CGI Setup section of configure

I was able to clear all errors and warnings in configuration through changing the values in the configuration program and saving it.

I have yet to tackle mail (NFS does not provide mail service - you have to use someone else's mail facility - like google or outlook).

I am working on getting backup/restore functioning so I can upload my TWiki to the web site.

Thanks so much for your help.

-- David Tremain - 2020-03-02

You are safe as long as twiki/bin is in a cgi enabled directory, and twiki/pub in a webserver directory, and all other twiki sub-directories outside the webserver directory.

-- Peter Thoeny - 2020-03-03

I've had to move /twiki/bin, /twiki/data, /twiki/pub and /twiki/templates to the webserver directory (public url web path) because it wasn't being cooperative to register users or add a new page to the Sandbox web Or to do a backuprestore - current issue is End of script output before headers, which I asked in a separate question. (I could swear I saw that talked about somewhere in twiki.org, but couldn't find it...)

The good news is that after putting those directories in the public path, I seem to have gotten the register user, add new page to Sandbox, and e-mail to work...

-- David Tremain - 2020-03-04

Short answer - configure I was asking about is the configuration file that is generated by running the configure script in /twiki/bin

Read and follow Peter's advice above - this question was early on in the process, and I really, really didn't know what I was doing... (what's changed?)

For a hosted site installation, you have to manually edit the LocalLib.cfg file to point to the twiki installation base directory (on NFSHost, the way I installed, the $twikiLibPath was /home/public/twiki/lib, and the LocalLib.cfg file's directory was /home/public/twiki/bin). In addition, the scripts have to be runnable by the hosted site's web service (Apache, in this case).

Download /home/public/twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg.txt Edit it to set (around line 24) $twikiLibPath = "/home/public/twiki/lib";

Save file as LocalLib.cfg and upload it to /home/public/twiki/bin

In order to make files that don't end with a recognized cgi-bin extension (e.g., .cgi, .pl, .py) execute: (otherwise, it will just display the text contents of the file and not execute it - regardless of the execute rights)

Create a file with the following two commands: Options +ExecCGI SetHandler cgi-script

Save it with the name .htaccess and upload it to /home/public/twiki/bin

Also, make sure the group is "web" and that group has r-x rights. chgrp -R web /home/public/twiki/bin chmod -R g+r+x /home/public/twiki/bin

In a browser, go to the following URL: https://<<your short site name>>.nfshost.com/twiki/bin/configure

The configure script should run.

-- David Tremain - 2020-03-29

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