DebianPackage

Packaging for Debian .deb / apt distribution

Authored by SvenDowideit. Originated on http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiOnDebian and http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiOnDebianPlugins

foswiki is installed into /var/lib/foswiki with the configuration files (including apache.conf) installed into /etc/foswiki, and the cgi scripts at /var/lib/foswiki/bin. (before 1.0.7, they were in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/foswiki)

Because the apt package system is more capable than the Foswiki configure based Extension installer, you should always use apt-get, not the web interface, which is likely to break the package. apt will automatically install and configure foswiki, Extensions and their dependencies - making it trivial to install and maintain.

How to install (you must be root)

Install from Sven's fosiki foswiki debian repository with foswiki v1.0.9 and 200+ autobuilt extensions from Extensions.WebHome. (see http://fosiki.com/Foswiki_debian/FoswikiPackagesList.txt for a complete list)

To try it out, add the following to your /etc/apt/sources.list

(Note the spelling of the domain! fosiki not foswiki !)

deb http://fosiki.com/Foswiki_debian/ stable main contrib
deb-src http://fosiki.com/Foswiki_debian/ stable main contrib

and then run

apt-get update
apt-get install apache2 foswiki

Note that you will get a warning that the foswiki package cannot be authenticated. You can reply y to this warning.

To see what foswiki extensions are available, run

apt-cache search foswiki

you should see over 200 (as of July 2009)

The package building script requires an Extension is packaged and uploaded using BuildContrib, and that the DEPENDENCIES is defined correctly and runs once a day, downloading from foswiki.org and then building newly uploaded Extensions.

The source for the foswiki core package is maintained in foswiki svn, while the Extension builder is currently an unreleased work that Sven is re-writing as CPAN modules.

Note that these packages are not official Debian packages, so bug reports shouldn't be filed to the Debian bugtracker. To know the status of the eventual integration of foswiki into Debian's official archive, see http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=509864

See also : DebianPackagingTaskTeam

Installation notes

• The debian packages use a different installation structure than would be expected with a conventional Foswiki installation
  • Foswiki is installed into the /var/lib/foswiki/ directory
  • Foswiki CGI scripts are installed into /var/lib/foswiki/bin (prior to 1.0.7, they were in /usr/lib/cgi-bin/foswiki
  • Logs are written to the /var/log/foswiki directory
  • The Foswiki configuration file LocalSIte.cfg is installed into the /etc/foswiki/ directory, as is the Apache configuration for Foswiki
  • URL's are also different. /foswiki/bin/view/ on debian is written /cgi-bin/foswiki/view/
• External dependencies such as htmldoc (for GenPDFAddOn) or GraphViz (for DirectedGraphPlugin - Tasks.Item1202) are automatically resolved unless they can't be automatically detected from the package's DEPENDENCIES file, and a present in debian stable. If they are not detected automatically, but there is a relevant debian package, raise a task for that contrib mentioning that you found the issue when using the debs. (basically, its either a difficult to detect dependency, or is missing or wrong in the Foswiki Extension)
• If you are updating from e.g. Foswiki 1.0.0. The apt-get routine will ask you to change the files apache.conf and LocalSite.cfg . Accept the change, otherwise the update will not run correctly. If you, for whatever reason do not accept the change, you can later extract the files using the dpkg command and copy them by hand into the /etc/foswiki directory. Note that you will have to re-set the password and some of the configure settings if you do this.

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Active Items

Id	Summary	Priority	Current State / Waiting for	Creation Date	Last Edit
Item1610 DebianPackage, FormQueryPlugin	DebianPackage of FormQueryPlugin depends on libtime-modules-perl	Normal	Waiting for Feedback SvenDowideit	10 May 2009 - 15:08	19 May 2009 - 09:17
Item8311 DebianPackage	Configuration warnings and management in Debian packages	Enhancement	New DrakeDiedrich	23 Oct 2009 - 23:50	23 Oct 2009 - 23:50
Item8023 DebianPackage	Debian installer is not up to date, and not maintainable by hand. Foswikirev:4970 Foswikirev:4985 Foswikirev:6019 Foswikirev:6023 Foswikirev:6024 Foswikirev:6025 Foswikirev:6026 Foswikirev:6039 Foswikirev:6040 Foswikirev:6042 Foswikirev:6049 Foswikirev:11665 Foswikirev:11666	Urgent	New DrakeDiedrich	03 Dec 2008 - 19:48	24 Oct 2009 - 00:37
Item8469 DebianPackage	missing dependency: foswiki-actiontrackerplugin needs libtime-modules-perl	Low	New	05 Feb 2010 - 00:36	05 Feb 2010 - 00:36
Item8299 DebianPackage	Separate default configurations from the Foswiki binaries and topics Foswikirev:6020 Foswikirev:6021 Foswikirev:6022 Foswikirev:6041 Foswikirev:6660 Foswikirev:6664 Foswikirev:6679 Foswikirev:6680 Foswikirev:6681 Foswikirev:6682 Foswikirev:6683 Foswikirev:6685 Foswikirev:6686 Foswikirev:6687 Foswikirev:6688 Foswikirev:6689 Foswikirev:6691 Foswikirev:6696 Foswikirev:6701 Foswikirev:6702 Foswikirev:6704 Foswikirev:6705 Foswikirev:6707 Foswikirev:6711 Foswikirev:6713 Foswikirev:6714 Foswikirev:6715	Enhancement	Being Worked On DrakeDiedrich	07 Oct 2009 - 03:04	06 Mar 2010 - 01:30
Item2658 DebianPackage	2 improvments to debian upgrading Foswikirev:6717	Normal	Being Worked On DrakeDiedrich	18 Jan 2010 - 22:08	10 Mar 2010 - 14:58
Item5795 DebianPackage	OlivierBerger's NMU and translation teams' update to debian 4.1.2 package TWikirev:17416 TWikirev:17417 TWikirev:17418	Normal	Waiting for Feedback SvenDowideit	19 Jul 2008 - 12:19	18 Mar 2010 - 19:05
Item1563 DebianPackage	DebianPackage should set up {PermittedRedirectHostUrls} synomyms Foswikirev:5212	Normal	Being Worked On SvenDowideit?	04 May 2009 - 01:01	18 Mar 2010 - 19:19
Item8726 MailInContrib, DebianPackage	MailInContrib missing dependencies - debian	Normal	New	18 Mar 2010 - 19:38	18 Mar 2010 - 19:38
Item1830 DebianPackage	After last update (1.0.6-1) I can't edit pages anymore Foswikirev:4506 Foswikirev:4507 Foswikirev:4770 Foswikirev:4773 Foswikirev:7702	Urgent	Being Worked On	15 Jul 2009 - 14:18	09 Jun 2010 - 01:33
Item1661 DebianPackage	RenderListPlugin: wrong default module path	Normal	New	24 May 2009 - 16:43	29 Jun 2010 - 17:35
Item9252 DebianPackage	Debian installers do not support ARM based devices	Normal	New SvenDowideit	02 Jul 2010 - 21:45	03 Jul 2010 - 10:23
Item2517 DebianPackage, KinoSearchContrib	KinoSearchContrib missing dependencies under Debian 5.0.3	Urgent	Confirmed	21 Dec 2009 - 08:16	18 Jul 2010 - 16:31
Item9479 DebianPackage	Error during foswiki-twistyplugin instalation	Normal	New	17 Aug 2010 - 02:12	17 Aug 2010 - 02:12
Item9599 DebianPackage	trunk deb autobuild broken Foswikirev:8840 Foswikirev:11668 Foswikirev:11669 Foswikirev:11670	Enhancement	New	01 Sep 2010 - 11:02	01 Sep 2010 - 11:02
Item9299 DebianPackage	Foswiki.pm unable to read LocalSite? .cfg on new Ubuntu install	Normal	New	10 Jul 2010 - 13:27	01 Sep 2010 - 11:28
Item9600 DebianPackage	Debian package cleanup Foswikirev:8841 Foswikirev:8842	Enhancement	New DrakeDiedrich	01 Sep 2010 - 11:56	01 Sep 2010 - 11:56
Item9912 DebianPackage	foswiki-fastcgienginecontrib depends on non-existant libposix-strptime-perl	Urgent	New	27 Oct 2010 - 20:50	10 Nov 2010 - 10:25
Item9989 DebianPackage	Repository for perl package not available for Chart Plugin	Normal	New SvenDowideit	10 Nov 2010 - 11:26	10 Nov 2010 - 11:26
Item10743 DebianPackage	Fail to install foswiki plugin "foswiki-twikicompatibilityplugin"	Urgent	New	14 May 2011 - 19:09	15 May 2011 - 17:34
Item10787 DebianPackage, foswiki-kinosearchcontrib	Extension Kinosearch for Foswiki 1.1.3-2 not installable on Ubuntu 10.04 LTS	Normal	New	25 May 2011 - 11:13	25 May 2011 - 11:13
Item10735 DebianPackage	Foswiki 1.1.3: several clashes with other debian packages Foswikirev:11692	Urgent	Confirmed SvenDowideit?	11 May 2011 - 09:30	14 Jun 2011 - 14:47
Item10938 DebianPackage	HTML::Tree was not installed when upgrading to 1.1.3 using apt-get.	Normal	New	02 Jul 2011 - 11:56	02 Jul 2011 - 11:56
Item10954 DebianPackage	Directed Graph Plugin installed with wrong permissions	Urgent	New	08 Jul 2011 - 16:42	08 Jul 2011 - 16:42
Item10976 Documentation, MailerContrib, DebianPackage	Improve MailerContrib documentation regarding cron	Low	Confirmed SvenDowideit?	16 Jul 2011 - 11:42	18 Jul 2011 - 06:10
Item10964 DebianPackage	Fresh Debian installation fails to create necessary directories	Normal	New	13 Jul 2011 - 22:13	05 Aug 2011 - 11:53
Item11019 DebianPackage	Update symbolic link from log directory	Normal	New	03 Aug 2011 - 15:05	26 Jan 2012 - 01:54
Item8869 DebianPackage	foswiki-topdfplugin cannot be installed, broken package	Normal	New	09 Apr 2010 - 14:38	26 Jan 2012 - 01:56
Summary			Being Worked On: 1 Being Worked On DrakeDiedrich: 2 Being Worked On SvenDowideit? : 1 Confirmed: 1 Confirmed SvenDowideit? : 2 New: 14 New DrakeDiedrich: 3 New SvenDowideit: 2 Waiting for Feedback SvenDowideit: 2	01 Sep 2010 - 11:02: 1 01 Sep 2010 - 11:56: 1 02 Jul 2010 - 21:45: 1 02 Jul 2011 - 11:56: 1 03 Aug 2011 - 15:05: 1 03 Dec 2008 - 19:48: 1 04 May 2009 - 01:01: 1 05 Feb 2010 - 00:36: 1 07 Oct 2009 - 03:04: 1 08 Jul 2011 - 16:42: 1 09 Apr 2010 - 14:38: 1 10 Jul 2010 - 13:27: 1 10 May 2009 - 15:08: 1 10 Nov 2010 - 11:26: 1 11 May 2011 - 09:30: 1 13 Jul 2011 - 22:13: 1 14 May 2011 - 19:09: 1 15 Jul 2009 - 14:18: 1 16 Jul 2011 - 11:42: 1 17 Aug 2010 - 02:12: 1 18 Jan 2010 - 22:08: 1 18 Mar 2010 - 19:38: 1 19 Jul 2008 - 12:19: 1 21 Dec 2009 - 08:16: 1 23 Oct 2009 - 23:50: 1 24 May 2009 - 16:43: 1 25 May 2011 - 11:13: 1 27 Oct 2010 - 20:50: 1

See also: Support.DebianPackage, Extensions.DebianPackage, Development.DebianPackage?

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See also : DebianPackagingTaskTeam -- OlivierBerger - 09 Jan 2009

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other technical details

if you want to use a robots.txt file, it would go into the /var/www directory - its outside of the scope of the foswiki package, as it affects the entire apache system, not just foswiki.