ST - Internals - Installation

Installing ST requires:

• the CGI on a Apache WWW server
• `st-mail-gateway` on an email server
• the command line tools wherever they're desired
• the database schema created on a MySql database server
• the userid "rt" (historical, sigh) on the WWW and email server to control access to the database passwords
• userid/passwords for (read-only) access to the
  • CSCF subscription system
  • CSCF inventory system
  • MFCF inventory system
• a userid/password for read-only access to the ST database for use by the CSCF inventory and subscription systems

The primary ST code base is in an XHier package, on capo.private. Thus distribution paths are needed from there to the WWW server(s) and MX handler(s) involved.

WWW Setup

• CGI Access
  • With WWW Server Configuration
  • Without WWW Server Configuration
• The Rest of ST

CGI Access

Making the CGIs (there are 3 versions) visible on a WWW server can be done in two different ways. www.math does it one way, and www.cs does it another (sigh).

With WWW Server Configuration

One www.math, the WWW server configuration maps the expected ST URLs

https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/mfcf/help/request
https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/mfcf/help/request_beta
https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/mfcf/help/request_debug

to corresponding locations in the ST package:

/software/rt-math-1/data/cgi-bin/request
/software/rt-math-1/data/cgi-bin/request_beta
/software/rt-math-1/data/cgi-bin/request_debug

each of which is a symbolic link to the corresponding setuid covers:

/software/rt-math-1/servers/st-suid-perl
/software/rt-math-1/servers/st-suid-perl_beta
/software/rt-math-1/servers/st-suid-perl_debug

As of 2015-11, the configuration in

www.math:/.software/regional/wwwdata_math.uwaterloo.ca/config/apache2/httpd.virtual.conf

is

# Request Tracker installation
<Directory /software/rt-math-1/data/cgi-bin>
	Order allow,deny
	Allow from all
</Directory>

# Enable $REMOTE_USER for RT access (RT#74607)
<LocationMatch ^/mfcf/help/request(_.*)?($|/)>
	PerlAuthenHandler Apache::AuthenURL
	require valid-user
</LocationMatch>

# URLs with "request" use $REMOTE_USER
ScriptAliasMatch /mfcf/help/request((_.*)?)((/.*)?)$ /software/rt-math-1/data/cgi-bin/request$1$3

<Directory /software/rt-math-1/data/images>
	Order allow,deny
	Allow from all
</Directory>

Alias /mfcf/help/images /software/rt-math-1/data/images

The Alias for /mfcf/help/images is obsolete (not needed).

Without WWW Server Configuration

An alternative, used on www.cs, is to place the CGIs where the URLs

https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/internal/request
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/internal/request_beta
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/internal/request_debug

/.software/regional/odyssey_apache/data/vhosts/cs.uwaterloo.ca/cscf/internal/

The CGIs must be setuid to run (a requirement of WWW server configuration). One might think that they only need to be symbolic links to the corresponding st-suid-perl programs, however the WWW server constraints on CGI symbolic links are being dodged by using setuid cover scripts that invoke st-suid-perl. E.g. request_beta is (as of 2015-11)

#!/bin/sh
#
# Emulate this being a symlink to st-suid-perl_beta,
# to dodge www server symlink requirements.
#
SUID=/software/rt-math-1/servers/st-suid-perl_beta

# dodge execshell bug
export SHELL=/bin/sh

exec /software/mfcf-misc/bin/execshell $SUID request_beta "$@"

The scripts are setuid "rt", although they could be setuid to anything, as they invoke a setuid "root" program that implements the CGI. WARNING: the WWW server requires that the containing directory be owned by whatever the scripts are setuid to.

The Rest of ST

Aside from the main CGI, ST has other parts, such as:

• documentation
• the RunOn Sentence (for detailed queries)
• images

They are expected to reside at a URL that replaces

This	With This
request	ST/production/
request_beta	ST/beta/
request_debug	ST/debug/

Relative to those URLs it is expected to find:

This	Here	From
documentation	.../doc/	/software/rt-math-1/doc/version/
images	.../images	/software/rt-math-1/data/images/
st-args.cgi	.../st-args.cgi	/software/rt-math-1/servers/st-args.cgi

st-args.cgi is a CGI used by the debug version of the RunOn Sentence to display the arguments that would be passed to the main CGI. It appears in the above locations by doing what's in .../ST/.ReadMe, which is executable (!). This was done rather than fight the WWW server rules about symlinks.

With sufficient work, all of .../ST/ could be parameterized, so that it would work on both www.cs and www.math, with the source form in /software/rt-math-1/data/www-content/ (for example), as the only difference between the two is CSCF vs MFCF references.