Setting Up Subversion And Trac As Virtual Hosts On An Ubuntu Server

This howto outlines the process by which one can set up the Subversion version control system, and have it work in tandem with Trac, the project manager for software development projects, on a server running Ubuntu (or possibly Debian). It is brought to you by Openject Consulting.

Setting up Subversion

For detailed information on this, including alternate setups, have a look at Version Control with Subversion.

Install the required packages.

sudo aptitude install enscript libapache2-mod-python python-docutils trac db4.3-util libapache2-svn subversion-tools
Create a virtual host directory for SVN. We'll use /var/local/svn instead of /var/www so that Subversion instances don't clog up the directory of web root directories.

sudo mkdir -p /var/local/svn/svn.example.com
Create a development group, and add the web user to it.

sudo addgroup example; sudo adduser www-data example
Add users to the development group. These are persons that need access to the repository.

sudo adduser username1 example
sudo adduser username2 example
sudo adduser username3 example
Set the proper permissions.

sudo chmod 2770 /var/local/svn/svn.example.com
Set up the repository.

sudo svnadmin create /var/local/svn/svn.example.com
Clear the current password file. By default it's for the svnserve protocol, but we'll be using HTTPS (or just HTTP). We'll be adding users to this file later in the process.

sudo rm /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/passwd
sudo touch /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/passwd
Allow the group to write to the repository.

sudo chmod -R g+w /var/local/svn/svn.example.com
Set proper file ownership.

sudo chown -R www-data:example /var/local/svn/svn.example.com
Set the repository access permissions. Information on how to do this can be found in the Path-Based Authorization section of Version Control with Subversion.

sudo vi /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/authz
Create a directory for the log files.

sudo mkdir /var/log/apache2/svn.example.com
Add the site to the log rotation list.

sudo vi /etc/logrotate.d/apache2

Configure the virtual host...

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/svn.example.com

...with the following data. If you don't care about SSL, you can ignore the SSL options and run this on port 80.

<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:443>
  ServerName svn.example.com
  <Location />
    DAV svn
    AuthType Basic
    AuthName "svn.example.com"
    AuthUserFile /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/passwd
    AuthzSVNAccessFile /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/authz
    SVNPath /var/local/svn/svn.example.com
    Require valid-user
  </Location>
  CustomLog /var/log/apache2/svn.example.com/access.log combined
  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/svn.example.com/error.log
  SSLEngine on
  SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem
# Add this once there is a real (non self-signed) certificate.
#  SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:80>
  ServerName svn.example.com
  Redirect / https://svn.example.com/
</VirtualHost>

Reference:

/etc/apache2/mods-enabled/dav_svn.conf

Enable the subversion virtual host.

sudo a2ensite svn.example.com
Create user/password combinations.

htpasswd /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/passwd username
Restart the web server.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
If you're going to have users working locally, set up svnwrap. (See the man page for details.)

sudo ln -s /usr/bin/svnwrap /usr/local/bin/svn

Setting up Trac

Create the web directory. We'll use /var/local/trac instead of /var/www so as not to clog up the directory of webroots.

sudo mkdir -p /var/local/trac/trac.example.com
Set the proper permissions.

sudo chmod 2770 /var/local/trac/trac.example.com
Create a Trac instance.

sudo trac-admin /var/local/trac/trac.example.com initenv
Set proper ownership on the web directory.

sudo chown -R www-data:example /var/local/trac/trac.example.com
Allow the group to write to the repository.

sudo chmod -R g+w /var/local/trac/trac.example.com
Configure it.

sudo vi /var/local/trac/trac.example.com/conf/trac.ini
Create a directory for the log files.

sudo mkdir /var/log/apache2/trac.example.com
Add the site to the log rotation list.

sudo vi /etc/logrotate.d/apache2

Configure the virtual host...

sudo vi /etc/apache2/sites-available/trac.example.com

...with the following data. If you don't care about SSL, you can skip the SSL options and run this on port 80.

# Trac Configuration
<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:80>
  ServerName trac.example.com
  Redirect / https://trac.example.com/
</VirtualHost>
<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:443>
  ServerName trac.example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/local/trac/trac.example.com/
  Alias /trac/ /usr/share/trac/htdocs
  <Directory "/usr/share/trac/htdocs/">
      Options Indexes MultiViews
      AllowOverride None
      Order allow,deny
      Allow from all
  </Directory>
  <Location />
      SetHandler mod_python
      PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend
      PythonInterpreter main_interpreter
      PythonOption TracEnv /var/local/trac/trac.example.com/
      PythonOption TracUriRoot /
      AuthType Basic
      AuthName "trac.example.com"
      # Use the SVN password file.
      AuthUserFile /var/local/svn/svn.example.com/conf/passwd
      Require valid-user
  </Location>
  CustomLog /var/log/apache2/trac.example.com/access.log combined
  ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/trac.example.com/error.log
  SSLEngine on
  SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.pem
# Add this once there is a real (non self-signed) certificate.
#  SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key
</VirtualHost>

Reference:

http://trac.edgewall.org/wiki/TracOnUbuntu

Enable the Trac virtual host.

sudo a2ensite trac.example.com
Configure Trac permissions. Once you're inside the administration console, execute the command "help permission" for information on how to do this. This is important because some settings are permissive by default, when they should be restrictive. Also, see the wiki page TracPermissions that comes with your new installation.

trac-admin /var/local/trac/trac.example.com
Restart the web server.

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

The last thing to do is add the subdomains "svn" and "trac" to the DNS configuration for your domain. Once this is done, Subversion and Trac will be integrated into your server environment, and will be accessible from the web.

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