Tutorial on how to Install Apache, Subversion and Trac with Virtual Hosting suppor in Ubuntu Linux

We recently had to setup Apache, Subversion and Trac all within a virtual hosting environment for one of our Clients to be able to develop easily and effictively among team members. They wanted to use multiple domain names for separate projects. Made sense to us, so we started looking for instructions on setting this up.

We wanted to setup LigHTTPD, however it’s not nearly as easy because of no svn-dav module available, so we stuck with Apache 2 for now.

We found a howto on doing this, however there were a few vital steps and explanations missing so we’ve re-written it in hopes it will help others the trouble of searching to find this information.

So, lets move on to the tutorial shall we.

First install the required packages on your system. We started with a clean Ubuntu JEOS 8.0.4 Install on our server.

# sudo aptitude install enscript libapache2-mod-python python-docutils trac db4.3-util libapache2-svn subversion-tools

Now create a virtual host for your SVN container.

# mkdir -p /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com

Now create a development group, and add the web user to it.

# addgroup svngroup; adduser www-data svngroup

Now Add a user to the system and add them to that group

# adduser username  
# passwd username

Now add that user to the group required for SVN

# adduser username svngroup

Now setup the permissions for your SVN site.

# chmod 2770 /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com

Now setup the repo as you normally would

# svnadmin create /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com

Remove the current password file. We’re using HTTPS (or HTTP) instead of SVNSERVE so no need for it.

# rm /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/passwd  
# touch /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/passwd

Allow your group to write to the repo

# chmod -R g+w www-data:svngroup /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com

Now set the repo access permissions.

# nano /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/authz

It should look something similar to the following. If in doubt, refer to the Path-Based Auth section of Subversion.

[groups]
 svngroup = username1,username2,username2
 
[/]  
@svngroup = rw

Now, create a log directory within apache for your development site.

# mkdir /var/log/apache2/svn.yourdomain.com

Now create your virtual host.

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/svn.yourdomain.com

Copy the following in, editing to suit your environment. Note we’re using a self signed certificate, you can change this to a properly signed one if you have it.

<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:443>  
ServerName svn.yourdomain.com  
<Location />  
DAV svn  
AuthType Basic  
AuthName "svn.yourdomain.com"  
AuthUserFile /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/passwd  
AuthzSVNAccessFile /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/authz  
SVNPath /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com  
Require valid-user  
</Location>  
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/svn.yourdomain.com/access.log combined  
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/svn.yourdomain.com/error.log  
SSLEngine on  
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/selfsigned.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.yourdomain.com  
Redirect / <https://svn.yourdomain.com/>  
</VirtualHost>

Now, enable the site

# a2ensite svn.yourdomain.com

Now, create a username and password to access the svn site.

# htpasswd /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/passwd username1

Now, create your SSL certificate. Details are here if you need them.

# sudo aptitude install ssl-cert

Now, we found out that the default Ubuntu SSL cert is only for 30 days, so, we changed this to be 365 a little more sane no? Thanks for the tip Devio.

# which make-ssl-cert  
# /usr/sbin/make-ssl-cert  
# nano /usr/sbin/make-ssl-cert

Replace the line near the bottom that looks like this

openssl req -config $TMPFILE -new -x509 -nodes -out $output -keyout $output

With a line that looks like this instead

openssl req -config $TMPFILE -new -x509 **-days 365** -nodes -out $output -keyout $output

Exit and save the file. Now we’re ready to generate our final self signed SSL certificate for Apache on Ubuntu. Like this;

# make-ssl-cert /usr/share/ssl-cert/ssleay.cnf /etc/ssl/certs/selfsigned.pem

Make sure to set your “common name” to your server name – ie: svn.yourdomain.com

Now you can go ahead and restart Apache to verify your DAV enabled SVN site functions.

# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

To verify, hit it’s url in a browser

<https://svn.yourdomain.com/>

If everthing was successful, you now have SVN setup, with WEB-Dav support in Apache2 on Ubuntu. Continue to setup Trac.

First we have to create the web directory for Trac.

# mkdir -p /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com

Now we setup the permissions

# chmod 2770 /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com

Create a Trac instance for your project

# trac-admin /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com initenv

Setup the proper ownerships for the directory

# chown -R www-data:svngroup /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com

Now make sure the group is added to the repo

# chmod -R g+w /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com

Configure Trac where required

# nano /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com/conf/trac.ini

Create a directory for log files

# mkdir /var/log/apache2/trac.yourdomain.com

Now create a virtual host for your trac instance

# nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/trac.yourdomain.com

Now, copy the following into the virtual host configuration, changing to suit your domain and configuration

#Trac Configuration  
<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:80>  
ServerName trac.yourdomain.com  
Redirect / <https://trac.yourdomain.com/>  
</VirtualHost>  
<VirtualHost [server's IP address]:443>  
ServerName trac.yourdomain.com  
DocumentRoot /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.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.yourdomain.com/  
PythonOption TracUriRoot /  
AuthType Basic  
AuthName "trac.yourdomain.com"  
    #Use the SVN password file.  
AuthUserFile /var/local/svn/svn.yourdomain.com/conf/passwd  
Require valid-user  
</Location>  
CustomLog /var/log/apache2/trac.yourdomain.com/access.log combined  
ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/trac.yourdomain.com/error.log  
SSLEngine on  
SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/selfsigned.pem  
#Add this once there is a real (non self-signed) certificate.  
#SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/server.key  
> </VirtualHost>

Now, enable this virtual host as well

# a2ensite trac.yourdomain.com

Configure Trac Permissions for your Trac instance.

# trac-admin /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com

Use the following commands to view permissions, and set permissions.

"help permission"

We set the following permissions to one of our users from the command line

# trac-admin /var/local/trac/trac.yourdomain.com permission add username1 TRAC_ADMIN

Now you’re ready to restart Apache with your new Trac VHOST.

# /etc/init.d/apache2 restart

Now you’re ready to restart Apache and visit your Trac installation

<https://trac.yourdomain.com/>

Login with your user (username1) and password you setup earlier.

We hope this tutorial helps others when trying to setup SVN and Trac on Ubuntu with Virtual Hosts. Let us know if you have any other handy tips!