GeneWeb for DEBIAN ---------------------- To start using Geneweb on your Debian system, put authorised users in the "geneweb" group (so that they may write in the /var/lib/geneweb directory), put your databases in /var/lib/geneweb and point your web browser at: http://localhost:2317 (the port number is configured during the "configure" stage of the package installation) The automatic start of the gwd daemon is controlled by a choice made by the system administrator during the "configure" stage of the Debian package. If you prefer not using a general daemon, gwd may also be manually launched by every user of the system. You will probably have to use appropriate switches for giving gwd the proper paths for lang/etc directories (which are in /usr/share/geneweb). The automatically launched daemon runs as unprivileged user (geneweb) since the 4.09-3 version of the package. WARNING : when using utilities such as gwc, ged2gwb, generated databases DO NOT go automatically into /var/lib/geneweb. You will have to move them by hand if you don't run these utilities from this directory. If you do not have root access to the box where Geneweb Debian package is installed, either ask your system administrator to put you in the "geneweb" group or start your own daemon. See Geneweb documentation. 2317 is the default port for working with Geneweb. If you loaded an existing database (perhaps from a GEDCOM file using the ged2gwb(1) command), you can visit it directly at: http://localhost:2317/database (Where "database" is the name of the database you created.) Note that if "localhost" does not work, try 127.0.0.1 and update your /etc/host.conf file. You can have a look at the general documentation for Geneweb at http://localhost:2317/geneweb?m=DOC Customisations -------------- User-type customisations may be done on a base-by-base scheme by putting appropriate files in /var/lib/geneweb/etc, /var/lib/geneweb/etc/[base] and in database directories. See also Geneweb documentation for details. About geneweb group (Debian bug #162079) ---------------------------------------- The Debian package for geneweb creates a group named "geneweb". This group is needed for allowing users to create databases in the directory served by the general gwd daemon. As usual in such situations, the group is not removed by the package's post-removal script. Most Debian package maintainers agree that such a maintenance task of groups and users has to be left to the local system administrator. About permissions ----------------- Files and directories permissions with the geneweb package are not a simple problem. As a design choice, the gwd daemon runs with the privileges of the geneweb user. This will minimize the consequences of a possible security hole, but complicates handling of the files/directories permissions. Users who want to share databases in the main directory (/var/lib/geneweb) have to be members of the geneweb group (just like the geneweb user is). All files and directories there should be writable by the owning user AND the geneweb group. This means that you should use 002 as umask when writing to this directory. Users with the more common 022 umask must then temporarily change it before creating files, or need to adapt directories and files permissions in /var/lib/geneweb after adding a database. This inludes files in the base.gwb directory as well as files created by the daemon during its work (such as "history" of .lck files...) should be writable by both the database owner (for allowing him for manually make modifications from the shell) and the geneweb group. This has a minor drawback : all users inthe geneweb group may modify others databases. I currently have found no way to simply handle this. A complicated scheme with two groups should however be possible, but this design change won't occur until Debian "sarge" is released as this would compromise the package stability. About geneweb-gui ----------------------- The new graphical user interface in geneweb-gui package is a simplified way to use geneweb locally. Geneweb-gui launches its own instance of gwd. Unlike geneweb and gwsetup packages, geneweb-gui is designed to work with bases stored in your /home/user folder. It is not recommended to use the bases stored in /var/lib/geneweb with geneweb-gui, as this can cause permission conflicts. It is also not recommended to use ports 2316 or 2317 that are already used by the geneweb and gwsetup daemons (geneweb-gui is proposing 2315 as its default port). About LISEZMOI.txt file ----------------------- I did not include this file in the /usr/share/doc/geneweb directory anymore. It contains general instructions, in french, about geneweb use. It is however not adapted to the way geneweb has been packaged for Debian. Thus, it would misguide users. -- Christian Perrier Tue Nov 11 07:54:38 CET 2003