2.1. Installation

2.1.1. Perl

Installed Version Test:

perl -v

Any machine that doesn't have Perl on it is a sad machine indeed. If you don't have it and your OS doesn't provide official packages, visit http://www.perl.com. Although Bugzilla runs with Perl 5.8.1, it's a good idea to be using the latest stable version.

2.1.2. Database Engine

Bugzilla supports MySQL, PostgreSQL and Oracle as database servers. You only require one of these systems to make use of Bugzilla.

2.1.2.1. MySQL

Installed Version Test:

mysql -V

If you don't have it and your OS doesn't provide official packages, visit https://www.mysql.com. You need MySQL version 4.1.2 or higher.

Many of the binary versions of MySQL store their data files in /var. On some Unix systems, this is part of a smaller root partition, and may not have room for your bug database. To change the data directory, you have to build MySQL from source yourself, and set it as an option to configure.

If you install from something other than a packaging/installation system, such as .rpm (Redhat Package), .deb (Debian Package), .exe (Windows Executable), or .msi (Microsoft Installer), make sure the MySQL server is started when the machine boots.

2.1.3. Web Server

Installed Version Test: view the default welcome page at http://<your-machine>/

You have freedom of choice here, pretty much any web server that is capable of running CGI scripts will work. However, we strongly recommend using the Apache web server (either 1.3.x or 2.x), and the installation instructions usually assume you are using it. If you have got Bugzilla working using another web server, please share your experiences with us by filing a bug in Bugzilla Documentation.

If you don't have Apache and your OS doesn't provide official packages, visit https://httpd.apache.org/.

2.1.4. Bugzilla

Download a Bugzilla tarball (or check it out from CVS) and place it in a suitable directory, accessible by the default web server user (probably "apache" or "www"). Good locations are either directly in the web server's document directories or in /usr/local with a symbolic link to the web server's document directories or an alias in the web server's configuration.

The default Bugzilla distribution is NOT designed to be placed in a cgi-bin directory. This includes any directory which is configured using the ScriptAlias directive of Apache.

Once all the files are in a web accessible directory, make that directory writable by your web server's user. This is a temporary step until you run the checksetup.pl script, which locks down your installation.

2.1.5. Perl Modules

Bugzilla's installation process is based on a script called checksetup.pl. The first thing it checks is whether you have appropriate versions of all the required Perl modules. The aim of this section is to pass this check. When it passes, proceed to Section 2.2.

At this point, you need to su to root. You should remain as root until the end of the install. To check you have the required modules, run:

bash# ./checksetup.pl --check-modules

checksetup.pl will print out a list of the required and optional Perl modules, together with the versions (if any) installed on your machine. The list of required modules is reasonably long; however, you may already have several of them installed.

The preferred way to install missing Perl modules is to use the package manager provided by your operating system (e.g "rpm" or "yum" on Linux distros, or "ppm" on Windows if using ActivePerl, see Section 2.5.1.2). If some Perl modules are still missing or are too old, then we recommend using the install-module.pl script (doesn't work with ActivePerl on Windows). If for some reason you really need to install the Perl modules manually, see Appendix C. For instance, on Unix, you invoke install-module.pl as follows:

bash# perl install-module.pl <modulename>

Many people complain that Perl modules will not install for them. Most times, the error messages complain that they are missing a file in "@INC". Virtually every time, this error is due to permissions being set too restrictively for you to compile Perl modules or not having the necessary Perl development libraries installed on your system. Consult your local UNIX systems administrator for help solving these permissions issues; if you are the local UNIX sysadmin, please consult the newsgroup/mailing list for further assistance or hire someone to help you out.

If you are using a package-based system, and attempting to install the Perl modules from CPAN, you may need to install the "development" packages for MySQL and GD before attempting to install the related Perl modules. The names of these packages will vary depending on the specific distribution you are using, but are often called <packagename>-devel.

Here is a complete list of modules and their minimum versions. Some modules have special installation notes, which follow.

Required Perl modules:

1. CGI (3.33)

2. Date::Format (2.21)

3. DBI (1.41)

4. DBD::mysql (4.00) if using MySQL

5. DBD::Pg (1.45) if using PostgreSQL

6. DBD::Oracle (1.19) if using Oracle

7. File::Spec (0.84)

8. Template (2.15)

9. Email::Send (2.00)

10. Email::MIME (1.861)

11. Email::MIME::Encodings (1.313)

12. Email::MIME::Modifier (1.442)

1. GD (1.20) for bug charting

2. Template::Plugin::GD::Image (any) for Graphical Reports

3. Chart::Base (1.0) for bug charting

4. GD::Graph (any) for bug charting

5. GD::Text (any) for bug charting

6. XML::Twig (any) for bug import/export

7. MIME::Parser (5.406) for bug import/export

8. LWP::UserAgent (any) for Automatic Update Notifications

9. PatchReader (0.9.4) for pretty HTML view of patches

10. Image::Magick (any) for converting BMP image attachments to PNG

11. Net::LDAP (any) for LDAP Authentication

12. Authen::SASL (any) for SASL Authentication

13. Authen::Radius (any) for RADIUS Authentication

14. SOAP::Lite (any) for the web service interface

15. HTML::Parser (3.40) for More HTML in Product/Group Descriptions

16. HTML::Scrubber (any) for More HTML in Product/Group Descriptions

17. Email::MIME::Attachment::Stripper (any) for Inbound Email

18. Email::Reply (any) for Inbound Email

19. mod_perl2 (1.999022) for mod_perl

2.1.6. Mail Transfer Agent (MTA)

Bugzilla is dependent on the availability of an e-mail system for its user authentication and for other tasks.

This is not entirely true. It is possible to completely disable email sending, or to have Bugzilla store email messages in a file instead of sending them. However, this is mainly intended for testing, as disabling or diverting email on a production machine would mean that users could miss important events (such as bug changes or the creation of new accounts). For more information, see the "mail_delivery_method" parameter in Section 3.1.

On Linux, any Sendmail-compatible MTA (Mail Transfer Agent) will suffice. Sendmail, Postfix, qmail and Exim are examples of common MTAs. Sendmail is the original Unix MTA, but the others are easier to configure, and therefore many people replace Sendmail with Postfix or Exim. They are drop-in replacements, so Bugzilla will not distinguish between them.

If you are using Sendmail, version 8.7 or higher is required. If you are using a Sendmail-compatible MTA, it must be congruent with at least version 8.7 of Sendmail.

Consult the manual for the specific MTA you choose for detailed installation instructions. Each of these programs will have their own configuration files where you must configure certain parameters to ensure that the mail is delivered properly. They are implemented as services, and you should ensure that the MTA is in the auto-start list of services for the machine.

If a simple mail sent with the command-line 'mail' program succeeds, then Bugzilla should also be fine.

2.1.7. Installing Bugzilla on mod_perl

It is now possible to run the Bugzilla software under mod_perl on Apache. mod_perl has some additional requirements to that of running Bugzilla under mod_cgi (the standard and previous way).

Bugzilla requires mod_perl to be installed, which can be obtained from http://perl.apache.org - Bugzilla requires version 1.999022 (AKA 2.0.0-RC5) to be installed.