1 RT is an enterprise-grade issue tracking system. It allows organizations
2 to keep track of what needs to get done, who is working on which tasks,
3 what's already been done, and when tasks were (or weren't) completed.
5 RT doesn't cost anything to use, no matter how much you use it; it is
6 freely available under the terms of Version 2 of the GNU General Public
9 RT is commercially-supported software. To purchase support, training,
10 custom development, or professional services, please get in touch with
11 us at <sales@bestpractical.com>.
14 Best Practical Solutions, LLC
21 o Perl 5.8.3 or later (http://www.perl.org).
23 Perl versions prior to 5.8.3 contain bugs that could result in
24 data corruption. RT won't start on older versions.
26 o A supported SQL database
28 Currently supported: Mysql 4.1 or later with InnoDB support.
29 Postgres 8.1 or later.
31 SQLite 3.0. (Not recommended for production)
33 o Apache version 1.3.x or 2.x (http://httpd.apache.org)
34 with mod_perl -- (http://perl.apache.org)
35 or with FastCGI -- (www.fastcgi.com)
36 or other webserver with FastCGI support
38 RT's FastCGI handler needs to access RT's configuration file.
40 o Various and sundry perl modules
42 A tool included with RT takes care of the installation of most
43 of these automatically during the install process.
45 The tool supplied with RT uses Perl's CPAN (http://www.cpan.org)
46 to install modules. Some operating systems package all or some
47 of the modules required, and you may be better off installing
54 1) Unpack this distribution other than where you want to install RT.
55 To do this cleanly, run the following command:
57 tar xzvf rt.tar.gz -C /tmp
59 2) Run the "configure" script. To see the list of options, run:
63 Peruse the options, then rerun ./configure with the flags you want.
65 RT defaults to installing in /opt/rt4 with MySQL as its database. It
66 tries to guess which of www-data, www, apache or nobody your
67 webserver will run as, but you can override that behavior. Note
68 that the default install directory in /opt/rt4 does not work under
69 SELinux's default configuration.
71 If you are upgrading from a previous version of RT, please review
72 the upgrade notes for the appropriate versions, which can be found
73 in docs/UPGRADING-* If you are coming from 3.8.6 to 4.0.x you should
74 review both the UPGRADING-3.8 and UPGRADING-4.0 file. Similarly, if
75 you were coming from 3.6.7, you would want to review UPGRADING-3.6,
76 UPGRADING-3.8 and UPGRADING-4.0
78 It is particularly important that you read the warnings at the top of
79 UPGRADING-4.0 for some common issues.
81 3) Make sure that RT has the Perl and system libraries it needs to run.
82 Check for missing dependencies by running:
86 4) If the script reports any missing dependencies, install them by
87 hand, or run the following command as a user who has permission to
88 install perl modules on your system:
92 Some modules require user input or environment variables to install
93 correctly, so it may be necessary to install them manually.
95 If you are installing with CPAN module older than 1.84, you will
96 need to start CPAN (by running perl -MCPAN -e shell) and upgrade the
101 If you are unsure of your CPAN version, it will be printed when you
104 If you are having trouble installing GD or Graphviz, you should
105 install gd-devel and the graphviz libraries using your
106 distribution's package manager.
108 5) Check to make sure everything was installed properly.
112 It might sometimes be necessary to run "make fixdeps" several times
113 to install all necessary perl modules.
115 6a) If this is a NEW installation (not an upgrade):
117 As a user with permission to install RT in your chosen directory,
122 To configure RT with the web installer, run:
124 /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-server
126 and follow the instructions. Once completed, you should now have a
127 working RT instance running with the standalone rt-server. Press
128 Ctrl-C to stop it, and proceed to Step 7 to configure a recommended
129 deployment environment for production.
131 To configure RT manually, you must setup etc/RT_SiteConfig.pm in
132 your RT installation directory. You'll need to add any values you
133 need to change from the defaults in etc/RT_Config.pm
135 As a user with permission to read RT's configuration file, type:
137 make initialize-database
139 If the make fails, type:
143 and re-run 'make initialize-database'.
145 6b) If you are UPGRADING from a previous installation:
147 Before upgrading, always ensure that you have a complete current
148 backup. If you don't have a current backup, upgrading your database
149 could accidentally damage it and lose data, or worse.
151 If you are using MySQL, please read the instructions in
152 docs/UPGRADING.mysql as well to ensure that you do not corrupt
155 First, stop your webserver. You may also wish to put incoming email
156 into a hold queue, to avoid temporary delivery failure messages if
157 your upgrade is expected to take several hours.
159 Next, install new binaries, config files and libraries by running:
163 This will also prompt you to upgrade your database by running:
165 /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-setup-database \
166 --prompt-for-dba-password --action upgrade
168 You should back up your database before running this command.
169 When you run it, you will be prompted for your previous version of
170 RT (such as 3.6.4) so that the appropriate set of database
171 upgrades can be applied.
173 Finally, clear the Mason cache dir:
175 rm -fr /opt/rt4/var/mason_data/obj
177 You may then start your web server again.
179 7) Configure the web server, as described in docs/web_deployment.pod,
180 and the email gateway, as described below.
182 NOTE: root's password for the web interface is "password" (without
183 the quotes). Not changing this is a SECURITY risk!
185 Once you've set up the web interface, consider setting up automatic
186 logout for inactive sessions. For more information about how to do
189 perldoc /path/to/rt/sbin/rt-clean-sessions
191 8) Set up users, groups, queues, scrips and access control.
193 Until you do this, RT will not be able to send or receive email, nor
194 will it be more than marginally functional. This is not an optional
197 9) Set up automated recurring tasks (cronjobs):
199 To generate email digest messages, you must arrange for the provided
200 utility to be run once daily, and once weekly. You may also want to
201 arrange for the rt-email-dashboards utility to be run hourly. For
202 example, if your task scheduler is cron, you can configure it as
205 crontab -e # as the RT administrator (probably root)
206 # insert the following lines:
207 0 0 * * * /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-email-digest -m daily
208 0 0 * * 0 /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-email-digest -m weekly
209 0 * * * * /opt/rt4/sbin/rt-email-dashboards
211 10) Configure the RT email gateway. To let email flow to your RT
212 server, you need to add a few lines of configuration to your mail
213 server's "aliases" file. These lines "pipe" incoming email messages
214 from your mail server to RT.
216 Add the following lines to /etc/aliases (or your local equivalent)
219 rt: "|/opt/rt4/bin/rt-mailgate --queue general --action correspond --url http://rt.example.com/"
220 rt-comment: "|/opt/rt4/bin/rt-mailgate --queue general --action comment --url http://rt.example.com/"
222 You'll need to add similar lines for each queue you want to be able to
223 send email to. To find out more about how to configure RT's email
226 perldoc /opt/rt4/bin/rt-mailgate
232 If RT is mission-critical for you or if you use it heavily, we recommend
233 that you purchase a commercial support contract. Details on support
234 contracts are available at http://www.bestpractical.com or by writing to
235 <sales@bestpractical.com>.
237 If you're interested in having RT extended or customized or would like
238 more information about commercial support options, please send email to
239 <sales@bestpractical.com> to discuss rates and availability.
242 MAILING LISTS AND WIKI
243 ----------------------
245 To keep up to date on the latest RT tips, techniques and extensions, you
246 may wish to join the rt-users mailing list. Send a message to:
248 rt-users-request@lists.bestpractical.com
250 with the body of the message consisting of only the word:
254 If you're interested in hacking on RT, you'll want to subscribe to
255 <rt-devel@lists.bestpractical.com>. Subscribe to it with instructions
256 similar to those above. Address questions about the stable release to
257 the rt-users list, and questions about the development version to the
260 The RT wiki, at http://requesttracker.wikia.com/ , is also a potential
267 If you believe you've discovered a security issue in RT, please send an
268 email to <security@bestpractical.com> with a detailed description of the
269 issue, and a secure means to respond to you (such as your PGP public
270 key). You can find our PGP key and fingerprint at
271 http://bestpractical.com/security/
277 RT's a pretty complex application, and as you get up to speed, you might
278 run into some trouble. Generally, it's best to ask about things you run
279 into on the rt-users mailinglist (or pick up a commercial support
280 contract from Best Practical). But, sometimes people do run into
281 bugs. In the exceedingly unlikely event that you hit a bug in RT, please
282 report it! We'd love to hear about problems you have with RT, so we can
283 fix them. To report a bug, send email to <rt-bugs@bestpractical.com>.
286 # BEGIN BPS TAGGED BLOCK {{{
290 # This software is Copyright (c) 1996-2011 Best Practical Solutions, LLC
291 # <sales@bestpractical.com>
293 # (Except where explicitly superseded by other copyright notices)
298 # This work is made available to you under the terms of Version 2 of
299 # the GNU General Public License. A copy of that license should have
300 # been provided with this software, but in any event can be snarfed
303 # This work is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
304 # WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
305 # MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
306 # General Public License for more details.
308 # You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
309 # along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
310 # Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA
311 # 02110-1301 or visit their web page on the internet at
312 # http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/gpl-2.0.html.
315 # CONTRIBUTION SUBMISSION POLICY:
317 # (The following paragraph is not intended to limit the rights granted
318 # to you to modify and distribute this software under the terms of
319 # the GNU General Public License and is only of importance to you if
320 # you choose to contribute your changes and enhancements to the
321 # community by submitting them to Best Practical Solutions, LLC.)
323 # By intentionally submitting any modifications, corrections or
324 # derivatives to this work, or any other work intended for use with
325 # Request Tracker, to Best Practical Solutions, LLC, you confirm that
326 # you are the copyright holder for those contributions and you grant
327 # Best Practical Solutions, LLC a nonexclusive, worldwide, irrevocable,
328 # royalty-free, perpetual, license to use, copy, create derivative
329 # works based on those contributions, and sublicense and distribute
330 # those contributions and any derivatives thereof.
332 # END BPS TAGGED BLOCK }}}