On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 7:02 PM, Vincent Massol <[email protected]> wrote: > > On May 25, 2012, at 3:45 PM, Sergiu Dumitriu wrote: > >> On 05/25/2012 02:16 AM, Vincent Massol wrote: >>> Hi devs, >>> >>> Since I'm working on making XE work in Windows7 I've thought more about >>> XWiki's install and configuration. Actually this is not a new topic, I >>> remember starting a discussion about it a few years ago on the devs list >>> but we didn't act on it so here it comes again ;) >>> >>> Rationale >>> ======== >>> >>> The idea is to separate XWiki's binaries from its data. There are several >>> reasons for wanting this: >>> >>> * Some OSes require this and don't allow writing in the binary directory. >>> Windows 7 for example won't allow writing data in \Program Files. >>> * It makes upgrading simpler since you don't need to fish for configuration >>> data and copy them somewhere before unpacking a new distribution over. Or >>> if you unpack in a new directory you don't need to copy the data from the >>> old directory to the new one. >>> * As a consequence of the previous point It allows easier auto upgrades of >>> XE >>> * It makes it simpler to know what to backup: all you need to back is the >>> data directory. >>> >>> Proposal >>> ======= >>> >>> This is the simplest I've found (I've imagine a lot of more complex options >>> which offer other small possibilities but in the end I went for the simpler >>> one for now). So here goes the process when starting up XE: >>> >>> * XE looks for a XWIKI_DATA environment variable and if found it uses it as >>> its environment.permanentDirectory value >>> * If not found, XE looks in the user home directory for an XWiki directory. >>> Now the name of this directory is environment-dependent. On non windows >>> systems it looks for ".xwiki" directory and on Windows systems it looks for >>> a "XWiki" directory. >>> * If not found, then XE stops and prints a message in the console >>> explaining that it couldn't find the location of the XWiki Data dir with >>> explanations on how to set it. >>> >>> The recommendation is thus that users set the XWIKI_DATA environment >>> property. >> >> I prefer the current way, defining it in xwiki.properties. Changing the way >> this configuration works is going to add some more headache for upgrades. > > err? That cannot work :) > > Maybe I wasn't clear: the goal is to move XWiki configuration files in a > different directory from xwiki's binaries, that includes xwiki.properties of > course :)
Yes you were definitely not clear since you only talked about environment.permanentDirectory. > >> AFAIR, it is possible in the izpack installer to filter a configuration file >> with values from the environment, or even asked from the user. >> >> I don't know how many people know how to define system variables, and even >> with a tutorial in front it is possible to mess it up. > > I've mentioned that this proposal has nothing to with installers. They are > different and of course users don't need to define any variable when using > installers. > >> Plus, on a web-managed environment, are there ways of defining environment >> variables without needing restart rights on the servlet container? > > You mean in case the servlet container is meant to host several webapps, > xwiki being only one of them and it's not possible to stop it? > > Thanks > -Vincent > >>> Notes: >>> * At startup XE prints as an INFO log the location of the permanent dir it >>> is using. >>> * For the standalone distribution we would set the XWIKI_DATA env variable >>> in the xwiki start file (start_xwiki.sh and start_xwiki.bat) to point to >>> the data/ dir in the distribution. >>> * One aspect that is not covered here yet (the topic for another email): >>> the installer. I'll prepare another mail for that since it's independent >>> for me. >>> >>> Use cases >>> ========= >>> >>> This allows the following use cases: >>> >>> * Make it easy to upgrade XE >>> * Make it easy to backup XE >>> * MAke it easy to use an existing XE install but point it to a different >>> configuration, for testing purposes for ex >>> * Allow installing XE for all users on a system >>> * Allow installing XE for my user only >>> >>> WDYT? >>> >>> Thanks >>> -Vincent > _______________________________________________ > devs mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs -- Thomas Mortagne _______________________________________________ devs mailing list [email protected] http://lists.xwiki.org/mailman/listinfo/devs
