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Web-based code browsing
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=======================
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Browsing the history of a project online is an important part of version
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control, since it allows people to easily see what happens in a branch
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without having to have a local, up-to-date copy of that branch. There are a
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number of possible choices for browsing Bazaar branches on the web, but we
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will cover one of them in particular detail and briefly mention the other
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choices where they differ.
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Loggerhead_ is a code browsing interface for Bazaar branches (now used in
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Launchpad). To see an example of Loggerhead in action, browse to
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http://bazaar.launchpad.net/~bzr-pqm/bzr/bzr.dev/files which is the loggerhead
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view of Bazaar's trunk branch. Loggerhead runs as a web application on the
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server which is accessed over HTTP via a RESTful interface. It is possible to
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run this application on its own dedicated port as
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``http://www.example.com:8080`` or to proxy this location behind a separate web
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server, for example at ``http://www.example.com/loggerhead/``. We will discuss
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both of these configurations below.
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.. _Loggerhead: http://launchpad.net/loggerhead
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Loggerhead depends on a number of other Python packages for the various Web
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technologies that it builds on. Some of these must be installed to use
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loggerhead, although some of them are optional. From the loggerhead `README`
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1) SimpleTAL for templating.
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On Ubuntu, `sudo apt-get install python-simpletal`
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or download from http://www.owlfish.com/software/simpleTAL/download.html
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2) simplejson for producing JSON data.
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On Ubuntu, `sudo apt-get install python-simplejson`
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or use `easy_install simplejson`.
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3) Paste for the server. (You need version 1.2 or newer of Paste.)
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On Ubuntu, `sudo apt-get install python-paste`
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or use `easy_install Paste`
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4) Paste Deploy (optional, needed when proxying through Apache)
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On Ubuntu, `sudo apt-get install python-pastedeploy`
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or use `easy_install PasteDeploy`
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5) flup (optional, needed to use FastCGI, SCGI or AJP)
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On Ubuntu, `sudo apt-get install python-flup`
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or use `easy_install flup`
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Although directions for installing these on Ubuntu Linux are given, most other
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Linux distributions should package these dependencies, making installation
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easy. For Windows and Mac OS X, they should all be ``easy_install``-able or at
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worst installable from the Python sources.
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Loggerhead has a built-in web server and when started with the
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``serve-branches`` command, that web server is started on a default port
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listening on the localhost. If port 8080 (the default) is accessible on
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``www.example.com``, then running
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$ serve-branches --host=www.example.com --port=8080 /srv/bzr
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will list all of the available branches under that directory on
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``http://www.example.com:8080/``, so that the ProjectX trunk could be browsed
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at ``http://www.example.com:8080/projectx/trunk``. Note that loggerhead
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provides HTTP access to the underlying Bazaar branches (similar to that
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described in `Smart server over HTTP(S)
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<other-setups.html#smart-server-over-http-s>`_), so this command should be run
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as a user without write privileges in ``/srv/bzr``. By default, loggerhead
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only listens on the localhost, not any external ports, unless specified as
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A more common and more safe way to run loggerhead is behind another web server
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which will proxy certain requests to the loggerhead server on the localhost.
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To do this, you need to have PasteDeploy installed (see `Requirements`_).
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Assuming that your server has Apache running, you need to add configuration
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such as this to set up the proxy
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<Location "/loggerhead/">
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ProxyPass http://127.0.0.1:8080/
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ProxyPassReverse http://127.0.0.1:8080/
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If your proxy runs at some path within the server, then the ``serve-branches``
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command must be started with the ``--prefix`` option. For this example, we
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could start loggerhead with the command
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$ serve-branches --prefix=/loggerhead /srv/bzr
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This would allow the trunk branch of ProjectX to be browsed at
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``http://www.example.com/loggerhead/projectx/trunk``.
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Loggerhead comes with a script allowing it to run as a service on init.d based
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Linux systems. Contributions to do a similar thing on Windows servers would
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be welcomed at http://launchpad.net/loggerhead.
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There are a number of other web interfaces available for Bazaar branches (see
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the list at http://bazaar-vcs.org/WebInterfaces) and we will just mention a
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couple of them here for their advantages in particular situations.
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trac+bzr (http://launchpad.net/trac-bzr)
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Trac is a popular web app that integrates a browser for branches, an issue
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tracker and a wiki. trac+bzr is a trac extension that allows for the
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trac to be used with Bazaar.
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webbzr (http://thoughts.enseed.com/webbzr)
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This is a notable solution because it is written in pure PHP for web hosts
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that don't provide a way to run arbitrary Python applications such as Trac
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Redmine (http://redmine.org/)
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Like trac, Redmine is a full project management application using the Ruby
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on Rails framework. It includes support for Bazaar branches.
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doc/en/admin-guide/code-browsing.txt
