I decided that I needed to install an issue-tracker for the support work I am doing, as jobs were trying to fall through the cracks.

This is the process I went through to install Roundup on Mac OS X 10.4.1 client, minus all the swearing, googling and reading the mailing list archives.

I grabbed the latest version, roundup-0.8.3.tar.gz, from Sourceforge and extracted it into a temporary directory. The README.txt led me to the Install Guide located in the doc folder.

From there I:

loki:~$ python run_tests.py

Which gave no errors..

Then I went back and followed the Basic Install steps:

loki:~$ sudo python setup.py install --install-scripts=/Users/davidr/bin

This installed everything as normal, except the administration scripts, which were installed in my bin/ directory.

I then created the storage space form my trackers:

loki:~$ mkdir ~/Documents/roundup/trackers

This is where the Support tracker will live, and any others in the future…

Then I installed the tracker:

loki:~$ roundup-admin install
Enter tracker home: /Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support
Templates: classic-demo,minimal, classic
Select template [classic]: 
Back ends: anydbm
Select backend [anydbm]: 

 You should now edit the tracker configuration file:
   /Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support/config.ini
 ... at a minimum, you must set following options:
   [mail]: domain, host
   [tracker]: web
loki:~$ 

This is where things got confusing, as the references in the Documentation are to “MAILHOST, TRACKER_WEB, MAIL_DOMAIN and ADMIN_EMAIL.” Which do not exist by these names in the config.ini file.

Since the tracker will only be used by me, I am putting it on localhost, and email will be disabled.

I opened /Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support/config.ini and edited the following:

instant_registration = yes
# Avoids email confirmation for new users

web = http://localhost:8080/support/
# This is where I will access my tracker

In the section [mail] I also had to set these so the tracker would run, even though I will not use email;
domain = local
host = loki.local # my machine’s local name

Then in the [nosy] section I also changed:
messages_to_author = no
add_author = no
This is likely not needed as nosy gets disabled soon…

Now to initialise the tracker database:

loki:~$ roundup-admin initialise
Enter tracker home: /Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support
Admin Password: (You need to create one!)
Confirm: (re-enter the same one from the previous line)

After that you need to get to the web interface, I decided to use the built in server and so all I did was to run:

loki:~$ roundup-server support=/Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support/

and that notified me that it was running: “Roundup server started on :8080”, so I went to the page I defined in config.ini: http://localhost:8080/support/

Create a new user, and you are almost ready to use the system.

After that I needed to disable the email, and create a more automatic way to launch the server:

Disabled the use of ‘nosy’ ie. the email interface, see FAQ.

loki:~$ mv /Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support/detectors/nosyreaction.py /Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support/detectors/nosyreaction.py_disabled

I then created a double-clickable terminal file which will launch the Roundup server. Open a new terminal window, and then go File:Save as: and named it “Support Roundup Server” and set ‘Execute this command’ to

/Users/davidr/bin/roundup-server support=/Users/davidr/Documents/roundup/trackers/support/

I also checked the ‘Execute this command in a shell’. Now when I double click the file it launches the roundup server and I can watch the log as it goes by. Once I get tired of it and am convinced it works without me looking at it.. I will figure out a way to launch it when I login, and run it in the background and have errors go to a logfile.