With EvolvisForge 4.8.3+evolvis20, we have a new configuration system for Apache 2 (being prepared for merging into FusionForge) which greatly simplifies things.

The most common tasks can now be easily solved:

• /etc/gforge/templates/httpd.ssl0.inc: uncomment two lines, and all forge vhosts redirect to https unconditionally
• /etc/gforge/templates/httpd.auth.forge.inc: uncomment a bunch of lines, and you get HTTP Basic Auth with PAM backend accessing nss_pgsql2, which means you must login with your forge username and password to display the site
• /etc/gforge/templates/httpd.auth.projects.inc: copy the same lines here, and the project homepages (*.forge vhosts) are protected in the same manner
• /etc/gforge/httpd.d/*: change 02namevhost, 06maindirhttp, 20list, 40virtualhost if you want not *:80 and *:443 vhosts but per-IPv4-address vhosts
• /etc/gforge/gforge.conf: insert lines like 「sys_sslcrt=/etc/ssl/my.cer」, 「sys_sslkey=/etc/ssl/private/my.key」, 「sys_ssl_apache_extra_cmd=SSLCertificateChainFile /etc/ssl/chain.pem」 to configure HTTPS properly and easily

Of course, there’s more to that: If you have more vhosts, just 「Include /etc/gforge/httpd.security.inc」 to disable a potential security hole / information leak, 「Include /etc/gforge/httpd.log.inc」 to log into the same files, 「Include /etc/gforge/httpd.ssl0.inc」 (SSL off) and 「Include /etc/gforge/httpd.ssl1.inc」 (SSL on) to use the same SSL configuration as the forge. The latter is especially important if you have more than one 〈VirtualHost *:443〉 container, as Apache 2 uses the configuration from the ASCIIbetically first one.

I was able to completely switch from the old, hand-edited configuration to a generated one with little, if any, changes on all our installations now. Some legacy or useful vhosts have been split out, for example a redirect for the old-style Wiki URIs, the Maven 2 repository vhosts, and Alfresco/Domisol (which was already separate but now got split port-80/443 configuration and the above-mentioned Include directives).

Furthermore, eMails from forge users to the FOO-commits@ mailing lists are always allowed by default for newly created lists, and users added to a group with SVN commit rights will be automatically subscribed to that list. We now issue the Forge Identification Header and display the version on the webpage. There was, of course, your usual round of bugfixes and infrastructure improvements, including preparations for more things to come (so stay tuned).

Roland will, as usual, take the best out of EvolvisForge and put it into FusionForge (et vice versa).

There’s also news on the not-so-forge front of Evolvis: our Hudson installations talk Jabber now, and the integration is becoming more tight. We can drive both old-style wikis and gforge-plugin-mediawiki at the same time. We’ve begun adding a bunch of mediawiki plugins (more to follow as needed); if there are people packaging those for Debian already, cooperation is desired.

Until 12th of June, the “Fairtrade Software” booth at LinuxTag 2010 in Berlin, Germany, will present Evolvis and FusionForge to the public. Visit us in Hall 7.2a, Booth 123, and check out the other exciting tarent projects!