2.1. Installation
 | If you just want to use Bugzilla, you do not need to install it. None of this chapter is relevant to you. Ask your Bugzilla administrator for the URL to access it over the web. |
The Bugzilla server software is usually installed on Linux or Solaris. If you are installing on another OS, check Section 2.4 before you start your installation to see if there are any special instructions.
As an alternative to following these instructions, you may wish to try Arne Schirmacher's unofficial and unsupported Bugzilla Installer, which installs Bugzilla and all its prerequisites on Linux or Solaris systems.
This guide assumes that you have administrative access to the Bugzilla machine. It not possible to install and run Bugzilla itself without administrative access except in the very unlikely event that every single prerequisite is already installed.
 | The installation process may make your machine insecure for short periods of time. Make sure there is a firewall between you and the Internet. |
You are strongly recommended to make a backup of your system before installing Bugzilla (and at regular intervals thereafter :-).
In outline, the installation proceeds as follows:
Install Perl (5.6.0 or above)
Install MySQL (3.23.41 or above)
Configure all of the above.
2.1.1. Perl
Installed Version Test: perl -v
Any machine that doesn't have Perl on it is a sad machine indeed. If you don't have it and your OS doesn't provide official packages, visit http://www.perl.com. Although Bugzilla runs with Perl 5.6.0, it's a good idea to be using the latest stable version. As of this writing, that is Perl 5.8.2.
2.1.2. MySQL
Installed Version Test: mysql -V
If you don't have it and your OS doesn't provide official packages, visit http://www.mysql.com. You need MySQL version 3.23.41 or higher.
| Many of the binary versions of MySQL store their data files in /var. On some Unix systems, this is part of a smaller root partition, and may not have room for your bug database. To change the data directory, you have to build MySQL from source yourself, and set it as an option to configure. |
If you install from something other than a packaging/installation system (such as .rpm, .dep, .exe, or .msi) make sure the MySQL server is started when the machine boots.
2.1.3. Web Server
Installed Version Test: view the default welcome page at http://<your-machine>/
You have freedom of choice here, pretty much any web server that is capable of running CGI scripts will work. However, we strongly recommend using the Apache web server (either 1.3.x or 2.x), and the installation instructions usually assume you are using it. If you have got Bugzilla working using another webserver, please share your experiences with us by filing a bug in Bugzilla Documentation.
If you don't have Apache and your OS doesn't provide official packages, visit http://httpd.apache.org/.
2.1.4. Bugzilla
Download a Bugzilla tarball (or check it out from CVS) and place it in a suitable directory, writable by the default web server user (probably "nobody"). Good locations are either directly in the main web space for your web server or perhaps in /usr/local with a symbolic link from the web space.
 | The default Bugzilla distribution is not designed to be placed in a cgi-bin directory. This includes any directory which is configured using the ScriptAlias directive of Apache. |
Once all the files are in a web accessible directory, make that directory writable by your webserver's user. This is a temporary step until you run the checksetup.pl script, which locks down your installation.
2.1.5. Perl Modules
Bugzilla's installation process is based on a script called checksetup.pl. The first thing it checks is whether you have appropriate versions of all the required Perl modules. The aim of this section is to pass this check. When it passes, do not run it again, but proceed to Section 2.2.
At this point, you need to su to root. You should remain as root until the end of the install. Then run:
bash# ./checksetup.pl |
checksetup.pl will print out a list of the required and optional Perl modules, together with the versions (if any) installed on your machine. The list of required modules is reasonably long; however, you may already have several of them installed.
There is a meta-module called Bundle::Bugzilla, which installs all the other modules with a single command. You should use this if you are running Perl 5.6.1 or above.
The preferred way of installing Perl modules is via CPAN on Unix, or PPM on Windows (see Section 2.4.1.2). These instructions assume you are using CPAN; if for some reason you need to install the Perl modules manually, see Appendix C.
bash# perl -MCPAN -e 'install "<modulename>"' |
If you using Bundle::Bugzilla, invoke the magic CPAN command on it. Otherwise, you need to work down the list of modules that checksetup.pl says are required, in the order given, invoking the command on each.
 | Many people complain that Perl modules will not install for them. Most times, the error messages complain that they are missing a file in "@INC". Virtually every time, this error is due to permissions being set too restrictively for you to compile Perl modules or not having the necessary Perl development libraries installed on your system. Consult your local UNIX systems administrator for help solving these permissions issues; if you are the local UNIX sysadmin, please consult the newsgroup/mailing list for further assistance or hire someone to help you out. |
Here is a complete list of modules and their minimum versions. Some modules have special installation notes, which follow.
Required Perl modules:
AppConfig (1.52)
CGI (2.93)
Data::Dumper (any)
Date::Format (2.21)
DBI (1.32)
DBD::mysql (2.1010)
File::Spec (0.82)
File::Temp (any)
Template (2.08)
Text::Wrap (2001.0131)
GD (1.20) for bug charting
Chart::Base (0.99c) for bug charting
GD::Graph (any) for bug charting
GD::Text::Align (any) for bug charting
XML::Parser (any) for the XML interface
PatchReader (0.9.1) for pretty HTML view of patches
MIME::Parser (any) for the optional email interface
2.1.5.1. DBD::mysql
The installation process will ask you a few questions about the desired compilation target and your MySQL installation. For most of the questions the provided default will be adequate, but when asked if your desired target is the MySQL or mSQL packages, you should select the MySQL-related ones. Later you will be asked if you wish to provide backwards compatibility with the older MySQL packages; you should answer YES to this question. The default is NO.
A host of 'localhost' should be fine. A testing user of 'test', with a null password, should have sufficient access to run tests on the 'test' database which MySQL creates upon installation.
2.1.5.2. Template Toolkit (2.08)
When you install Template Toolkit, you'll get asked various questions about features to enable. The defaults are fine, except that it is recommended you use the high speed XS Stash of the Template Toolkit, in order to achieve best performance.
2.1.5.3. GD (1.20)
The GD module is only required if you want graphical reports.
| The Perl GD module requires some other libraries that may or may not be installed on your system, including libpng and libgd. The full requirements are listed in the Perl GD module README. If compiling GD fails, it's probably because you're missing a required library. |
| The version of the GD module you need is very closely tied to the libgd version installed on your system. If you have a version 1.x of libgd the 2.x versions of the GD module won't work for you. |
2.1.5.4. Chart::Base (0.99c)
The Chart::Base module is only required if you want graphical reports. Note that earlier versions that 0.99c used GIFs, which are no longer supported by the latest versions of GD.
2.1.5.6. GD::Text::Align (any)
The GD::Text::Align module is only required if you want graphical reports.
2.1.5.7. XML::Parser (any)
The XML::Parser module is only required if you want to import XML bugs using the importxml.pl script. This is required to use Bugzilla's "move bugs" feature; you may also want to use it for migrating from another bug database. XML::Parser requires that the expat library is already installed on your machine.