The make_project script

The make_project script creates the server components of a BOINC project. To use it, set up a BOINC server. Then, for example, type:

cd BOINC_SOURCE/tools
./make_project --db_passwd xxx --test_app cplan

where 'xxx' is the MySQL password of boincadm. This creates a project with master URL http://HOSTNAME/cplan/ whose directory structure is rooted at $HOME/projects/cplan.

More specifically, make_project does the following:

• Create the project directory and its subdirectories.
• Create the project's encryption keys if necessary. NOTE: before making the project visible to the public, you must move the code-signing private key to a highly secure (preferably non-networked) host, and delete it from the server host.
• Create and initialize the MySQL database.
• Copy source and executable files.
• Generate the project's configuration file.

With the --test_app option, the project will have a test application (uppercase) and daemons to generate and handle work for this application. This lets you quickly check that the project is working; you can remove the test application later by marking it deprecated in your administrative web interface.

The following steps complete the project setup:

• Insert PROJECT_NAME.httpd.conf into /etc/apache/httpd.conf (path varies), or ​Include it from that file.
• Generate a username/password file for your administrative web interface using:

  htpasswd -cb ~/projects/test/html/ops/.htpasswd username password
  

• Run crontab -e, and add an entry to run the project's cron script:

   0,5,10,15,20,25,30,35,40,45,50,55 * * * * PROJECT_HOME/bin/start --cron
  

• or type this command to include the line above to your crontab automaticaly:

   $ crontab ~/projects/test/test.cronjob
  

(if cron cannot run 'start', try using a helper script to set the PATH and PYTHONPATH environment variables)

• Run bin/xadd and bin/update_versions in the project's home directory.
• Run bin/start.

The script prints instructions for these steps.

The command-line syntax is as follows:

make_project [options] project_name [ 'Project Long Name ' ]

Options are as follows (normally you don't need to include any of them):

Directory options

--srcdir	The BOINC source directory. Default: . or ..
--project_root	Project root directory path. Default: $HOME/projects/PROJECT_NAME
--key_dir	Where keys are stored. Default: PROJECT_ROOT/keys
--no_query	Accept all directories without yes/no query
--delete_prev_inst	Delete project-root first (from prev installation)

URL options

--url_base	Used to build the URL defaults, see below. Default: http://HOSTNAME/
--html_user_url	Master URL (where clients attach, and the main website is). Default: URL_BASE/PROJECT_NAME/
--html_ops_url	Admin URL. Default: URL_BASE/PROJECT_NAME_ops/
--cgi_url	CGI URL. Default: URL_BASE/PROJECT_cgi/

Database options

--db_host	Database host. Default: localhost
--db_name	Database name. Default: PROJECT_NAME
--db_user	Database user. Default: USER_NAME
--db_passwd	Database password. Default: None
--drop_db_first	Drop database first (from prev installation)

Miscellaneous options

--test_app	install test application
--web_only	Install only web features (for Bossa, Bolt)
--user_name	Install project as this user (used as DB_USER). Default: current user
-h or --help	Show options

Check project

After making a project. a check_project script is available to help check certain aspects of the system. Specifically it checks for three things.

1. Checks the permissions for the apache web server user on certain project directories, to make sure they are writable.
2. Checks to see if specific PHP modules are installed.
3. Checks to see if certain command line program/tools are installed and executable.

Running this script after making a project may help in identifying some of the common problems that may occur.

options

-p or --project_dir	project installation directory
-a or --apache_user	(optional) the apache user name, script will attempt to auto-detect this if this option is left blank.
-h or --help	Show options

Deleting a project

To delete a project, in this example named 'test', delete its directory and its database:

cd ~/projects
/bin/rm -rf test

mysql
> drop database test;