[Koha-patches] [PATCH] Debian installation instructions minor editing

[MJ Ray]

Frédéric DEMIANS <f.demians at tamil.fr> wrote:
> >> +    $ sudo a2dissite default
> >
> > This change is extremely hazardous.  It will lead some unsuspecting
> > new users to take their main web site (usually in /var/www) offline.
> > This step is unnecessary if the koha host is configured correctly to
> > take priority when needed, as described in the Apache HTTPD manual.
>
> As far as I understand it, this installation procedure is not intended 
> for installing Koha on an existing machine with an already running web 
> site. This is a new installation: debian is downloaded (1.1), installed 
> and a new Apache and MySql server are also installed. In this situation, 
> the Debian 'default' site configuration is not users 'main web site' but 
> Debian-Apache default site. This default site blocks  'koha' site. 

First, people with debian already installed will use this document and
skip some early steps.  There is nothing near the top saying that this
will break existing servers.  If it will, that should be a big
IMPORTANT or WARNING note, but I think it would be unnecessary and
unhelpful for most users.

Second, many people put their main site in /var/www and just comment
out default's RedirectMatch line, in my experience.  This has the
advantage of making it easy to adopt any debian default configuration
improvements when apache is upgraded.

Finally, how does default block the koha site?  That should only
happen if the named in koha's ServerName and ServerAlias lines aren't
used to access koha.  The Apache manual says:-

  "If the client provided a Host: header field the list is searched
  for a matching vhost and the first hit on a ServerName or
  ServerAlias is taken and the request is served from that vhost."

The debian default host has no ServerName or ServerAlias directives,
so will always "lose" to the koha site for koha's names.  If we've
given koha ServerName opac.mydomain.com and then access another name,
then it's wrong for koha to be displayed.

> Without this modification, people taking a look to Koha will have to 
> understand that to get Koha running they have to disable Debian default 
> site in the Debian way. That's the reason why I indicate how to do it. 
> Maybe a comment could clarify what's this line is doing.

I'm pretty sure there is no need to disable Debian default site to get
Koha running.  You just need to access Koha by the server name you
gave it. Koha INSTALL.debian shouldn't break the Debian default site.

Hope that explains,
-- 
MJ Ray (slef)
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