Implementing Web/RCS under Oracle OWS for UNIX

Alan Davis

The RCS source code management system is commonly shipped as part of many UNIX distributions. Additionally, it is available from the Free Software Foundation as part of the GNU toolset. RCS is a set of programs that may be used to manage revisions of all types of files -- program source code, executable binaries, graphics files, etc. Tracking the changes between different versions of files created by many users in a dynamic environment is a difficult task at best. Web/RCS makes this process easier by presenting a graphical, Web-based interface to the documents managed by RCS. It uses a subset of full RCS functions, and it allows access to the documents from any computer that can run a modern Web browser.

The Web/RCS Perl CGI front-end to the GNU RCS source code control system was presented in Sys Admin magazine in December, 1998. This article describes the changes required to port it to Oracle Corporations's OWS Web server, a few enhancements that have been made, and some tricks that enhance the usefulness of Web/RCS for Oracle Applications and Forms development. The configuration detailed here assumes that OWS is being used in an Oracle Applications 11.0 environment.

The original release of Web/RCS by Richard S. Smith was developed for Perl 5.004 and the Apache Web server. The OWS included in the 8.0.4 release of the Oracle Enterprise Server for UNIX bundles the 5.003 release of Perl. There are minor edits required to accomodate the older release. The largest difference for running Web/RCS under Oracle's Web server is in the area of password authentication. (A full description of OWS authentication methods is beyond the scope of this article.)