I have just finished setting up Subversion 1.4.3 and Trac 0.11-dev on our web server at work. These are systems we will use to help with the management of the web development process. They are both geared towards software development.

Subversion manages multiple versions of the same file whilst providing a central location, repository, for a team working on a project to store project files. This will allow us to track our changes much better and assess progress. It will also allow us to work on new features while still be able to fix any issues which arise with systems int he mean time.

Trac is a wiki, Subversion repository browser and general project management tool. It provides many tools to track and manage a project and to manage issues with the project. It allows for quick reference to related items within the project in theory making tracking and communication easier.

I’ve had fun with our server and setting these tools up. We use the Plesk web hosting administration panel on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4. Because of Plesk, I’ve had to install Python 2.5 in addition to the existing Python 2.3 installation which has caused a number of issues. I have also installed the PostgreSQL database server, Subversion 1.4.3 server, Apache mod_dav module, Apache mod_fastcgi module, Python bindings for Subversion, Python bindings for PostgreSQL and then Trac and it’s dependencies. With not having a great amount experience of compiling packages and installing software in Linux, I have had a bit of a steep learning curve. I seem to have come through it intact however and have gained quite a bit of experience in the process. This should be useful for my own Ubuntu 6.10 system for compiling the latest version of PHP.

I’m looking forward to working with these tools full time!