Howdy all,
I've just rolled out Virtualmin virtual-server version 3.56. It has a little bit of everything: updates to scripts (WordPress is a security issue--so y'all need to jump right on that one if you have any WordPress instances), bugfixes, and some new features in the core. However, the big news in 3.56 is a new Install Script that has been asked for by lots of folks: Django. Pythonistas rejoice! After the changelog, there are a few notes relevant to Django that you probably ought to read, if you plan to use it.
[ul] [li]Added the list-mailbox.pl command-line script, for dumping a user's mail.[/li] [li]Added a script installer for poMMo, a new web-based mailing list manager.[/li] [li]Link from the Edit Database page to scripts that use the DB.[/li] [li]When a script does not get fully installed (perhaps due to Virtualmin not being able to call its setup wizard), it is marked as a partial failure rather than a complete failure. This allows it be easily removed without leaving files behind.[/li] [li]Wordpress, WPMU and bbPress are now downloaded from the Virtualmin website in preference to their developer's sites, as there is no way to fetch specific older versions from the original site.[/li] [li]The alias to bounce all mail to unknown addresses in a domain is no longer created when using Postfix, as it does not appear to be necessary.[/li] [li]Updated the phpPgAdmin script installer to version 4.2, phpCOIN to 1.4.1, TikiWiki to 1.9.11, bbPress to 0.9.0.2, Coppermine to 1.4.18, Joomla to 1.5.2, OpenX to 2.4.5, WordPress to 2.5.1, and SugarCRM to 5.0.0c.[/li] [li]Added a Module Config option to prevent creation of the deniedssh group. Reduced the memory needed to migrated Plesk backups, by not reading the whole source file into RAM for parsing.[/li] [li]When creating a sub-server whose prefix is in use by another domain, a non-clashing prefix for users is automatically selected.[/li] [li]International domain names are now automatically converted to the IDN xn-- format when creating, and converted back for display.[/li] [li]When upgrading scripts in multiple domains at once, added a confirmation page top display and select the domains that will be effected.[/li] [li]The Virtualmin master administrator can now control which domains and users are limited to their home directories when logging in via FTP, using the new FTP Directory Restrictions page.[/li] [li]Cpanel sub-domains are now re-created when migrating their backups.[/li] [li]The default PHP version for one or more virtual servers can be changed with --php-version option to modify-web.pl.[/li] [li]When migrating backups from Postfix-style ~/Maildir inboxes to Sendmail-style /var/mail, mail files are properly copied across.[/li] [li]Changed the content style chooser to display thumbnail images in the drop-down menu.[/li] [li]Added a script installer for Django, a development framework for Python applications.[/li] [li]By default, new virtual servers will no longer have the PHP_FCGI_CHILDREN environment variable set in the fCGI wrapper files. This avoids a PHP bug that causes stale php-cgi processes to be left running.[/li] [li]Multiple warning thresholds and an interval between sending a notification for each domain can now be configured on the Disk Quota Monitoring page.[/li] [li]For virtual servers using fcgid to run PHP scripts, the IPCCommTimeout is set to the PHP maximum execution time, to avoid long-running scripts not being able to send their output.[/li] [/ul]
Django Notes
Django support is new, and should be expected to have bugs. It is far more complex than most Install Scripts (though quite a bit less so than Ruby On Rails), and so there are many more things that can go wrong. We want to know about it if you have problems running it on one of the platforms on which it is currently supported.
Which brings us to the next important note about Django support. Django requires cutting edge versions of some components, which are not provided by all distributions. We have built the missing packages for RHEL/CentOS 4 and 5, and we believe Debian 4.0 already has the necessary versions. Recent Fedora releases, like 7 and 8, also have the necessary libraries in the right versions. Extremely old systems, like Ubuntu 6.06 and CentOS 3, while still supported by Virtualmin, are not likely to see support for Django due to the high complexity of providing extremely new versions of the necessary libraries when the entirety of the system is many years old. These caveats have applied similarly to Ruby On Rails, and it has not caused significant strife, and the usage of the older platforms is quite low, so we don't expect this to negatively impact a large number of users. If you really want support for Django on a platform that doesn't provide the necessary libraries, let us know, and we'll try to help you get them installed.
Currently, psycopg is missing on RHEL/CentOS and Fedora platforms, and so PostgreSQL database support is unavailable there. I expect this to be remedied within the next day or so.
As always, let us know what blows up for you. Even if it doesn't blow up, let me know how the Django installer works for you, and whether it makes you more awesome in your day-to-day development work (and if not, what we can do to make it so).
Don't forget to upgrade your WordPress instances!