ReviewBoard installation Complete Guide Ubuntu OS

Code review doesn’t have to be so hard. Review Board takes the pain out of code review, saving you time, money, and sanity. so you can focus on making great software. ReviewBoard is a software which is used to Review your developers code yet pre-commit and post-commit. Doing code review manually without any software help takes hell lot of time. ReviewBoard Installation Complete Guide Ubuntu OS Step by Step.

ReviewBoard application for commercial use also completely free,  It’s developed under MIT license. Your contribution is highly recommended for ReviewBoard.

ReviewBoard installation Advantages

  • Pre-Commit and Post-Commit Code Review is possible ReviewBoard installation complete Guide Ubuntu OS
  • Save your time and Money

ReviewBoard installation Complete Guide Ubuntu OS

In Internet world so many installation guides are available for ReviewBaord application even ReviewBaord Website Itself is providing the steps for the installation still there are few steps we need to do additionally which are not mentioned in official site as well.

Note: Recommended to do this setup on fresh installation

Step 1 Adding ReviewBoard repository

Edit below mentioned file and add repository path

root@TechTutorials ~# vi /etc/apt/sources.list## Add below line end of above mentioned file
deb http://package.perforce.com/apt/ubuntu/ trusty release

Step 2 Installing Python Setup Tools

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install python-setuptools
** Output Truncated **
Adding setuptools 27.2.0 to easy-install.pth file
Installing easy_install script to /usr/local/bin
Installing easy_install-2.7 script to /usr/local/bin

Installed /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/setuptools-27.2.0-py2.7.egg
Processing dependencies for setuptools
Finished processing dependencies for setuptool

Python Steup tools has been installed successfully

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install python-dev

Python Dev Tools Installed Successfully

Step 3 Install and Start Memcached Service

Memcached is used serve web requests faster with low memory (Hardware resource)

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install memcached
root@TechTutorials:~# service memcached start
root@TechTutorials:~# service memcached status
● memcached.service - memcached daemon
   Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/memcached.service; enabled; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Thu 2016-09-15 18:48:52 IST; 3h 4min ago
 Main PID: 12432 (memcached)
   CGroup: /system.slice/memcached.service
           └─12432 /usr/bin/memcached -m 64 -p 11211 -u memcache -l 127.0.0.1

Sep 15 18:48:52 TechTutorials systemd[1]: Started memcached daemon.
Sep 15 21:53:22 TechTutorials systemd[1]: Started memcached daemon.

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install python-memcached
** OutPut Truncated **
Installed /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/six-1.10.0-py2.7.egg
Finished processing dependencies for python-memcached

Install patch

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install patch

** Output Truncated **
patch is already the newest version (2.7.5-1).
patch set to manually installed.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 151 not upgraded

Step 4 Install ReviewBoard Application

To install ReviewBoard application we have to run below command

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install ReviewBoard
** Output Truncated **

Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libffi.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libffi' found
[Kc/_cffi_backend.c:15:17:fatal error:[Kffi.h: No such file or directory
compilation terminated.
error: Setup script exited with error: command 'x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc' failed with exit status 1

You may end up with above error to resolve that we have to install few more packages and run the reviewboard installation again

root@TechTutorials:~# sudo apt-get install python-cffi

root@TechTutorials:~# sudo apt-get install build-essential autoconf libtool pkg-config python-opengl python-imaging python-pyrex python-pyside.qtopengl idle-p 
ython2.7 qt4-dev-tools qt4-designer libqtgui4 libqtcore4 libqt4-xml libqt4-test libqt4-script libqt4-network libqt4-dbus python-qt4 python-qt4-gl libgle3 pyth

root@TechTutorial:~# apt-get install zlib1g-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install libpq-dev python-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev libffi-dev

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install ReviewBoard

** Output Truncated **
Running futures-3.0.5/setup.py -q bdist_egg --dist-dir /tmp/easy_install-ZtGUmU/futures-3.0.5/egg-dist-tmp-gD_a04
creating /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/futures-3.0.5-py2.7.egg
Extracting futures-3.0.5-py2.7.egg to /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
Adding futures 3.0.5 to easy-install.pth file

Installed /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/futures-3.0.5-py2.7.egg
Finished processing dependencies for ReviewBoard

If you see above finished message your ReviewBoard application is installed.

Now we have to install related dependent packages and configure ReviewBoard Site

Step 5 MySQL Server installation and Creation of Database

Install MySQL Server and create database to store the data

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install mysql-server

mysql Server installation ReviewBoard installation complete guide Ubuntu OS

mysql server installation

While packages are installing it will ask you to enter the root user password for MySQL server.

Step 6 Install Other Packages

Now we have to install all other supporting packages to ReviewBoard installation

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install mysql-python
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install python-mysqldb
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev
root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install mysql-python
root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install psycopg2
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install libpq-dev
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install cvs
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install git-core
root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install mercurial
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install pip
root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install pip

If you would like to integrate your ReviewBoard application with Perforce application then you have to install below package

root@TechTutorials: ~root@TechTutorials:~# pip install p4python
Collecting p4python
  Downloading p4python-2016.1.1415051.tar.gz (83kB)
    100% |████████████████████████████████| 92kB 138kB/s 
[?25hInstalling collected packages: p4python
  Running setup.py install for p4python ... [?25l- \ | / - \ | / - \ | / - \ | done
[?25hSuccessfully installed p4python-2016.1.1415051
root@TechTutorials: ~root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install mercurial
Searching for mercurial
Best match: mercurial 3.9.1
Processing mercurial-3.9.1-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg
Adding mercurial 3.9.1 to easy-install.pth file
Installing hg script to /usr/local/bin

Using /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/mercurial-3.9.1-py2.7-linux-x86_64.egg
Processing dependencies for mercurial
Finished processing dependencies for mercurial

Install subversion and SVN

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install subversion python-svn
root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install python-subvertpy

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install subvertpy
Searching for subvertpy
Best match: subvertpy 0.9.3
Adding subvertpy 0.9.3 to easy-install.pth file

Using /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages
Processing dependencies for subvertpy
Finished processing dependencies for subvertpy

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install django-storages

root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install django-storage-swift
root@TechTutorials:~# easy_install nose Sphinx

Step 7 Apache Server installation and configuration

This application will work on web, so everything we can manage this application from web interface. To host this application on web interface install apache2 server.

root@TechTutorials:~# apt-get install apache*
root@TechTutorials: ~root@TechTutorials:~# service apache2 restart
root@TechTutorials: ~root@TechTutorials:~# service apache2 status

Apache2 server should be in running state.

Step 8 Creating Site in ReviewBoard Application

As we see in above post ReviewBoard installation, After installation we have to create site in ReviewBoard then only our application can be opened from web interface. Here is the process how to create site in ReviewBoard.

To Create site in ReviewBoard first step is to create MySQL Database and user, grant permissions to user.

Edit below MySQL config file and add few lines for application compatibility

root@TechTutorials:~# vi /etc/mysql/my.cnf
[client]
default-character-set=utf8

[mysqld]
character-set-server=utf8
:wq

Create Database, User and Grant Permissions ReviewBoard installation complete Guide Ubuntu OS

root@TechTutorials:~# mysql -u root -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 4
Server version: 5.7.15-0ubuntu0.16.04.1 (Ubuntu)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2016, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its
affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective
owners.

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> CREATE DATABASE reviewboard CHARACTER SET utf8;
Query OK, 1 row affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> CREATE USER 'rvb'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.00 sec)

mysql> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON reviewboard.* to 'rvb'@'localhost';
Query OK, 0 rows affected (0.02 sec)

mysql> exit
Bye

Below is the command used to create the site in ReviewBoard

root@TechTutorials:~# rb-site install /var/www/html/reviewboard1

Domain Name: localhost.localdomain


* What URL path points to Review Board?

    Typically, Review Board exists at the root of a URL. For example,
    http://reviews.example.com/. In this case, you would specify "/".

    However, if you want to listen to, say,
    http://example.com/reviews/, you can specify "/reviews/".

    Note that this is the path relative to the domain and should not
    include the domain name.

    The default is /

Root Path [/]: 


* What database type will you be using?

    You can type either the name or the number from the list below.

    (1) mysql
    (2) postgresql
    (3) sqlite3 (not supported for production use)

Database Type: 1


* What database name should Review Board use?

    NOTE: You need to create this database and grant user modification
    rights before continuing. See your database documentation for more
    information.

    The default is reviewboard

Database Name [reviewboard]: 


* What is the database server's address?

    This should be specified in hostname:port form. The port is
    optional if you're using a standard port for the database type.

    The default is localhost

Database Server [localhost]: 


* What is the login and password for this database?

    This must be a user that has table creation and modification
    rights on the database you already specified.

Database Username: rvb

Database Password: ******

Confirm Database Password: ******


* What memcached host should be used?

    This is in the format of hostname:port

    The default is localhost:11211

Memcache Server [localhost:11211]: 


* Create an administrator account

    To configure Review Board, you'll need an administrator account.
    It is advised to have one administrator and then use that account
    to grant administrator permissions to your personal user account.

    If you plan to use NIS or LDAP, use an account name other than
    your NIS/LDAP account so as to prevent conflicts.

    The default is admin

Username [admin]: 

Password: 

Confirm Password: 

E-Mail Address: aravikumar48@gmail.com

Company/Organization Name (optional): 


* Enable collection of data for better support

    We would like to periodically collect data and statistics about
    your installation to provide a better support experience for you
    and your users.

    The data collected includes basic information such as your company
    name, the version of Review Board, and the size of your install.
    It does NOT include confidential data such as source code. Data
    collected never leaves our server and is never given to any third
    parties for any purposes.

    We use this to provide a user support page that's more specific to
    your server. We also use it to determine which versions to
    continue to support, and to help track how upgrades affect our
    number of bug reports and support incidents.

    You can choose to turn this off at any time in Support Settings in
    Review Board.

Allow us to collect support data? [Y/n]: y


* Installing the site...
**Output Truncated **
Installing custom SQL ...
Installing indexes ...
Installed 0 object(s) from 0 fixture(s)
OK
Performing migrations ... No evolution required.
OK
Creating administrator account ... OK
Saving site settings ... Saving site /var/www/html/reviewboard1 to the sitelist /etc/reviewboard/sites

OK
Setting up support ... OK


* The site has been installed

    The site has been installed in /var/www/html/reviewboard1

    Sample configuration files for web servers and cron are available
    in the conf/ directory.

    You need to modify the ownership of the following directories and
    their contents to be owned by the web server:
        * /var/www/html/reviewboard1/htdocs/media/uploaded
        * /var/www/html/reviewboard1/htdocs/media/ext
        * /var/www/html/reviewboard1/htdocs/static/ext
        * /var/www/html/reviewboard1/data

Change the permissions to the below mentioned paths to resolve permission related issues ReviewBoard installation complete Guide Ubuntu OS

root@TechTutorials:~# chown -R www-data /var/www/html/reviewboard1/htdocs/media/uploaded
root@TechTutorials:~# chown -R www-data /var/www/html/reviewboard1/htdocs/media/ext
root@TechTutorials:~# chown -R www-data /var/www/html/reviewboard1/htdocs/static/ext
root@TechTutorials:~# chown -R www-data /var/www/html/reviewboard1/data

Copy the Config files to apache2 server config path

root@TechTutorials:/var/www/html# cp reviewboard1/conf/apache-wsgi.conf /etc/apache2/sites-available/reviewboard1.conf
root@TechTutorials:/var/www/html# cd /etc/apache2/sites-available/

Delete Default site config files

root@TechTutorials:/etc/apache2/sites-available# rm -rf 000-default.conf default-ssl.conf

Install mod_wsgi module and enable to run the site

root@TechTutorials:/etc/apache2/sites-available# apt-get install libapache2-mod-wsgi
root@TechTutorials:/etc/apache2/sites-available# cd ../sites-enabled
root@TechTutorials:/etc/apache2/sites-enabled# ln -s ../sites-available/reviewboard1.conf .

Edit below config file and change value of ALLOW_HOSTS

Before changing ALLOWED_HOSTS = [‘localhost.localdomain’]

After changing

ALLOWED_HOSTS = ['*']

Now restart your apache2 service then go to web page and login with admin user ReviewBoard installation complete Guide Ubuntu OS

reviewboard first screen

reviewboard login screen

Enjoy..!!

Related Articles

ReviewBoard Administration Guide

ReviewBord in Centos 7 & RHEL 7 installation guide

Comment your feedback on the same

Thanks for your wonderful Support and Encouragement

blank

Ravi Kumar Ankam

My Name is ARK. Expert in grasping any new technology, Interested in Sharing the knowledge. Learn more & Earn More

4 Responses

  1. blank Vinit says:

    Hi, I was able to setup reviewboard with relative ease. Thanks to your page I was able to do it.
    However I do recommend keeping apache2 default files and use a2econf and a2esite to enable config and website.
    Another problem I faced was of hostnames, so apache2 was failing to start, I solved it by following steps:

    However I am still not able to figure out which config file you are mentioning here? as name is missing.

    Edit below config file and change value of ALLOW_HOSTS
    Before changing ALLOWED_HOSTS = [‘localhost.localdomain’]
    After changing
    ALLOWED_HOSTS = [‘*’]

    • blank Vinit says:

      steps to fix apache2 restart problem, which was missed in earlier post 🙁

      echo “ServerName localhost” | sudo tee /etc/apache2/conf-available/fqdn.conf
      sudo a2enconf fqdn

    • blank Aniket Bhatagalikar says:

      Hey Vinit FYI,
      The config file in which you have to add ALLOWED_HOSTS=[‘*’] is “settings_local.py” which you can find in /var/www/html/reviewboard1/conf

  2. blank Shruthi says:

    Hi,
    How to login into admin page? What do I type on the web browser for the review board page to open?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *