View source for Store WeBWorK's temporary files in a separate directory or partition

If you are running a large WeBWorK installation (say with 500 or more students) or your installation is on a slower server, it is a good idea to put all of WeBWorK's temporary files in a separate directory or partition usually named <code>wwtmp</code>.  Any files or directories under the directory <code>wwtmp</code> needed by WeBWorK will be automatically recreated if needed so there is no reason to back up this directory.  Not backing up this directly can significantly lessen the backup load on large installations.


===Create the wwtmp directory or partition===

You can set up <code>wwtmp</code> as a separate partition or simply as a directory.  Create the <code>wwtmp</code> directory (or partition) under Apache's main server document root which is set during the Apache installation.  For Ubuntu, this is <code>/var/www</code> which we will assume in the instructions below. 

Actually you can do this at any time and your active courses will continue to function seemingly without change.  The only change behind the scenes will be that temporary files will be stored in a different location.

First we set the group and permissions for the <code>wwtmp</code> directory. As root (or using sudo), run the commands

 
 # cd /var/www
 # chgrp wwdata wwtmp
 # chmod ug+w wwtmp
 # chmod g+s wwtmp

===Set up WeBWorK to use the wwtmp directory===

Next we have to edit <code>global.conf</code> so that WeBWorK uses the new <code>wwtmp</code> directory.  Since we have a working WeBWorK system, first we make a backup copy of <code>global.conf</code>.


 $ cd /opt/webwork/webwork2/conf
 $ cp global.conf global.conf.bak1
 $ gedit global.conf

Now edit <code>global.conf</code>.  Find the lines 

 $webworkDirs{htdocs_temp}   = "$webworkDirs{htdocs}/tmp";
 $webworkURLs{htdocs_temp}   = "$webworkURLs{htdocs}/tmp";
and replace them by 
 #$webworkDirs{htdocs_temp}   = "$webworkDirs{htdocs}/tmp";
 #$webworkURLs{htdocs_temp}   = "$webworkURLs{htdocs}/tmp";
 $webworkDirs{htdocs_temp}   = '/var/www/wwtmp';
 $webworkURLs{htdocs_temp}   = '/wwtmp';

Next find the lines 

 $courseDirs{html_temp}   = "$courseDirs{html}/tmp";
 $courseURLs{html_temp}   = "$courseURLs{html}/tmp";
and replace them by 
 #$courseDirs{html_temp}   = "$courseDirs{html}/tmp";
 #$courseURLs{html_temp}   = "$courseURLs{html}/tmp";
 $courseDirs{html_temp}   = "/var/www/wwtmp/$courseName";
 $courseURLs{html_temp}   = "/wwtmp/$courseName";

Then save the file and quit. If you look at the <code>wwtmp</code> directory you will find it empty but after you restart apache and then access some WeBWorK problems, you will find temporary directories and files in <code>wwtmp</code>.  '''Remember your have to restart apache for these changes to take effect'''.