Overview of WeBWorK system setup

Where to put the WeBWorK files

The WeBWorK files can be placed almost anywhere but a reasonable location is under /usr/local/. The setup directions contained in linux.html assume this location. Despite the name, linux.html gives detailed instructions for setting up WeBWorK on any unix system. Another reasonable location is as follows. Your webserver uses two directories (often called htdocs or html and cgi-bin) under which it expects to find html documents and cgi scripts respectively. These two directories are often subdirectories of a directory called e.g. httpd. The webwork directory could be set up as a subdirectory of the httpd directory. Placing the webwork directory under /usr/local/ results in a directory structure which looks like:

	usr
		local
			webwork
				system
				courses
				system_html

The system, courses and system_html subdirectories each contain their own files and subdirectories. The system directory contains all the files needed by the WeBWorK system. The courses directory contains files related to the individual WeBWorK courses. The system_html directory contains auxiliary applications, graphics, and documentation.

The webwork directory should not be a subdirectory of the htdocs directory as you do not want anyone using the web to have direct access to any files under the webwork directory.

How much disk space you need depends on how large your courses are, how much temporary data you keep, whether or not you do any "housekeeping", whether for example you have WeBWorK keep an access_log which can become huge, etc. It is difficult to give general guidelines. The actual system files take up less than 5 MB. The system log files can be many many times that size. A 100 student course might have 25 MB of actual permanent data and 250 MB of temporary data. If you are setting up a system which will have a substantial number of users, we recommend you set up tmp directories for courses under a separate file system (see linux.html). Disk space is very cheap --- it is a lot better to have too much than too little.

How does WeBWorK interact with the webserver?

No WeBWorK files are directly accessible from the web. Rather all access is through two types of methods, one for cgi scripts and one for html files. The WeBWorK cgi directory can be accessed through either of two methods.

Directions for configuring apache and setting up these links are given in the linux.html document.

What does the system setup script do?

This script is run only when you initially set up the WeBWorK system.

What does the course setup script do?

This script is run every time a WeBWorK course is set up.

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