© 1996-2001 Jan Wolter, Steve Weiss
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(with Backtalk Accounts or
with Unix Accounts)
(1) Create the SQL Database
If you are not using a pre-existing database, then this is the time to create one. The normal name for the database would be 'backtalk' but anything can be used. The database must be accessible from whatever account the CGI's run on.
The commands to create a database will vary for different SQL servers. For PostgreSQL, you might create a database with:
createdb backtalk
You might also want to create a username and password for Backtalk to log in as and permit the database to be accessible only to that account. Whether this is needed depends on your configuration.
(2) Edit the Runtime Configuration File
Edit misc/backtalk.conf.
Currently the only things that can be set in this file are SQL server configuration settings. If your SQL server is running on the same machine as Backtalk, the database is called 'backtalk', and no login or password is needed to connect, you can probably use he default configuration file without changes. Otherwise, you may want to set the following options:
sql_hostname sqlserver.mysite.com
The default is 'localhost', that is the same machine that Backtalk runs on.
If the name 'localhost' is given, Backtalk will usually not form a TCP/IP connection, but will instead use the more efficient Unix sockets. If you give a fully qualified domain name, like 'sqlserver.mysite.com', then a TCP/IP connection will be made, even if that happens to be the same machine Backtalk is running on.
sql_port 5432
The default depends on the SQL server you are using. Unless your SQL server has been modified to listen on something other than the default port, you shouldn't have to set this.
sql_dbname my_conf_db
sql_login confloginIf no login name is configured, none is used.
sql_password foobarIf no password is configured, none is used.
Note that the password must be given in clear text, and the configuration file must be readable to the backtalk owner account. There may be security issues with this on some servers.