elab-users/README.md

SVN USER MANAGEMENT README

Command line script to manage the cpi lab journal users.

quick file overview

First of all, we talk about the following files and folders:

.htpasswd
README
authz
cpi
elab-users.py
old-scripts-backup

** WARNING: ** In this list, there is one hidden files: .htpasswd. This file is hidden on purpose, so ** don't mess with it **.

.htpasswd: stores the passwords for the users (classical apache htpaswd-file)

README: this file

authz: defines the access controll list, so who has access to what

cpi: folder that holds the svn repository itself

elab-users.py: usermanagement script

old-scripts-backup: contains the old scripts to add a user for backup reasons

Usermanagement with elab-users.py

** HINT: ** To run this scipt first change to the directory with cd /var/www/svn and prepend every command with ./ (e.g. ./elab-users.py --help).

The script elab-users.py provides some options to add and delete users, show access information from users and their elab journals. If the scprit is called with the --help option, the folowing help message is displayed:

Usage: elab-users.py [option] name

shows and manipulates svn access rights

Options:
  -h, --help        show this help message and exit
  -g, --groupinfo   display users in a group
  -a, --add         add a regular user
  -r, --restricted  add a restricted user
  -m, --move        move a user to alumni
  -p, --password    reset a user password

to grant a restricted user access to another folder, you have to carefully
edit the authz file

the following combinations are possible:

• elab-users.py: will show a list of all groups and their users
• elab-users.py UserName: shows the access rights of the user and their labjournal
• elab-users.py -g GroupName: shows a list of all group members
• elab-users.py -a UserName: adds a regular user, creates svn folders and sets a random password
• elab-users.py -a UserName: adds a restricted user, creates svn folders and sets a random password
• elab-users.py -m UserName: moves an existing user to the alumni group, removes his password
• elab-users.py -p UserName: resets the password for an existing user to a new random one

Grant read writes to restricted users

As noted in the help message of elab-users.py, if a restriced user should have read access to another labjournal, the authz file has to be edited manually. Here are two examples that grant the user 'UrmilShah' read access to two different lab journals:

... snip ...

[cpi:/AndreasEvers]
@restricted =
UrmilShah = r

... snip ...

[cpi:/HolgerFrey]
@restricted =
UrmilShah = r
HolgerFrey = rw

... snip ...

This does not apply to regular users, since these have read access to all folders.

Hint

This readme is written in Markdown. So if you want a nice printout, use a markdown converter first. Something like http://www.markdownviewer.com