Server manual does not explain building from source

[gdt]

Description

I'm trying to build qgis server as a packager, and finding the documentation unclear. The cgi-bin variable defaults to bin, which seems wrong, but that 's out of scope in a doc bug. I don't see anything that explains that one needs to set that. I don't see any explanation about admin.sld and wms_metadata.xml in terms of if they are examples or must be literally present. I don't see any explanation about putting them in a webroot (instead of bin). I'm coming at this as someone used to reading and writing code, configuring webservers, and packaging. So I am not asking for step by step. The problem is that the big picture is missing, compounded by what seems like wrong defaults.

Page URL: https://docs.qgis.org/3.28/en/docs/server_manual/index.html
source: INSTALL.md (3.28)

[m-kuhn]

admin.sld

Previous discussions: https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/49139/whats-the-purpose-of-wms-metadata-xml-and-admin-sld

A bit of explanation: http://osgl.ethz.ch/training/webmaps/exercises/07_exercise_Advanced_Symbolization.pdf

It was originally added here: qgis/QGIS@98d7559 by @mhugent

It's an optional (default) file, as far as I can see, nothing bad would happen if it would be missing
qgis/QGIS@98d7559#diff-5c693123f3e6022370b481dfb0eeb483091dc043ba77e5d4d5ee6b68dda73407R157-R162

It looks to me as if this was an alternative to providing a .qgs file. I have no idea if that's in use somewhere.

wms_metadata.xml

864b1f0b86f4a5f53e41d8be0c72e3af20f827e9 suggests that it's for service capabilities and that the same can be specified via QGIS project file configuration. I guess that's the standard nowadays.
I don't find any reference to wms_metadata.xml in the QGIS source code (except for installation code and changelog), I wonder if that's even still supported ...

[gdt]

Thanks. So should I file a qgis bug that these files are installed at all? And that the unix cgibin default is bin instead of libexec/cgi-dir? This works for me, except for two spurious files in cgi:

CMAKE_ARGS+=            -DWITH_SERVER:BOOL=TRUE
CMAKE_ARGS+=            -DQGIS_CGIBIN_SUBDIR=libexec/cgi-bin

[m-kuhn]

I think so, yes.
It's probably a QGIS4 todo, as well as changing the default cgibin path (changing it will probably break a couple of webserver configs).

[gdt]

Thanks. Two new issues filed as a result, and this can remain as a doc bug that the server manual does not explain how to buidl from source.

[DelazJ]

this can remain as a doc bug that the server manual does not explain how to buidl from source.

Question: should this land in this manual which currently targets more the end users than builders? How about adding to the install.md file in qgis/QGIS repo, where instructions for building desktop are already provided? I assume prerequisites are already there as well as people who know how to (and can keep things up-to-date).

[pblottiere]

Considering that we already have a "Installation on Debian-based systems" and "Installation on Windows" chapters in server manual, a "Installation from sources" would make sense too.

I'll try to take a look next week.

[DelazJ]

Good news. Thanks @pblottiere

[gdt]

(I have the bias that because this Free Software, the primary path (from an ethical) viewpoint should be building from source. It's fine to tell people how to install packages on various systems, of course, but I think the source path should be first.)

The point that this belongs in install.md, however, is a good one. I think someone with the sources and not going to look at online manuals should have build instructions, and that includes listing the prereqs in a way that describes the required software rather than giving package names in one packaging system (which is fine as an addendum).

In either case, if there are build/install instructions in both places, they should point to each other.

In my case, I figured this out by reading CMakeFiles, but that's more than we should expect :-)