Instructions for building OpenCPU as an rpm package.
warning: Because Redhat systems do not support AppArmor, OpenCPU runs without the advanced security policies on these platforms. Instead, it runs in the standard SElinux httpd_modules_t context. This is fine for internal use, but it is not recommended to expose your Fedora/EL OpenCPU server to the web without further configuring SELinux for your application.
Ready-to-go opencpu-server rpm packages for recent versions of Fedora and SUSE systems are available here.
Steps to build rpm packages on Fedora, CentOS or RHEL are in this script: buildscript.sh.
Unlike ubuntu, the default configuration in redhat systems denies read access to the home directory of other users. Therefore, to make your home directory visible via the /ocpu/user api you need to set:
chmod +rx ~
Or to do it for other users:
sudo chmod +rx /home/username
In addition if SELinux is enabled the httpd_read_user_content must be set to true.
If you get mysterious permission denied errors on Fedora or CentOS, the problem is most likely SELinux (see blog post). The introduction video SELinux for mere mortals is a nice primer on SELinux.
To customize security policies for your needs, start by inspecting messages in /var/log/messages and /var/log/audit/audit.log. To get more verbose and readable logging, install the setroubleshoot packages:
yum install setroubleshoot setroubleshoot-server
Most problems can be resolved by turning a SELinux "boolean" on or off. A boolean in SElinux is the term for a global flag that enables/disables a particular privilege within a particular context. The httpd_selinux man page lists some important booleans for httpd that you might want to turn on/off. See also this help page. To list all booleans available on your system:
/usr/sbin/getsebool -a | grep httpd
SELinux can also be disabled completely by editing /etc/selinux/config and then rebooting.
On most standard installations of RHEL and CentOS, the default firewall configuration is to block HTTP/HTTPS traffic from external hosts. To open port 80 (HTTP) use something like:
sudo iptables -I INPUT -p tcp --dport 80 -j ACCEPT
sudo service iptables save
Google is your friend.