51.7. Installing and Deleting Webmin Modules
As the first chapter of this book explains, Webmin is essentially a collection of modules, each of which performs some task such as configuring Apache or managing UNIX users. A module can be added or removed without effecting the operation of others, assuming that they do not depend upon it. Even though the main Webmin distribution includes 76 modules at the time I wrote this book, over 100 more written by other people are available for download from the website webmin.thirdpartymodules.com. This is a searchable database of modules and themes that perform tasks the core modules do not, such as managing the FreeBSD firewall, displaying system information, and connecting to a VNC server.
Once you have found a module that you like, it can be installed by following these steps:
1. | On the main page, click on the Webmin Modules icon. This will bring to you to a page with forms for installing, cloning, and deleting modules. |
2. | If you have already downloaded the module's .wbm file to the system on which Webmin is running, select From local file and enter the full path to the file into the text field next to it. |
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5. | Webmin will normally stop a module from being installed if any other modules that it depends on are not available or if it is written for a later Webmin release. To prevent this, check the Ignore module dependencies when installing box. This may, however, allow the installation of a module that will not work. It will not allow you to add modules that do not support the server's operating system. |
6. | To control to whom this new module will be granted, select the Grant access only to users and groups option and enter a list of Webmin user and group names in the adjacent text box. By default, only the user that you are currently logged in as is listed. You can also give it to every user and group by choosing Grant access to all Webmin users. |
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Webmin comes with a script called install-module.pl that can be found in the installation root directory. If you have installed the RPM version, this will be /usr/libexec/webmin. Otherwise it will be wherever the tar.gz file was extracted. This script can be used to install a module from the command line, by passing the .wbt file to it as a parameter. It will be granted only to the root or admin user, if one exists, or the first account listed in the Webmin Users module otherwise.
Any of the modules currently installed, including those that come with Webmin by default, can be deleted on the same page as well. Deleting the default modules is not a good idea, however, as they will be automatically reinstalled the next time you upgrade. Instead, it is better to take away access that you do not want to use with the Webmin Users module, as explained in Chapter 52. Not all modules can be deleted, as some are depended upon by other modules (such as Running Processes).
To remove one or more modules, follow these steps:
1. | Click on the Webmin Modules icon on the main page. |
2. | Scroll down to the last form on the page and select all the modules that you want to remove from the Delete Modules list. Clones (explained later) can be deleted as well if they are no longer needed. Deleting a module that has clones will automatically remove them as well. |
3. | When you hit the Delete selected modules button, a confirmation page will be displayed showing exactly what will be removed. Or, if there are some dependency problems that prevent one or more from being deleted, an error message explaining the problem will be shown instead. |
4. | To have access to the module taken away from all users and all access control settings returned to their defaults, check the Remove from users and reset access control settings? box. This can be useful if you plan to reinstall the module in the future and do not want it to be available to the same people who used it before. |
5. | Click on Delete to go ahead with the module's removal. A page showing exactly which modules were deleted will be displayed, along with the number of bytes deleted for each. |