INSTALL

   1 public-inbox (server-side) installation
   2 ---------------------------------------
   3
   4 This is for folks who want to setup their own public-inbox instance.
   5 Clients should use normal git-clone/git-fetch, or NNTP clients
   6 if they want to import mail into their personal inboxes.
   7
   8 public-inbox is developed on Debian GNU/Linux systems and will
   9 never depend on packages outside of the "main" component of
  10 the "stable" distribution, currently Debian 10.x ("buster"),
  11 but older versions of Debian remain supported.
  12
  13 Most packages are available in other GNU/Linux distributions
  14 and FreeBSD.
  15
  16 TODO: this still needs to be documented better,
  17 also see the scripts/ and sa_config/ directories in the source tree
  18
  19 Requirements
  20 ------------
  21
  22 public-inbox requires a number of other packages to access its full
  23 functionality.  The core tools are, of course:
  24
  25 * Git (1.8.0+, 2.6+ for writing v2 inboxes)
  26 * Perl 5.10.1+
  27 * DBD::SQLite (needed for NNTP, message threading, and v2 inboxes)
  28
  29 To accept incoming mail into a public inbox, you'll likely want:
  30
  31 * MTA - postfix is recommended (for public-inbox-mda)
  32 * SpamAssassin (spamc/spamd)   (for public-inbox-watch/public-inbox-mda)
  33
  34 Beyond that, there is a long list of Perl modules required, starting with:
  35
  36 * Digest::SHA                      typically installed with Perl
  37                                    rpm: perl-Digest-SHA
  38
  39 * URI::Escape                      deb: liburi-perl
  40                                    pkg: p5-URI
  41                                    rpm: perl-URI
  42                                    (for HTML/Atom generation)
  43
  44 Email::MIME will be optional as of public-inbox v1.5.0,
  45 it may still be used in maintainer comparison tests:
  46
  47 * Email::MIME                      deb: libemail-mime-perl
  48                                    pkg: p5-Email-MIME
  49                                    rpm: perl-Email-MIME
  50
  51 Plack and Date::Parse are optional as of public-inbox v1.3.0,
  52 but required for older releases:
  53
  54 * Plack                            deb: libplack-perl
  55                                    pkg: p5-Plack
  56                                    rpm: perl-Plack, perl-Plack-Test,
  57                                    (for HTML/Atom generation)
  58
  59 - Date::Parse                      deb: libtimedate-perl
  60                                    pkg: p5-TimeDate
  61                                    rpm: perl-TimeDate
  62                                    (for broken, mostly historical emails)
  63
  64 Where "deb" indicates package names for Debian-derived distributions,
  65 "pkg" is for the FreeBSD package (maybe other common BSDs, too), and
  66 "rpm" is for RPM-based distributions (only known to work on Fedora).
  67
  68 Numerous optional modules are likely to be useful as well:
  69
  70 - DBD::SQLite                      deb: libdbd-sqlite3-perl
  71                                    pkg: p5-DBD-SQLite
  72                                    rpm: perl-DBD-SQLite
  73                                    (for v2, NNTP, or gzipped mboxes)
  74
  75 - Search::Xapian                   deb: libsearch-xapian-perl
  76                                    pkg: p5-Search-Xapian
  77                                    rpm: perl-Search-Xapian
  78                                    (HTTP search)
  79
  80 - Net::Server                      deb: libnet-server-perl
  81                                    pkg: pkg-Net-Server
  82                                    rpm: perl-Net-Server
  83                                    (for HTTP/NNTP background daemons,
  84                                     not needed as systemd services or
  85                                     foreground servers)
  86
  87 - Inline::C                        deb: libinline-c-perl
  88                                    pkg: pkg-Inline-C
  89                                    (speeds up process spawning on Linux,
  90                                     see public-inbox-daemon(8))
  91
  92 - Email::Address::XS               deb: libemail-address-xs-perl
  93                                    pkg: pkg-Email-Address-XS
  94                                    (correct parsing of tricky email
  95                                     addresses, phrases and comments)
  96
  97 - Plack::Middleware::ReverseProxy  deb: libplack-middleware-reverseproxy-perl
  98                                    pkg: p5-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
  99                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
 100                                    (ensures redirects are correct when running
 101                                     behind nginx or Varnish)
 102
 103 * highlight                        deb: libhighlight-perl
 104                                    (for syntax highlighting with coderepo)
 105
 106 * xapian-compact (tool)            deb: xapian-tools
 107                                    pkg: xapian-core
 108                                    rpm: xapian-core
 109                                    (optional, for public-inbox-compact(1))
 110
 111 The following modules are typically pulled in by dependencies listed
 112 above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
 113
 114 * Encode                           deb: libperl5.$MINOR (or libencode-perl)
 115                                    pkg: perl5
 116                                    rpm: perl-Encode
 117                                    (likely installed with Perl)
 118
 119 - DBI                              deb: libdbi-perl
 120                                    pkg: p5-DBI
 121                                    rpm: perl-DBI
 122                                    (pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
 123
 124 * Devel::Peek                      deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
 125                                    pkg: perl5
 126                                    rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
 127                                    (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
 128                                     typically installed alongside Perl5)
 129
 130 - Linux::Inotify2                  deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
 131                                    rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
 132                                    (for public-inbox-watch on Linux)
 133
 134 - IO::Compress (::Gzip)            deb: perl-modules (or libio-compress-perl)
 135                                    pkg: perl5
 136                                    rpm: perl-IO-Compress
 137                                    (for gzipped mbox over HTTP, v2 format)
 138
 139 Uncommonly needed modules:
 140
 141 - Socket6                          deb: libsocket6-perl
 142                                    pkg: p5-Socket6
 143                                    rpm: perl-Socket6
 144                                    (pulled in by SpamAssassin and Net::Server,
 145                                     only necessary if using IPv6 with
 146                                     Plack::Middleware::AccessLog or similar
 147                                     on Perl <= 5.12)
 148
 149 - Crypt::CBC                       deb: libcrypt-cbc-perl
 150                                    pkg: p5-Crypt-CBC
 151                                    (for PublicInbox::Unsubscribe (rarely used))
 152
 153 Optional packages testing and development:
 154
 155 - Plack::Test                      deb: libplack-test-perl
 156                                    pkg: p5-Plack
 157                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Test
 158
 159 - Test::Simple                     deb: perl-modules-5.$MINOR
 160                                    pkg: perl5
 161                                    rpm: perl-Test-Simple
 162
 163 - XML::TreePP                      deb: libxml-treepp-perl
 164                                    pkg: p5-XML-TreePP
 165                                    rpm: perl-XML-TreePP
 166
 167 standard MakeMaker installation (Perl)
 168 --------------------------------------
 169
 170 To use MakeMaker, you need to ensure ExtUtils::MakeMaker is available.
 171 This is typically installed with Perl, but RPM-based systems will likely
 172 need to install the `perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker' package.
 173
 174 Once the dependencies are installed, you should be able to build and
 175 install the system (into /usr/local) with:
 176
 177         perl Makefile.PL
 178         make
 179         make test    # see HACKING for faster tests for hackers
 180         make install # root permissions may be needed
 181
 182 When installing Search::Xapian, make sure the underlying Xapian
 183 installation is not affected by an index corruption bug:
 184
 185         https://bugs.debian.org/808610
 186
 187 For Debian 8.x (jessie), this means using Debian 8.5 or later.
 188
 189 public-inbox will never store unregeneratable data in Xapian
 190 or any other search database we might use; Xapian corruption
 191 will not destroy critical data.
 192
 193 See the public-inbox-overview(7) man page for the next steps once
 194 the installation is complete.
 195
 196 Copyright
 197 ---------
 198
 199 Copyright 2013-2021 all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
 200 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>