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, IMAP 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 IMAP, 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, IMAP, NNTP, or gzipped mboxes)
  74
  75 - Search::Xapian                   deb: libsearch-xapian-perl
  76                                    pkg: p5-Search-Xapian
  77                                    rpm: perl-Search-Xapian
  78                                    (HTTP and IMAP search)
  79
  80 - Net::Server                      deb: libnet-server-perl
  81                                    pkg: pkg-Net-Server
  82                                    rpm: perl-Net-Server
  83                                    (for HTTP/IMAP/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                                     required for IMAP)
  97
  98 - Parse::RecDescent                deb: libparse-recdescent-perl
  99                                    pkg: p5-Parse-RecDescent
 100                                    rpm: perl-ParseRecDescent
 101                                    (optional, for public-inbox-imapd(1))
 102
 103
 104 - Plack::Middleware::ReverseProxy  deb: libplack-middleware-reverseproxy-perl
 105                                    pkg: p5-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
 106                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
 107                                    (ensures redirects are correct when running
 108                                     behind nginx or Varnish)
 109
 110 * highlight                        deb: libhighlight-perl
 111                                    (for syntax highlighting with coderepo)
 112
 113 * xapian-compact (tool)            deb: xapian-tools
 114                                    pkg: xapian-core
 115                                    rpm: xapian-core
 116                                    (optional, for public-inbox-compact(1))
 117
 118 The following modules are typically pulled in by dependencies listed
 119 above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
 120
 121 * Encode                           deb: libperl5.$MINOR (or libencode-perl)
 122                                    pkg: perl5
 123                                    rpm: perl-Encode
 124                                    (likely installed with Perl)
 125
 126 - DBI                              deb: libdbi-perl
 127                                    pkg: p5-DBI
 128                                    rpm: perl-DBI
 129                                    (pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
 130
 131 * Devel::Peek                      deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
 132                                    pkg: perl5
 133                                    rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
 134                                    (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
 135                                     typically installed alongside Perl5)
 136
 137 - Linux::Inotify2                  deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
 138                                    rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
 139                                    (for public-inbox-watch and -imapd on Linux)
 140
 141 - IO::Compress (::Gzip)            deb: perl-modules (or libio-compress-perl)
 142                                    pkg: perl5
 143                                    rpm: perl-IO-Compress
 144                                    (for gzipped mbox over HTTP, v2 format)
 145
 146 Uncommonly needed modules:
 147
 148 - Socket6                          deb: libsocket6-perl
 149                                    pkg: p5-Socket6
 150                                    rpm: perl-Socket6
 151                                    (pulled in by SpamAssassin and Net::Server,
 152                                     only necessary if using IPv6 with
 153                                     Plack::Middleware::AccessLog or similar
 154                                     on Perl <= 5.12)
 155
 156 - Crypt::CBC                       deb: libcrypt-cbc-perl
 157                                    pkg: p5-Crypt-CBC
 158                                    (for PublicInbox::Unsubscribe (rarely used))
 159
 160 Optional packages testing and development:
 161
 162 - Plack::Test                      deb: libplack-test-perl
 163                                    pkg: p5-Plack
 164                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Test
 165
 166 - Test::Simple                     deb: perl-modules-5.$MINOR
 167                                    pkg: perl5
 168                                    rpm: perl-Test-Simple
 169
 170 - XML::TreePP                      deb: libxml-treepp-perl
 171                                    pkg: p5-XML-TreePP
 172                                    rpm: perl-XML-TreePP
 173
 174 standard MakeMaker installation (Perl)
 175 --------------------------------------
 176
 177 To use MakeMaker, you need to ensure ExtUtils::MakeMaker is available.
 178 This is typically installed with Perl, but RPM-based systems will likely
 179 need to install the `perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker' package.
 180
 181 Once the dependencies are installed, you should be able to build and
 182 install the system (into /usr/local) with:
 183
 184         perl Makefile.PL
 185         make
 186         make test    # see HACKING for faster tests for hackers
 187         make install # root permissions may be needed
 188
 189 When installing Search::Xapian, make sure the underlying Xapian
 190 installation is not affected by an index corruption bug:
 191
 192         https://bugs.debian.org/808610
 193
 194 For Debian 8.x (jessie), this means using Debian 8.5 or later.
 195
 196 public-inbox will never store unregeneratable data in Xapian
 197 or any other search database we might use; Xapian corruption
 198 will not destroy critical data.
 199
 200 See the public-inbox-overview(7) man page for the next steps once
 201 the installation is complete.
 202
 203 Copyright
 204 ---------
 205
 206 Copyright 2013-2021 all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
 207 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>