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                                    rpm: perl-Inline (or perl-Inline-C)
  90                                    (speeds up process spawning on Linux,
  91                                     see public-inbox-daemon(8))
  92
  93 - Email::Address::XS               deb: libemail-address-xs-perl
  94                                    pkg: pkg-Email-Address-XS
  95                                    (correct parsing of tricky email
  96                                     addresses, phrases and comments,
  97                                     required for IMAP)
  98
  99 - Parse::RecDescent                deb: libparse-recdescent-perl
 100                                    pkg: p5-Parse-RecDescent
 101                                    rpm: perl-ParseRecDescent
 102                                    (optional, for public-inbox-imapd(1))
 103
 104 - BSD::Resource                    deb: libbsd-resource-perl
 105                                    pkg: p5-BSD-Resource
 106                                    rpm: perl-BSD-Resource
 107                                    (optional, for PSGI limiters
 108                                     see public-inbox-config(5))
 109
 110 - Plack::Middleware::ReverseProxy  deb: libplack-middleware-reverseproxy-perl
 111                                    pkg: p5-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
 112                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
 113                                    (ensures redirects are correct when running
 114                                     behind nginx or Varnish)
 115
 116 * highlight                        deb: libhighlight-perl
 117                                    (for syntax highlighting with coderepo)
 118
 119 * xapian-compact (tool)            deb: xapian-tools
 120                                    pkg: xapian-core
 121                                    rpm: xapian-core
 122                                    (optional, for public-inbox-compact(1))
 123
 124 The following modules are typically pulled in by dependencies listed
 125 above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
 126
 127 * Encode                           deb: libperl5.$MINOR (or libencode-perl)
 128                                    pkg: perl5
 129                                    rpm: perl-Encode
 130                                    (likely installed with Perl)
 131
 132 - DBI                              deb: libdbi-perl
 133                                    pkg: p5-DBI
 134                                    rpm: perl-DBI
 135                                    (pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
 136
 137 * Devel::Peek                      deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
 138                                    pkg: perl5
 139                                    rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
 140                                    (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
 141                                     typically installed alongside Perl5)
 142
 143 - Linux::Inotify2                  deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
 144                                    rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
 145                                    (for public-inbox-watch and -imapd on Linux)
 146
 147 - IO::Compress (::Gzip)            deb: perl-modules (or libio-compress-perl)
 148                                    pkg: perl5
 149                                    rpm: perl-IO-Compress
 150                                    (for gzipped mbox over HTTP, v2 format)
 151
 152 Uncommonly needed modules:
 153
 154 - Socket6                          deb: libsocket6-perl
 155                                    pkg: p5-Socket6
 156                                    rpm: perl-Socket6
 157                                    (pulled in by SpamAssassin and Net::Server,
 158                                     only necessary if using IPv6 with
 159                                     Plack::Middleware::AccessLog or similar
 160                                     on Perl <= 5.12)
 161
 162 - Crypt::CBC                       deb: libcrypt-cbc-perl
 163                                    pkg: p5-Crypt-CBC
 164                                    (for PublicInbox::Unsubscribe (rarely used))
 165
 166 Optional packages testing and development:
 167
 168 - Plack::Test                      deb: libplack-test-perl
 169                                    pkg: p5-Plack
 170                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Test
 171
 172 - Test::Simple                     deb: perl-modules-5.$MINOR
 173                                    pkg: perl5
 174                                    rpm: perl-Test-Simple
 175
 176 - XML::TreePP                      deb: libxml-treepp-perl
 177                                    pkg: p5-XML-TreePP
 178                                    rpm: perl-XML-TreePP
 179
 180 standard MakeMaker installation (Perl)
 181 --------------------------------------
 182
 183 To use MakeMaker, you need to ensure ExtUtils::MakeMaker is available.
 184 This is typically installed with Perl, but RPM-based systems will likely
 185 need to install the `perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker' package.
 186
 187 Once the dependencies are installed, you should be able to build and
 188 install the system (into /usr/local) with:
 189
 190         perl Makefile.PL
 191         make
 192         make test    # see HACKING for faster tests for hackers
 193         make install # root permissions may be needed
 194
 195 When installing Search::Xapian, make sure the underlying Xapian
 196 installation is not affected by an index corruption bug:
 197
 198         https://bugs.debian.org/808610
 199
 200 For Debian 8.x (jessie), this means using Debian 8.5 or later.
 201
 202 public-inbox will never store unregeneratable data in Xapian
 203 or any other search database we might use; Xapian corruption
 204 will not destroy critical data.
 205
 206 See the public-inbox-overview(7) man page for the next steps once
 207 the installation is complete.
 208
 209 Copyright
 210 ---------
 211
 212 Copyright 2013-2021 all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
 213 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>