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 - Plack::Middleware::Deflater      deb: libplack-middleware-deflater-perl
 104                                    pkg: p5 -Plack-Middleware-Deflater
 105                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-Deflater
 106                                    (saves bandwidth on responses)
 107
 108 * highlight                        deb: libhighlight-perl
 109                                    (for syntax highlighting with coderepo)
 110
 111 * xapian-compact (tool)            deb: xapian-tools
 112                                    pkg: xapian-core
 113                                    rpm: xapian-core
 114                                    (optional, for public-inbox-compact(1))
 115
 116 The following modules are typically pulled in by dependencies listed
 117 above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
 118
 119 * Encode                           deb: libperl5.$MINOR (or libencode-perl)
 120                                    pkg: perl5
 121                                    rpm: perl-Encode
 122                                    (likely installed with Perl)
 123
 124 - DBI                              deb: libdbi-perl
 125                                    pkg: p5-DBI
 126                                    rpm: perl-DBI
 127                                    (pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
 128
 129 * Devel::Peek                      deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
 130                                    pkg: perl5
 131                                    rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
 132                                    (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
 133                                     typically installed alongside Perl5)
 134
 135 - Linux::Inotify2                  deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
 136                                    rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
 137                                    (for public-inbox-watch on Linux)
 138
 139 - IO::Compress (::Gzip)            deb: perl-modules (or libio-compress-perl)
 140                                    pkg: perl5
 141                                    rpm: perl-IO-Compress
 142                                    (for gzipped mbox over HTTP, v2 format)
 143
 144 Uncommonly needed modules:
 145
 146 - Socket6                          deb: libsocket6-perl
 147                                    pkg: p5-Socket6
 148                                    rpm: perl-Socket6
 149                                    (pulled in by SpamAssassin and Net::Server,
 150                                     only necessary if using IPv6 with
 151                                     Plack::Middleware::AccessLog or similar
 152                                     on Perl <= 5.12)
 153
 154 - Crypt::CBC                       deb: libcrypt-cbc-perl
 155                                    pkg: p5-Crypt-CBC
 156                                    (for PublicInbox::Unsubscribe (rarely used))
 157
 158 Optional packages testing and development:
 159
 160 - Plack::Test                      deb: libplack-test-perl
 161                                    pkg: p5-Plack
 162                                    rpm: perl-Plack-Test
 163
 164 - Test::Simple                     deb: perl-modules-5.$MINOR
 165                                    pkg: perl5
 166                                    rpm: perl-Test-Simple
 167
 168 - XML::TreePP                      deb: libxml-treepp-perl
 169                                    pkg: p5-XML-TreePP
 170                                    rpm: perl-XML-TreePP
 171
 172 standard MakeMaker installation (Perl)
 173 --------------------------------------
 174
 175 To use MakeMaker, you need to ensure ExtUtils::MakeMaker is available.
 176 This is typically installed with Perl, but RPM-based systems will likely
 177 need to install the `perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker' package.
 178
 179 Once the dependencies are installed, you should be able to build and
 180 install the system (into /usr/local) with:
 181
 182         perl Makefile.PL
 183         make
 184         make test    # see HACKING for faster tests for hackers
 185         make install # root permissions may be needed
 186
 187 When installing Search::Xapian, make sure the underlying Xapian
 188 installation is not affected by an index corruption bug:
 189
 190         https://bugs.debian.org/808610
 191
 192 For Debian 8.x (jessie), this means using Debian 8.5 or later.
 193
 194 public-inbox will never store unregeneratable data in Xapian
 195 or any other search database we might use; Xapian corruption
 196 will not destroy critical data.
 197
 198 See the public-inbox-overview(7) man page for the next steps once
 199 the installation is complete.
 200
 201 Copyright
 202 ---------
 203
 204 Copyright 2013-2020 all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
 205 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>