---------------------------------------
This is for folks who want to setup their own public-inbox instance.
-Clients should use normal git-clone/git-fetch, or NNTP clients
+Clients should use normal git-clone/git-fetch, IMAP or NNTP clients
if they want to import mail into their personal inboxes.
+As of 2022, public-inbox is packaged by several OS distributions,
+listed in alphabetical order: Debian, GNU Guix, NixOS, and Void Linux.
+
public-inbox is developed on Debian GNU/Linux systems and will
never depend on packages outside of the "main" component of
the "stable" distribution, currently Debian 10.x ("buster"),
but older versions of Debian remain supported.
Most packages are available in other GNU/Linux distributions
-and FreeBSD.
+and FreeBSD. CentOS 7.x users will likely want newer git and
+Xapian packages for better performance and v2 inbox support:
+https://public-inbox.org/meta/20210421151308.yz5hzkgm75klunpe@nitro.local/
TODO: this still needs to be documented better,
also see the scripts/ and sa_config/ directories in the source tree
functionality. The core tools are, of course:
* Git (1.8.0+, 2.6+ for writing v2 inboxes)
-* Perl 5.10.1+
-* DBD::SQLite (needed for NNTP, message threading, and v2 inboxes)
+* Perl 5.12.0+
+* DBD::SQLite (needed for IMAP, NNTP, message threading, and v2 inboxes)
To accept incoming mail into a public inbox, you'll likely want:
* MTA - postfix is recommended (for public-inbox-mda)
* SpamAssassin (spamc/spamd) (for public-inbox-watch/public-inbox-mda)
-Beyond that, there is a long list of Perl modules required, starting with:
-
-* Digest::SHA typically installed with Perl
- rpm: perl-Digest-SHA
-
-* Email::MIME deb: libemail-mime-perl
- pkg: p5-Email-MIME
- rpm: perl-Email-MIME
+Beyond that, there is one non-standard Perl package required:
-* URI::Escape deb: liburi-perl
+* URI deb: liburi-perl
pkg: p5-URI
rpm: perl-URI
(for HTML/Atom generation)
- DBD::SQLite deb: libdbd-sqlite3-perl
pkg: p5-DBD-SQLite
rpm: perl-DBD-SQLite
- (for v2, NNTP, or gzipped mboxes)
+ (for v2, IMAP, NNTP, or gzipped mboxes)
-- Search::Xapian deb: libsearch-xapian-perl
- pkg: p5-Search-Xapian
+- Search::Xapian or Xapian(.pm) deb: libsearch-xapian-perl
+ pkg: p5-Search-Xapian OR p5-Xapian
rpm: perl-Search-Xapian
- (HTTP search)
-
-- Net::Server deb: libnet-server-perl
- pkg: pkg-Net-Server
- rpm: perl-Net-Server
- (for HTTP/NNTP background daemons,
- not needed as systemd services or
- foreground servers)
+ (HTTP and IMAP search)
- Inline::C deb: libinline-c-perl
pkg: pkg-Inline-C
+ rpm: perl-Inline (or perl-Inline-C)
(speeds up process spawning on Linux,
see public-inbox-daemon(8))
+- Email::Address::XS deb: libemail-address-xs-perl
+ pkg: pkg-Email-Address-XS
+ (correct parsing of tricky email
+ addresses, phrases and comments,
+ required for IMAP)
+
+- Parse::RecDescent deb: libparse-recdescent-perl
+ pkg: p5-Parse-RecDescent
+ rpm: perl-ParseRecDescent
+ (optional, for public-inbox-imapd(1))
+
+- Mail::IMAPClient deb: libmail-imapclient-perl
+ pkg: p5-Mail-IMAPClient
+ rpm: perl-Mail-IMAPClient
+ (optional for lei and public-inbox-watch)
+
+- BSD::Resource deb: libbsd-resource-perl
+ pkg: p5-BSD-Resource
+ rpm: perl-BSD-Resource
+ (optional, for PSGI limiters
+ see public-inbox-config(5))
+
- Plack::Middleware::ReverseProxy deb: libplack-middleware-reverseproxy-perl
pkg: p5-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
(ensures redirects are correct when running
behind nginx or Varnish)
-- Plack::Middleware::Deflater deb: libplack-middleware-deflater-perl
- pkg: p5 -Plack-Middleware-Deflater
- rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-Deflater
- (saves bandwidth on responses)
-
* highlight deb: libhighlight-perl
(for syntax highlighting with coderepo)
rpm: xapian-core
(optional, for public-inbox-compact(1))
-The following modules are typically pulled in by dependencies listed
-above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
+* curl (tool) deb, pkg, rpm: curl
+ (for HTTP(S) externals with curl)
+
+- Linux::Inotify2 deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
+ rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
+ (for lei, public-inbox-watch and -imapd
+ on Linux)
-- Email::MIME::ContentType deb: libemail-mime-contenttype-perl
- pkg: p5-Email-MIME-ContentType
- rpm: perl-Email-MIME-ContentType
- (pulled in by Email::MIME)
+- IO::KQueue pkg: p5-IO-KQueue
+ (for lei, public-inbox-watch and -imapd
+ on *BSDs)
-- Email::Simple deb: libemail-simple-perl
- pkg: p5-Email-Simple
- rpm: perl-Email-Simple
- (pulled in by Email::MIME)
+- Net::Server deb: libnet-server-perl
+ pkg: pkg-Net-Server
+ rpm: perl-Net-Server
+ (for HTTP/IMAP/NNTP background daemons,
+ not needed as systemd services or
+ foreground servers)
-* Encode deb: libperl5.$MINOR (or libencode-perl)
- pkg: perl5
- rpm: perl-Encode
- (likely installed with Perl)
+The following module is typically pulled in by dependencies listed
+above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
- DBI deb: libdbi-perl
pkg: p5-DBI
rpm: perl-DBI
(pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
-* Devel::Peek deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
- pkg: perl5
- rpm: perl-Devel-Peek
- (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
- typically installed alongside Perl5)
-
-- Filesys::Notify::Simple deb: libfilesys-notify-simple-perl
- pkg: p5-Filesys-Notify-Simple
- rpm: perl-Filesys-Notify-Simple
- (for public-inbox-watch, pulled in by Plack)
-
-- Linux::Inotify2 deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
- rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
- (for public-inbox-watch on Linux)
-
-- Filesys::Notify::KQueue pkg: p5-Filesys-Notify-KQueue
- (for public-inbox-watch on FreeBSD)
-
-- IO::Compress (::Gzip) deb: perl-modules (or libio-compress-perl)
- pkg: perl5
- rpm: perl-IO-Compress
- (for gzipped mbox over HTTP, v2 format)
-
-Uncommonly needed modules:
+Uncommonly needed modules (see HACKING for development-only modules):
- Socket6 deb: libsocket6-perl
pkg: p5-Socket6
pkg: p5-Crypt-CBC
(for PublicInbox::Unsubscribe (rarely used))
-Optional packages testing and development:
-
-- Plack::Test deb: libplack-test-perl
- pkg: p5-Plack
- rpm: perl-Plack-Test
-
-- Test::Simple deb: perl-modules-5.$MINOR
- pkg: perl5
- rpm: perl-Test-Simple
-
-- XML::TreePP deb: libxml-treepp-perl
- pkg: p5-XML-TreePP
- rpm: perl-XML-TreePP
-
standard MakeMaker installation (Perl)
--------------------------------------
make test # see HACKING for faster tests for hackers
make install # root permissions may be needed
-When installing Search::Xapian, make sure the underlying Xapian
-installation is not affected by an index corruption bug:
+symlink-install (public-inbox.git and 1.7.0+)
+---------------------------------------------
- https://bugs.debian.org/808610
+For users who lack permissions and/or wish to minimize their
+installation footprint, the "symlink-install" target is available in
+public-inbox.git. The following installs symlinks to $HOME/bin
+pointing to the source tree:
-For Debian 8.x (jessie), this means using Debian 8.5 or later.
+ perl Makefile.PL
+ make symlink-install prefix=$HOME
-public-inbox will never store unregeneratable data in Xapian
-or any other search database we might use; Xapian corruption
-will not destroy critical data.
+Other installation notes
+------------------------
+
+Debian 8.x (jessie) users, use Debian 8.5 or later if using Xapian:
+ https://bugs.debian.org/808610
+
+public-inbox-* commands will never store unregeneratable data in
+Xapian nor any other search database we might use; Xapian
+corruption will not destroy critical data. Note: `lei' DOES store
+unregeneratable data in Xapian and SQLite.
See the public-inbox-overview(7) man page for the next steps once
the installation is complete.
+The following required packages are part of the Perl standard
+library. Debian-based distros put them in "libperl5.$MINOR" or
+"perl-modules-5.$MINOR"; and FreeBSD puts them in "perl5".
+RPM-based distros split them out into separate packages:
+
+* Digest::SHA rpm: perl-Digest-SHA
+* Data::Dumper rpm: perl-Data-Dumper
+* Encode rpm: perl-Encode
+* IO::Compress rpm: perl-IO-Compress
+* Storable rpm: perl-Storable
+* Text::ParseWords rpm: perl-Text-Parsewords
+
Copyright
---------
-Copyright 2013-2020 all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
+Copyright all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>