1 public-inbox (server-side) installation
2 ---------------------------------------
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.
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 9.x ("stretch")
12 Most packages are available in other GNU/Linux distributions
15 TODO: this still needs to be documented better,
16 also see the scripts/ and sa_config/ directories in the source tree
21 public-inbox requires a number of other packages to access its full
22 functionality. The core tools are, of course:
24 * Git (1.8.0+, 2.6+ for writing v2 repositories)
26 * DBD::SQLite (needed for NNTP, message threading, and v2 repositories)
28 To accept incoming mail into a public inbox, you'll likely want:
30 * MTA - postfix is recommended (for public-inbox-mda)
31 * SpamAssassin (spamc/spamd) (for public-inbox-watch/public-inbox-mda)
33 Beyond that, there is a long list of Perl modules required, starting with:
35 * Digest::SHA typically installed with Perl
38 * Email::MIME deb: libemail-mime-perl
42 * URI::Escape deb: liburi-perl
45 (for HTML/Atom generation)
47 Plack and Date::Parse will be optional when v1.3.0 is released,
48 but required for current and older releases:
50 * Plack deb: libplack-perl
52 rpm: perl-Plack, perl-Plack-Test,
53 (for HTML/Atom generation)
55 - Date::Parse deb: libtimedate-perl
58 (for broken, mostly historical emails)
60 Where "deb" indicates package names for Debian-derived distributions,
61 "pkg" is for the FreeBSD package (maybe other common BSDs, too), and
62 "rpm" is for RPM-based distributions (only known to work on Fedora).
64 Numerous optional modules are likely to be useful as well:
66 - DBD::SQLite deb: libdbd-sqlite3-perl
69 (for v2, NNTP, or gzipped mboxes)
71 - Search::Xapian deb: libsearch-xapian-perl
73 rpm: perl-Search-Xapian
76 - Net::Server deb: libnet-server-perl
79 (for HTTP/NNTP background daemons,
80 not needed as systemd services or
83 - Inline::C[7] deb: libinline-c-perl
85 (speeds up process spawning on Linux,
86 see public-inbox-daemon(8))
88 - Plack::Middleware::ReverseProxy deb: libplack-middleware-reverseproxy-perl
89 pkg: p5-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
90 rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-ReverseProxy
91 (ensures redirects are correct when running
92 behind nginx or Varnish)
94 - Plack::Middleware::Deflater deb: libplack-middleware-deflater-perl
95 pkg: p5 -Plack-Middleware-Deflater
96 rpm: perl-Plack-Middleware-Deflater
97 (saves bandwidth on responses)
99 * highlight deb: libhighlight-perl
100 (for syntax highlighting with coderepo)
102 * xapian-compact (tool) deb: xapian-tools
105 (optional, for public-inbox-compact(1))
107 The following modules are typically pulled in by dependencies listed
108 above, so there is no need to explicitly install them:
110 - Email::MIME::ContentType deb: libemail-mime-contenttype-perl
111 pkg: p5-Email-MIME-ContentType
112 rpm: perl-Email-MIME-ContentType
113 (pulled in by Email::MIME)
115 - Email::Simple deb: libemail-simple-perl
117 rpm: perl-Email-Simple
118 (pulled in by Email::MIME)
120 * Encode deb: libperl5.$MINOR (or libencode-perl)
123 (likely installed with Perl)
125 - DBI deb: libdbi-perl
128 (pulled in by DBD::SQLite)
130 * Devel::Peek deb: libperl5.$MINOR (e.g. libperl5.24)
133 (optional for stale FD cleanup in daemons,
134 typically installed alongside Perl5)
136 - Filesys::Notify::Simple deb: libfilesys-notify-simple-perl
137 pkg: p5-Filesys-Notify-Simple
138 rpm: perl-Filesys-Notify-Simple
139 (for public-inbox-watch, pulled in by Plack)
141 - Linux::Inotify2 deb: liblinux-inotify2-perl
142 rpm: perl-Linux-Inotify2
143 (for public-inbox-watch on Linux)
145 - Filesys::Notify::KQueue pkg: p5-Filesys-Notify-KQueue
146 (for public-inbox-watch on FreeBSD)
148 - IO::Compress::Gzip deb: perl-modules (or libio-compress-perl)
150 rpm: perl-IO-Compress
151 (for gzipped mbox over HTTP)
153 Uncommonly needed modules:
155 - Socket6 deb: libsocket6-perl
158 (pulled in by SpamAssassin and Net::Server,
159 only necessary if using IPv6 with
160 Plack::Middleware::AccessLog or similar
163 - Crypt::CBC deb: libcrypt-cbc-perl
165 (for PublicInbox::Unsubscribe (rarely used))
167 Optional packages testing and development:
169 - Plack::Test deb: libplack-test-perl
173 - Test::Simple deb: perl-modules-5.$MINOR
175 rpm: perl-Test-Simple
177 - XML::TreePP deb: libxml-treepp-perl
181 standard MakeMaker installation (Perl)
182 --------------------------------------
184 To use MakeMaker, you need to ensure ExtUtils::MakeMaker is available.
185 This is typically installed with Perl, but RPM-based systems will likely
186 need to install the `perl-ExtUtils-MakeMaker' package.
188 Once the dependencies are installed, you should be able to build and
189 install the system (into /usr/local) with:
194 make install # root permissions may be needed
196 When installing Search::Xapian, make sure the underlying Xapian
197 installation is not affected by an index corruption bug:
199 https://bugs.debian.org/808610
201 For Debian 8.x (jessie), this means using Debian 8.5 or later.
203 public-inbox will never store unregeneratable data in Xapian
204 or any other search database we might use; Xapian corruption
205 will not destroy critical data.
207 See the public-inbox-overview(7) man page for the next steps once
208 the installation is complete.
213 Copyright 2013-2020 all contributors <meta@public-inbox.org>
214 License: AGPL-3.0+ <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/agpl-3.0.txt>