OpenACS requires, at a minimum, an operating system, database, +and webserver to work. Many additional programs, such as a build +environment, Mail Transport Agent, and source control system, are +also needed for a fully effective installation.
Table 2.2. Version +Compatibility Matrix
| OpenACS Version | 3.2.5 | 4.5 | 4.6 | 4.6.1 | 4.6.2 | 4.6.3 | 5.0 | 5.1 | 5.2 | 5.3 | 5.4 | 5.5 | +|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AOLserver | 3 | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 3.3+ad13 | Maybe | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 3.3oacs1 | Maybe | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 3.4.4 | No | +||||||||||||
| 3.4.4oacs1 | Maybe | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 3.5.5 | Maybe | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 4.0 | Maybe | Yes | +|||||||||||
| 4.5 | No | Yes | +|||||||||||
| Tcl | 8.4 | Yes | +|||||||||||
| 8.5.4 - | Maybe | +||||||||||||
| PostgreSQL | 7.0 | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 7.2 | Maybe | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 7.3.2 - 7.3.x | No | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 7.4 | No | Yes | No | +||||||||||
| 8.0 | No | Maybe | Yes | +||||||||||
| 8.1 | No | Yes | +|||||||||||
| 8.2 | No | CVS version only | Yes | +||||||||||
| 8.3 | No | Yes | +|||||||||||
| Oracle | 8.1.6 | Maybe | Yes | Maybe | +|||||||||
| 8.1.7 | Maybe | Yes | Maybe | +||||||||||
| 9i | No | Yes | +|||||||||||
| 10g | No | Yes | +|||||||||||
| 11g | No | Maybe | +|||||||||||
The OpenACS installation instructions assume the operating +system and build environment are installed. The instructions +explain installation of Tcl, Tcllib, tDOM, tclwebtest, a Web +Server, a Database, a Process Controller, and Source Control +software. The following external links are for reference only.
+ +OpenACS 5.9.0. The OpenACS tarball +comprises the core packages and many useful additional packages. +This includes a full set of documentation. The tarball works with +both PostgreSQL and Oracle. Some scripts require bash shell.
++Operating System. OpenACS is +designed for a Unix-like system. It is developed primarily in +Linux. It can be run on Mac OS X, and in Windows within VMWare.
+GNU/Linux. The installation assumes +a linux kernel of 2.2.22 or newer, or 2.4.14 or newer.
+FreeBSD. FreeBSD guide. The OpenACS Reference Platform
+uses shell scripts written for bash, which is the standard Linux
+shell. If you are using a different shell, you will need to
+substitute your shell's conventions for setting environment
+variables when appropriate, and install bash to work with the
+scripts. Substitute fetch when the instructions
+suggest you use wget to download software.
+Mac OS X. the section called +“OpenACS Installation Guide for Mac OS +X” +
+Windows/VMWare. the section called +“OpenACS Installation Guide for +Windows” The only way to run OpenACS on Windows is +through the VMWare emulator. (Please let me know if you have +OpenACS running directly in Windows.)
+Build Environment. The Reference +Platform installation compiles most programs from source code.
+ +glibc 2.2 or newer, REQUIRED. You +need recent versions of these libraries for Oracle to work +properly. For Unicode support, you need glibc 2.2 or newer. This +should be included in your operating system distribution.
+
+GNU Make
+3.76.1 or newer, REQUIRED. PostgreSQL and
+AOLserver require gmake to compile. Note that on most linux
+distributions, GNU Make is simply named make and there is no gmake, whereas on BSD distributions,
+make and gmake are different --use gmake.
+Tcl 8.5.x.
+ +Tcl 8.5.x, REQUIRED. OpenACS is +written in Tcl, an interpreted language. A threaded version of the +Tcl interpreter must be installed for OpenACS to work. The Tcl +interpreter that is included in most standard distributions may not +be thread safe.
+
+Tcl 8.5.x development headers and libraries,
+OPTIONAL. The site-wide-search service,
+OpenFTS, requires these to compile. (Debian users: apt-get install tcl8.5-dev). You need this
+to install OpenFTS.
+ +Tcllib, REQUIRED. OpenACS +5.9.0 uses those Tcl extensions to send e-mail out, among +others.
++ +tDOM, REQUIRED. OpenACS 5.9.0 +stores queries in XML files, so we use an AOLserver module called +tDOM to parse these files. (This replaces libxml2, which was used +prior to 4.6.4.)
++ +tclwebtest, +OPTIONAL. tclwebtest is a tool for testing web +interfaces via Tcl scripts.
++Web Server. The web server handles +incoming HTTP requests, provides a runtime environment for +OpenACS's Tcl code, connects to the database, sends out HTTP +responses, and logs requests and errors. OpenACS uses AOLserver; +some people have had success running Apache with +mod_nsd.
+ +AOLserver 4.x, REQUIRED. Provides +the base HTTP server
+Mat Kovach is graciously maintaining an AOLserver distribution +that includes all the patches and modules needed to run OpenACS +5.9.0. These instructions will describe how to install using his +source distribution. He also has binaries for SuSE 7.3 and OpenBSD +2.8 (and perhaps more to come), currently located at uptime.openacs.org.
It's also possible to download all the pieces and patches +yourself:
AOLserver is available at aolserver.com +
The OpenACS PostgreSQL driver (nspostgres.so) is available from +SourceForge. If you do decide to use +nspostgres.so, you have to remember to change the AOLserver config +file to point to nspostgres.so instead of postgres.so. This guide +uses Mat Kovach's distro (i.e. postgres.so)
The patch that makes exec
+work on BSD is available at sourceforge.net
+
The patch for AOLserver 3.x that makes ns_uuencode work for binary files is
+available at sourceforge.net
+
The patch that makes AOLserver 3.x respect the -g flag is available at sourceforge.net
+
+nsopenssl, OPTIONAL. Provides SSL +capabilities for AOLserver. It requires OpenSSL. You need this if +you want users to make secure (https) connections to your +webserver. aolserver3.x requires nsopenssl 2.1a. aolserver4.x requires nsopenssl3; see +aolserver.com for latest release. (home page)
++ +ns_pam 0.1 or newer, +OPTIONAL. Provides PAM capabilities for +AOLserver. You need this if you want OpenACS users to authenticate +through a PAM module (such as RADIUS).
++ +pam_radius 1.3.16, +OPTIONAL. Provides RADIUS capabilities for +PAM. You need this if you want to use RADIUS authentication via PAM +in OpenACS.
++ +ns_ldap 0.r8, +OPTIONAL. Provides LDAP capabilities for +AOLserver. You need this if you want to use LDAP authentication in +OpenACS.
++ +OpenFTS Tcl 0.3.2, +OPTIONAL. Adds full-text-search to PostgreSQL +and includes a driver for AOLserver. You need this if you want +users to be able to search for any text on your site. For postgres +7.4.x and higher, full text search is also available via +tsearch2.
++ +Analog 5.32 or newer, +OPTIONAL. This program examines web server +request logs, looks up DNS values, and produces a report. You need +this if you want to see how much traffic your site is getting.
+ +Balance 3.11 or newer, +OPTIONAL. "Balance is a simple but +powerful generic tcp proxy with round robin load balancing and +failover mechanisms." You need this or something equivalent if +you are running a high-availability production site and do not have +an external load balancing system.
+Database. The data on your site +(for example, user names and passwords, calender entries, and +notes) is stored in the database. OpenACS separates the database +with an abstraction layer, which means that several different +databases all function identically. While you can run the core +OpenACS on any supported database, not all contributed packages +support all databases.
+Oracle 8.1.7 (Either this or PostgreSQL is +REQUIRED). You can register and download +Oracle from Oracle +TechNet. You need this if you want to use an Oracle +database.
+ +PostgreSQL 7.4.x (Either this or Oracle is +REQUIRED). You need this if you want to use a +PostgreSQL database.
+Process Controller. This is +software that initiates other software, and restarts that software +if it fails. On Linux, we recommend using Daemontools to control +AOLserver and qmail.
+ +Daemontools 0.76, OPTIONAL. You +need this if you want AOLserver and qmail to run +"supervised," meaning that they are monitored and +automatically restarted if they fail. An alternative would be to +run the services from inittab.
++Mail Transport Agent. A Mail +Transport Agent is a program that handles all incoming and outgoing +mail. The Reference Platform uses Qmail; any MTA that provides a +sendmail wrapper (that is, that can be invoked by calling the +sendmail program with the same variables that sendmail expects) can +be used.
+ +Netqmail 1.04, +OPTIONAL. You need this (or a different Mail +Transport Agent) if you want your webserver to send and receive +email.
+ +ucspi-tcp 0.88, OPTIONAL. This +program listens for incoming TCP connections and hands them to a +program. We use it instead of inetd, which is insecure. You need +this if you are running qmail.
+ +DocBook, OPTIONAL. (docbook-xml +v4.4, docbook-xsl v1.56, libxslt 1.0.21, xsltproc 1.0.21). You need +this to write or edit documentation.
+Source Control. A Source Control +system keeps track of all of the old versions of your files. It +lets you recover old files, compare versions of file, and identify +specific versions of files. You can use any source control system; +the Reference Platform and the OpenACS.org repository (where you +can get patched and development code in between releases) use +cvs.
+ +cvs 1.11.18, OPTIONAL. cvs is +included in most unix distributions. You need this if you want to +track old versions of your files, do controlled deployment of code +from development to production, or get or contribute development +code from openacs.org.