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<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"><title>Prerequisite Software</title><link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="openacs.css"><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets Vsnapshot"><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="OpenACS Core Documentation"><link rel="up" href="install-overview.html" title="Chapter 2. Installation Overview"><link rel="previous" href="install-steps.html" title="Basic Steps"><link rel="next" href="complete-install.html" title="Chapter 3. Complete Installation"></head><body bgcolor="white" text="black" link="#0000FF" vlink="#840084" alink="#0000FF"><div class="navheader"><a href="http://openacs.org"><img src="/doc/images/alex.jpg" style="border:0" alt="Alex logo"></a><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header" border="0"><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="install-steps.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center">Chapter 2. Installation Overview</th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="complete-install.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a name="individual-programs"></a>Prerequisite Software</h2></div></div></div><div class="authorblurb"><p>by <a class="ulink" href="mailto:joel@aufrecht.org" target="_top">Joel Aufrecht</a></p>
OpenACS docs are written by the named authors, and may be edited
by OpenACS documentation staff.
</div><p>
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.
</p><div class="table"><a name="compatibility-matrix"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 2.2. Version Compatibility Matrix</b></p><div class="table-contents"><table class="table" summary="Version Compatibility Matrix" cellspacing="0" border="1"><colgroup><col class="c1"><col class="c2"><col class="3.2.5"><col class="4.5"><col class="4.6"><col class="4.6.1"><col class="4.6.2"><col class="4.6.3"><col class="5.0"><col class="5.1"></colgroup><thead><tr><th colspan="2" align="center">OpenACS Version</th><th>3.2.5</th><th> 4.5 </th><th> 4.6 </th><th>4.6.1</th><th>4.6.2</th><th>4.6.3</th><th>5.0</th><th>5.1</th><th>5.2</th><th>5.3</th><th>5.4</th><th>5.5</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td rowspan="8">AOLserver</td><td>3</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="11" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>3.3+ad13</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="7" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="4" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>3.3oacs1</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="7" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="4" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>3.4.4</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="12" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>3.4.4oacs1</td><td bgcolor="yellow" colspan="4" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="2" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="6" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>3.5.5</td><td bgcolor="yellow" colspan="4" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="2" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="6" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>4.0</td><td bgcolor="yellow" colspan="4" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="8" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>4.5</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="8" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="4" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="2">Tcl</td><td>8.4</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="12" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>8.5.4 -</td><td bgcolor="yellow" colspan="12" align="center">Maybe</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="8">PostgreSQL</td><td>7.0</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="11" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>7.2</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="5" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="6" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>7.3.2 - 7.3.x</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="5" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="4" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="3" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>7.4</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="6" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="3" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="3" align="center">No</td></tr><tr><td>8.0</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="7" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="4" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>8.1</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="8" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="4" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>8.2</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="8" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">CVS version only</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="3" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>8.3</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="11" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td rowspan="5">Oracle</td><td>8.1.6</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="8" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="yellow" colspan="3" align="center">Maybe</td></tr><tr><td>8.1.7</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="8" align="center">Yes</td><td bgcolor="yellow" colspan="3" align="center">Maybe</td></tr><tr><td>9i</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="6" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="6" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>10g</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="8" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="lightgreen" colspan="4" align="center">Yes</td></tr><tr><td>11g</td><td bgcolor="red" colspan="11" align="center">No</td><td bgcolor="yellow" align="center">Maybe</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break"><p>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.
</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><a name="openacs-download"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://openacs.org/projects/openacs/download/" target="_top">OpenACS 5.9.0</a>. </b>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.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Operating System. </b>OpenACS is designed for a Unix-like system. It is
developed primarily in Linux. It can be run on macOS,
and in Windows within VMWare.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p><b>GNU/Linux. </b>The installation assumes a linux kernel of 2.2.22 or newer, or 2.4.14 or newer.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>FreeBSD. </b><a class="ulink" href="https://web.archive.org/web/20011204174701/http://www.orchardlabs.com:80/freebsd/" target="_top">FreeBSD guide</a>. 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 <strong class="userinput"><code>fetch</code></strong> when the instructions suggest you use
<strong class="userinput"><code>wget</code></strong> to download software.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>macOS. </b><a class="xref" href="mac-installation.html" title="OpenACS Installation Guide for macOS">the section called “OpenACS Installation Guide for macOS”</a></p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Windows/VMWare. </b><a class="xref" href="win2k-installation.html" title="OpenACS Installation Guide for Windows">the section called “OpenACS Installation Guide for Windows”</a> 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.)</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Build Environment. </b>The Reference Platform installation compiles most programs from
source code.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/libc.html" target="_top">glibc</a> 2.2 or newer, REQUIRED. </b>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.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.gnu.org/software/make/" target="_top">GNU Make</a> 3.76.1 or newer, REQUIRED. </b>PostgreSQL and AOLserver require gmake to
compile. Note that on most linux
distributions, GNU Make is simply named
<code class="computeroutput">make</code> and
there is no
<code class="computeroutput">gmake</code>,
whereas on BSD distributions,
<code class="computeroutput">make</code> and
<code class="computeroutput">gmake</code> are
different --use gmake.</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.tcl.tk/" target="_top">Tcl</a> 8.5.x. </b></p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.tcl.tk/" target="_top">Tcl</a> 8.5.x, REQUIRED. </b>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. </p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.tcl.tk/" target="_top">Tcl</a> 8.5.x development headers and libraries, OPTIONAL. </b> The site-wide-search service, OpenFTS, requires these to
compile. (Debian users: <code class="computeroutput">apt-get install
tcl8.5-dev</code>). You need this
to install OpenFTS.</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><a name="source-tcllib"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://tcllib.sourceforge.net/" target="_top">Tcllib</a>, REQUIRED. </b>
OpenACS 5.9.0 uses those Tcl extensions to send e-mail out, among others.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><a name="source-tdom"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.tdom.org/" target="_top">tDOM</a>, REQUIRED. </b>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.)</p></li><li class="listitem"><a name="source-tclwebtest"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=31075" target="_top">tclwebtest</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>tclwebtest is a tool for testing web interfaces via Tcl scripts.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Web Server. </b>The web server handles incoming HTTP requests, provides
a run time environment for OpenACS's Tcl code, connects to the
database, sends out HTTP responses, and logs requests and
errors. OpenACS uses AOLserver;
<a class="ulink" href="http://openacs.org/forums/message-view?message_id=21461" target="_top">some people have had success running Apache with mod_nsd</a>.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><a name="source-aolserver"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://aolserver.com/" target="_top">AOLserver</a> 4.x, REQUIRED. </b>Provides the base HTTP server</p></li></ul></div><p>
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 <a class="ulink" href="http://uptime.openacs.org/aolserver-openacs/" target="_top">uptime.openacs.org</a>.
</p><p>
It's also possible to download all the pieces and patches yourself:
</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p>
AOLserver is available at <a class="ulink" href="http://aolserver.com" target="_top">aolserver.com</a>
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The OpenACS PostgreSQL driver (nspostgres.so) is available from
<a class="ulink" href="http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/aolserver/nspostgres-3.5.tar.gz?download" target="_top">SourceForge</a>. 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)
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The patch that makes <code class="computeroutput">exec</code> work
on BSD is available at <a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=415475&group_id=3152&atid=303152" target="_top">sourceforge.net</a>
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The patch for AOLserver 3.x that makes <code class="computeroutput">ns_uuencode</code>
work for binary files is available at <a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=474259&group_id=3152&atid=303152" target="_top">sourceforge.net</a>
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p>
The patch that makes AOLserver 3.x respect the
<code class="computeroutput">-g</code> flag is available at
<a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.php?func=detail&aid=509413&group_id=3152&atid=303152" target="_top">sourceforge.net</a>
</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><a name="nsopenssl-download"></a><p><b>nsopenssl, OPTIONAL. </b>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 <a class="ulink" href="http://www.scottg.net/download/nsopenssl-2.1a.tar.gz" target="_top">nsopenssl 2.1a</a>. aolserver4.x requires nsopenssl3; see
<a class="ulink" href="http://www.aolserver.com/" target="_top">aolserver.com</a> for latest release. (<a class="ulink" href="http://panoptic.com/wiki/aolserver/Nsopenssl" target="_top">home page</a>)
</p></li><li class="listitem"><a name="nspam-download"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://wayback.archive.org/web/20050228071203/http://braindamage.alal.com/software/nspam.html" target="_top">ns_pam</a> 0.1 or newer, OPTIONAL. </b>Provides PAM capabilities for AOLserver. You
need this if you want OpenACS users to authenticate
through a PAM module (such as RADIUS).</p></li><li class="listitem"><a name="pam-radius-download"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="ftp://ftp.freeradius.org/pub/radius/pam_radius-1.3.16.tar" target="_top">pam_radius 1.3.16</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>Provides RADIUS capabilities for PAM. You need
this if you want to use RADIUS authentication via PAM in OpenACS.</p></li><li class="listitem"><a name="nsldap-download"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=3152" target="_top">ns_ldap 0.r8</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>Provides LDAP capabilities for AOLserver. You need
this if you want to use LDAP authentication in OpenACS.</p></li><li class="listitem"><a name="openfts-download"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://unc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/openfts/Search-OpenFTS-tcl-0.3.2.tar.gz" target="_top">OpenFTS
Tcl 0.3.2</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>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.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a name="analog-download"></a><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.analog.cx/" target="_top">Analog</a> 5.32 or newer, OPTIONAL. </b>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.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a name="balance-download"></a><b><a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/balance/" target="_top">Balance</a> 3.11 or newer, OPTIONAL. </b>"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.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Database. </b>The data on your site (for example, usernames and passwords,
calendar 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.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p><b>Oracle 8.1.7 (Either this or PostgreSQL is REQUIRED). </b>You can register and download Oracle from <a class="ulink" href="https://www.oracle.com/downloads/index.html" target="_top">Oracle
TechNet</a>. You need this if you want to use an
Oracle database.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a name="source-postgresql"></a><b><a class="ulink" href="http://sourceforge.net/projects/pgsql/" target="_top">PostgreSQL</a> 7.4.x (Either this or Oracle is REQUIRED). </b>You need this if you want to use a PostgreSQL database.</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Process Controller. </b>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.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><a name="daemontools-download"></a><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://cr.yp.to/daemontools/daemontools-0.76.tar.gz" target="_top">Daemontools
0.76</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>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.</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Mail Transport Agent. </b>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.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p><a name="qmail-download"></a><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.qmail.org/netqmail/" target="_top">Netqmail 1.04</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>You need this (or a different Mail Transport
Agent) if you want your webserver to send and receive email.</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><a name="ucspi-download"></a><b><a class="ulink" href="http://cr.yp.to/ucspi-tcp/ucspi-tcp-0.88.tar.gz" target="_top">ucspi-tcp 0.88</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>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.</p></li></ul></div></li><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="http://www.docbook.org/" target="_top">DocBook</a>, OPTIONAL. </b>(docbook-xml v4.4, docbook-xsl v1.56, libxslt 1.0.21,
xsltproc 1.0.21). You need this to write or edit documentation.
</p></li><li class="listitem"><p><b>Source Control. </b>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.</p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: circle; "><li class="listitem"><p><b><a class="ulink" href="https://www.cvshome.org/" target="_top">cvs</a> 1.11.18, OPTIONAL. </b>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.</p></li></ul></div></li></ul></div><div class="cvstag">($Id: individual-programs.html,v 1.39 2024/09/11 06:15:47 gustafn Exp $)</div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="install-steps.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="complete-install.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left">Basic Steps </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="u" href="install-overview.html">Up</a></td><td width="40%" align="right"> Chapter 3. Complete Installation</td></tr></table><hr><address><a href="mailto:docs@openacs.org">docs@openacs.org</a></address></div><a name="comments"></a></body></html>