couchdb

Installation

For a low-level guide, see:

INSTALL

For a high-level guide to Unix-like systems, inc. Mac OS X and Ubuntu, see:

INSTALL.Unix

For a high-level guide to Microsoft Windows, see:

INSTALL.Windows

Follow the proper instructions to get CouchDB installed on your system.
If you're having problems, skip to the next section.

Documentation

We have documentation:

http://docs.couchdb.org/

They include a changelog:

http://docs.couchdb.org/en/latest/changelog.html

For troubleshooting, see:

http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/Troubleshooting

If you're getting a cryptic error message, see:

http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/Error_messages

For general help, see:

http://couchdb.apache.org/#mailing-list

We also have an IRC channel:

http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=couchdb

The mailing lists provide a wealth of support and knowledge for you to tap into. Feel free to drop by with your questions or discussion. See the official CouchDB website for more information about our community resources.

Running the Testsuite

Run the testsuite for couch.js and jquery.couch.js by browsing here:

http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/spec/run.html

It should work in at least Firefox >= 3.6 with Private Browsing mode enabled.
Read more about JSpec here:

https://github.com/liblime/jspec

When you change the specs, but your changes have no effect, manually reload the changed spec file in the browser. When the spec that tests Erlang views fails, make sure you have enabled Erlang views as described here:

http://wiki.apache.org/couchdb/EnableErlangViews

Cryptographic Software Notice

This distribution includes cryptographic software. The country in which you currently reside may have restrictions on the import, possession, use, and/or re-export to another country, of encryption software. BEFORE using any encryption software, please check your country's laws, regulations and policies concerning the import, possession, or use, and re-export of encryption software, to see if this is permitted. See <http://www.wassenaar.org/> for more information.
The U.S. Government Department of Commerce, Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS), has classified this software as Export Commodity Control Number (ECCN) 5D002.C.1, which includes information security software using or performing cryptographic functions with asymmetric algorithms. The form and manner of this Apache Software Foundation distribution makes it eligible for export under the License Exception ENC Technology Software Unrestricted (TSU) exception (see the BIS Export Administration Regulations, Section 740.13) for both object code and source code.
The following provides more details on the included cryptographic software:
CouchDB includes a HTTP client (ibrowse) with SSL functionality.

from https://github.com/apache/couchdb
----------------------------------------------------

Build CouchDB

Build CouchDB is a wrapper or master project which pulls in, from official sources, CouchDB plus all of its dependencies. It is the most straightforward and reliable procedure to build official CouchDB releases from source.
Build CouchDB builds an isolated, independent server. You do not need administrator access to run it. You can run several couches (for example, 0.10, 0.11, 1.0 releases) side-by-side.

Supported Platforms

Build CouchDB is developed and tested on the following operating systems:

• Red Hat Enterprise Linux Server release 5.5 (Tikanga)
• CentOS 5.5
• Debian GNU/Linux 5.0 (Lenny)
• Ubuntu
  • 9.10 (Karmic Koala)
  • 10.04 LTS (Lucid Lynx)
  • 10.10 (Maverik Meerkat)
  • 11.04 (Natty Narwhal)
  • 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot)
• Fedora 13
• Mac OS X
• OpenSUSE 11.3
• Scientific Linux 5.3
• Solaris 10, OpenSolaris

The following systems are planned for support in the near future:

• MS Windows Vista, Windows 7

Requirements

You need only a few packages provided by the operating system. Copy and paste the commands below.
On Fedora:

sudo yum install gcc gcc-c++ make libtool zlib-devel openssl-devel rubygem-rake

On Red Hat Enterprise Linux:
The procedure is the same as Fedora, but also install the ruby-rdoc package.
On Debian, first install sudo and add yourself to /etc/sudoers.

su -
apt-get install sudo
visudo

On Ubuntu and Debian:

sudo apt-get install help2man make gcc zlib1g-dev libssl-dev rake texinfo flex dctrl-tools libsctp-dev libxslt1-dev libcap2-bin ed

On OpenSUSE:

sudo zypper install flex lksctp-tools-devel zip \
            rubygem-rake gcc-c++ make m4 zlib-devel \
            libopenssl-devel libtool automake

On Scientific Linux

sudo yum install --enablerepo=dag gcc gcc-c++ libtool zlib-devel openssl-devel \
            autoconf213

On Solaris
This build only supports the OpenCSW toolchain. If you do not use OpenCSW, I wish you the best. If you have success, let me know!
The SunStudio tools are required:

sudo pkg install ss-dev

Also, OpenCSW packages are needed.

pkgadd -d http://mirror.opencsw.org/opencsw/pkg_get.pkg # Answer all questions affirmatively

Add CSW to your path. This must always be in the PATH. Every time you log in, you must set the correct $PATH (or make it automatic in .profile).

PATH=/opt/csw/bin:$PATH

Change the package archive (ibiblio URL is down) by running vi /opt/csw/etc/pkg-get.conf and setting url=ftp://ftp.ibiblio.org/pub/mirrors/opencsw/current. Save and exit, then run:

pkg-get updatecatalog

Finally, install Rake from OpenCSW:

sudo pkg-get install ruby rake # Also perhaps "git"

On Mac OS X
Install Xcode from Mac App Store. Launch XCode.app, then go to Perferences, select Downloads tab and Install Command Line Tools (You will need Apple Developer ID to download CLT).

Getting the Code

You will need the Git tool. Check out the code and pull in the third-party submodules.

git clone git://github.com/iriscouch/build-couchdb
cd build-couchdb
git submodule init
git submodule update

How to Build CouchDB

Just run Rake.

rake

CouchDB and all its dependencies will install in the build/. To uninstall, simply delete that directory.

Usage

It's CouchDB! Just type couchdb. (But remember the path)

$ build/bin/couchdb
Apache CouchDB 0.12.0aa63efb6-git (LogLevel=info) is starting.
Apache CouchDB has started. Time to relax.
[info] [<0.33.0>] Apache CouchDB has started on http://127.0.0.1:5984/

You can of course call it by absolute path. If your username is amit and you checked out the code in your home directory, you would run:

/home/amit/build-couchdb/build/bin/couchdb

Conveniently Add CouchDB to the PATH

The build process creates a small shell script, build/env.sh. The script will add the build to your shell's $PATH. This will only affect that shell session, other terminals or shell sessions will not change. (This is on purpose, to isolate CouchDB, so that it is easy to remove, or so multiple versions can be installed side-by-side.)
Simply source the script when you want to use CouchDB.

. build/env.sh

Your working directory needn't be anywhere special when sourcing the file. It can be processed from anywhere. The idea is, when you are working, you realize you need couchdb, just type . ~/my/stuff/code/build-couchdb/build/env.sh or whatever and it will work.
You can source the file as often as you like. Subsequent execution will not do anything.

. build/env.sh
. build/env.sh # Sourcing with wild abandon!

If the file is read from a script or in a pipeline, it will execute silently (by detecting whether it is connected to a TTY terminal).

Cheat Codes

Build CouchDB supports some fancy tricks by entering cheat codes to the Rake command.

Build any Git branch or tag of Erlang/OTP

Add a erl_checkout parameter with the commit id, branch name, or tag name.
For example, to build with Erlang R13B04 release:

rake erl_checkout="OTP_R13B04"

Build any Git branch or tag of CouchDB

Add a git parameter with the repository URL, then a space, then the branch, tag, or commit hash. (Remember to quote all of those so Rake sees the space.)

CouchDB Plugins

Any CouchDB plugin can be loaded remotely from Git, built, and installed into the final CouchDB system.

rake plugin="git://github.com/couchbase/geocouch origin/couchdb1.2.x"
# (Or perhaps origin/couchdb_1.1.x)

Multiple plugins can be processed together:

rake plugins="git://github.com/vmx/couchdb origin/gc-separate,git://github.com/somebody/whatever some_tag"

(Both plugin and plugins supports comma-separated lists; use whichever you remember better.)

Install CouchDB somewhere besides build/.

Add an install parameter to place the final couchdb binaries anywhere.
Build CouchDB makes it simple to install several couchdb versions side-by-side.

rake install=$PWD/stable
rake git="git://git.apache.org/couchdb.git trunk" install=$PWD/trunk
for tag in 1.0.1 11.0 11.1; do
    rake git="git://git.apache.org/couchdb.git tags/$tag" install=$PWD/$tag
done

Note that install needs to be an absolute path.
For side-by-side installs there is a small shortcut to avoid rebuilding Erlang: use the couchdb_build variable instead, which will install CouchDB separately from its dependencies. Just remember never to move or delete the dependencies!

rake install=/dependencies/go/here couchdb_build=/but/couch/goes/here

Support "unclean" builds.

Build CouchDB confirms that the Git checkout looks good before attempting a build. If you see this error message, then Build CouchDB is suspicious of your checkout:

This checkout is not clean:
<list of changed files>

Heed this warning. Why is your checkout unclean? Shouldn't you build from a nice, clean checkout, with no funny business?
Nevertheless, if you wish to proceed, add an unclean parameter to Rake:

rake unclean=1

Get a manifest of all the components

To get a better idea of exactly what is going on, add a manifest parameter.

rake manifest=1

That will produce additional files in build/manifest which indicate which package (icu, erlang, spidermonkey, etc) owns which files within build. A trick I do a lot is cat build/manifest/couchdb | xargs rm to "uninstall" only couchdb so I can try a rebuild.
I have no idea how manifest interacts with install as I have never used them together.

Do not strip down Erlang/OTP

Build CouchDB strips many modules out of the Erlang platform to reduce disk usage. (You can see which ones at the top of tasks/erlang.rake.) To indicate that a package should be kept, set the otp_keep variable to space-separated library names.

rake otp_keep="compiler eunit"

For example, if you will use this project with Rebar, then you need the tools package.

rake otp_keep="tools"

Or, you can keep everything this way:

rake otp_keep="*"

How to build only Erlang, couchjs, and OTP so you can build your own CouchDB elsewhere

There is a special shortcut task to build everything CouchDB needs (i.e. its dependencies).

rake couchdb:deps otp_keep="*"

Be careful not to build the couchdb target because after it completes, it will delete Erlang components needed for building (but not running). Next, there is a simple task which outputs a sh script used to configure any CouchDB checkout.

rake --silent environment:configure

The output will look similar to this:

export PATH="/Users/jhs/src/build-couchdb/build/bin:$PATH"
LDFLAGS='-R/Users/jhs/src/build-couchdb/build/lib -L/Users/jhs/src/build-couchdb/build/lib' CFLAGS='-I/Users/jhs/src/build-couchdb/build/include/js -I/Users/jhs/src/build-couchdb/build/lib/erlang/usr/include' ./configure

In the CouchDB source, paste the above code after running ./bootstrap. Next, you can run make or make dev, or anything.
vim: tw=80

from https://github.com/iriscouch/build-couchdb