2.1. Installation on Unix-like systems — Apache CouchDB 2.0 Documentation

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# 2.1. Installation on Unix-like systems

A high-level guide to Unix-like systems, including Mac OS X and Ubuntu.

This document as well as the INSTALL.Unix document in the official release are the canonical sources of installation information. However, many systems have gotchas that you need to be aware of. In addition, dependencies frequently change as distributions update their archives.

## 2.1.1. Dependencies

You should have the following installed:

- Erlang OTP (>=R61B03, =<19.x)
- ICU
- OpenSSL
- Mozilla SpiderMonkey (1.8.5)
- GNU Make
- GNU Compiler Collection
- libcurl
- help2man
- Python (>=2.7) for docs
- Python Sphinx (>=1.1.3)

It is recommended that you install Erlang OTP R16B03-1 or above where possible. You will only need libcurl if you plan to run the JavaScript test suite. And help2man is only need if you plan on installing the CouchDB man pages. Python and Sphinx are only required for building the online documentation. Documentation build can be disabled by adding the `--disable-docs` flag to the `configure` script.

See also

- Installing CouchDB

### Debian-based Systems

You can install the dependencies by running:

    sudo apt-get --no-install-recommends -y install \
        build-essential pkg-config erlang \
        libicu-dev libmozjs185-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev

Be sure to update the version numbers to match your system’s available packages.

### RedHat-based (Fedora, Centos, RHEL) Systems

You can install the dependencies by running:

    sudo yum install autoconf autoconf-archive automake \
        curl-devel erlang-asn1 erlang-erts erlang-eunit \
        erlang-os_mon erlang-xmerl help2man \
        js-devel-1.8.5 libicu-devel libtool perl-Test-Harness

While CouchDB builds against the default js-devel-1.7.0 included in some distributions, it’s recommended to use a more recent js-devel-1.8.5.

### Mac OS X

Follow Installation with Homebrew reference for Mac App installation.

If you are installing from source, you will need to install the Command Line Tools:

    xcode-select --install

You can then install the other dependencies by running:

    brew install autoconf autoconf-archive automake libtool \
        erlang icu4c spidermonkey curl pkg-config

You will need Homebrew installed to use the `brew` command.

Some versions of Mac OS X ship a problematic OpenSSL library. If you’re experiencing troubles with CouchDB crashing intermittently with a segmentation fault or a bus error, you will need to install your own version of OpenSSL. See the wiki, mentioned above, for more information.

See also

- Homebrew

### FreeBSD

FreeBSD requires the use of GNU Make. Where `make` is specified in this documentation, substitute `gmake`.

You can install this by running:

    pkg install gmake

## 2.1.2. Installing

Once you have satisfied the dependencies you should run:

    ./configure

If you wish to customize the installation, pass `--help` to this script.

If everything was successful you should see the following message:

    You have configured Apache CouchDB, time to relax.

Relax.

To build CouchDB you should run:

    make release

Try `gmake` if `make` is giving you any problems.

If everything was successful you should see the following message:

    ... done
    You can now copy the rel/couchdb directory anywhere on your system.
    Start CouchDB with ./bin/couchdb from within that directory.

Relax.

Note: a fully-fledged `./configure` with the usual GNU Autotools options for package managers and a corresponding `make install` are in development, but not part of the 2.0.0 release.

## 2.1.3. User Registration and Security

For OS X, in the steps below, substitute `/Users/couchdb` for `/home/couchdb`.

You should create a special `couchdb` user for CouchDB.

On many Unix-like systems you can run:

    adduser --system \
            --no-create-home \
            --shell /bin/bash \
            --group --gecos \
            "CouchDB Administrator" couchdb

On Mac OS X you can use the Workgroup Manager to create users up to version 10.9, and dscl or sysadminctl after version 10.9. Search Apple’s support site to find the documentation appropriate for your system. As of recent versions of OS X, this functionality is also included in Server.app, available through the App Store only as part of OS X Server.

You must make sure that:

- The user has a working POSIX shell
- The user’s home directory is wherever you have copied the release. As a recommendation, copy the `rel/couchdb` directory into `/home/couchdb` or `/Users/couchdb`.

You can test this by:

- Trying to log in as the `couchdb` user
- Running `pwd` and checking the present working directory

Copy the built couchdb release to the new user’s home directory:

    cp -R /path/to/couchdb/rel/couchdb /home/couchdb

Change the ownership of the CouchDB directories by running:

    chown -R couchdb:couchdb /home/couchdb/couchdb

Change the permission of the CouchDB directories by running:

    find /home/couchdb/couchdb -type d -exec chmod 0770 {} \;

Update the permissions for your ini files:

    chmod 0644 /home/couchdb/couchdb/etc/*

## 2.1.4. First Run

You can start the CouchDB server by running:

    sudo -i -u couchdb couchdb/bin/couchdb

This uses the `sudo` command to run the `couchdb` command as the `couchdb` user.

When CouchDB starts it should eventually display the following message:

    Apache CouchDB has started, time to relax.

Relax.

To check that everything has worked, point your web browser to:

    http://127.0.0.1:5984/_utils/index.html

From here you should verify your installation by pointing your web browser to:

    http://localhost:5984/_utils/verify_install.html

## 2.1.5. Running as a Daemon

CouchDB no longer ships with any daemonization scripts.

The couchdb team recommends runit to run CouchDB persistently and reliably. Configuration of runit is straightforward; if you have questions, reach out to the CouchDB user mailing list.

Naturally, you can configure systemd, launchd or SysV-init daemons to launch CouchDB and keep it running using standard configuration files.

Consult your system documentation for more information.

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