----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Interchange RPM packages for Red Hat Linux and compatible operating systems ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Interchange RPM packages integrate Interchange with a Red Hat Linux or compatible operating system. Files are installed in the usual Linux Standard Base locations: Interchange base: /usr/lib/interchange. Executables: /usr/lib/interchange/bin. Configuration: The global Interchange configuration file is /etc/interchange.cfg. It is only writable by root. Data: Catalog directories are located by default in /var/lib/interchange. Invocation: Invocation is the normal /etc/rc.d/init.d startup method. Interchange installs to be active in run levels 3, 4, and 5; to be killed in all. Logs: Logs go in /var/log/interchange. The subdirectory is needed to allow the Interchange user ID to write/create files. A configuration file is added to /etc/logrotate.d to do log rotation. Run: Run files go in /var/run/interchange. This includes the UNIX-domain socket and catalog status files. The subdirectory is needed to allow the Interchange user ID to write/create files. Sessions and temporary files: /var/cache/interchange. Documentation: /usr/share/doc/interchange-5.2.0. On a dedicated production server, it is wise to segregate as many of these directories as possible onto their own partitions, to prevent problems if one partition runs out of inodes or disk space, or you have a disk failure. DEPENDENCIES Interchange requires many Perl modules from CPAN. Many of these do not usually come supplied with your operating system, so you will need to install them yourself. It's best to locate RPMs for each of the needed Perl modules and install them. To get a complete list of dependencies, do: rpm -qp --requires interchange-5.2.0-1.i386.rpm Note that some of the dependencies are not actually necessary. For example, the Cybercash modules (CCMck*) are only needed if you use the Cybercash payment gateway, which is now rare. The Apache::* modules are only needed if you use the mod_perl-native server option, which is also very rare. DBI is only needed if you're going to use an SQL database. But that's quite common. Unfortunately, there's not currently a reliable, steady source of the latest CPAN modules in RPM format for most operating systems. Thus the easiest way to install them is to use CPAN to build the modules from source. First set up CPAN and install its auxiliary modules: perl -MCPAN -e'install Bundle::CPAN' Then install the main modules Interchange uses: perl -MCPAN -e'install Bundle::Interchange' Instead you may want to install a bundle that includes many optional but useful modules: perl -MCPAN -e'install Bundle::InterchangeKitchenSink' PERL BUILD As of the date of this writing, there are problems using Interchange with a threaded Perl, so you must have or install an unthreaded Perl build. The RPMs built for Red Hat Linux 8.0, 9, Fedora Core, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3.0 all assume you'll be using a custom Perl build in /usr/local. This is unfortunate but is considered the best workaround at the moment. INSTALL rpm -Uvh interchange-5.2.0-1.i386.rpm rpm -Uvh interchange-foundation-5.2.0-1.i386.rpm Your version of RPM may correctly recognize Perl modules even if they were not installed via RPM. But it may not. If not, you'll need to install the main interchange package without dependency checking: rpm -Uvh --nodeps interchange-5.2.0-1.i386.rpm STARTING/RESTARTING INTERCHANGE Interchange, as installed from the RPM, needs a special invocation from /usr/sbin/interchange. This is because the locations of configuration, run, and log files differ from the places Interchange has traditionally expected them. As either the 'interch' user or the root user you should start or restart interchange with this command: /usr/sbin/interchange -r NOTE: Contrary to other documentation, you SHOULD NOT use 'bin/restart' or directly call 'bin/interchange' to start or restart Interchange when you use the RPM installation. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- Live Demo Catalog in RPM Format ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- There is a separate RPM that provides a live demonstration catalog called 'foundation', which you may optionally use to quickly try out Interchange. It should not be used as a basis for a real catalog; instead build your own with the makecat tool in '/usr/lib/interchange/bin/makecat', as described in the documentation. Do not confuse the 'foundation' live demo with the 'foundation' catalog skeleton from which you are encouraged to build your own catalog. APACHE ASSUMPTIONS The foundation-demo RPM relies upon the following things in the Apache installation: -- Standard document root and CGI binary locations: DocumentRoot /var/www/html ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ /var/www/cgi-bin/ -- ServerName must be the same as what is revealed by `hostname` when the foundation RPM is installed. If it is not, temporarily change the hostname with a command like 'hostname new.host.name' and then install the foundation-demo RPM. Afterwards you can change the hostname back to normal. -- suEXEC not enabled. If you have suEXEC enabled, you are responsible for changing permissions and running parameters appropriately. You can typically disable suEXEC by running `chmod u-s /usr/bin/suexec'. If you want to continue to use suEXEC, you will have to compile the appropriate INET mode link program and use it instead of vlink. INSTALL rpm -Uvh interchange-foundation-demo-5.2.0-1.i386.rpm USING THE DEMO Once installed, you should be able to access the demo catalog like this (using your own hostname, of course): http://hostname/foundation/ The initial administrative user name is "interch", and the password is "pass". Change the password as soon as possible. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- More information ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://www.icdevgroup.org/ has complete documentation, user mailing list information, and other resources.