Generic Linux Installation

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Below describes installing EPrints on a generic Linux distribution. It is recommended that EPrints is installed on either Red Hat based or Debian based Linux.

Prerequisites

See the Required software page.

Download

EPrints can be cloned from GitHub at https://github.com/eprints/eprints3.4 be sure to checkout the latest release after you clone the repository. E.g.

mkdir /opt/eprints3/
chown eprints:eprints /opt/eprints3
chmod 2775 /opt/eprints3
su eprints
git clone https://github.com/eprints/eprints3.4.git /opt/eprints3
cd /opt/eprints3
git checkout v3.4.7

N.B. EPrints needs to be installed as the same user as the Apache webserver runs as. The instructions above assume you are installing with the user "eprints" and group "eprints". Under most UNIX-based platforms, creating a user and group can be done using the "adduser" command. Otherwise refer to your operating system documentation.

Installation

If you are upgrading an existing installation of eprints please see the section on Upgrading section of this manual.

Now run the "configure" script. This is a /bin/sh script which will attempt to locate various parts of your system such as the perl binary. It will also check your system for required components.

% cd /opt/eprints3/
% autoconf
% ./configure

By default the system installs as user and group "eprints". You will need to change this if you are not installing as either "root" or "eprints".

The configure script accepts a number of options.

--help 

List all the options (many are intended for compiled software and are ignored).

Recommended:

--prefix=PREFIX 

Where to install EPrints (or look for a version to upgrade). By default /opt/eprints3/

--with-smtp-server=[HOST] 

Use HOST to deliver mail. If the server running EPrints has an MTA such as exim or sendmail, you can specify localhost. If you do not specify this option, you will get a warning to configure it later.

--with-user=[USER] 

Install eprints to run as USER. By default "eprints".

--with-group=[GROUP] 

Install eprints to run as GROUP. By default "eprints".

Optional:

--with-perl=[PATH] 

Path of perl interpreter (in case configure can't find it, or you have more than one and want to use a specific one).

--with-virtualhost=[VIRTUALHOST] 

Use VIRTUALHOST rather than * for apache VirtualHost directives.

--with-toolpath=[PATH] 

An alternate path to search for the required binaries.

--disable-diskfree 

Disable disk free space calls. These can cause problems on some platforms, notably 64-bit.

Deprecated:

--with-apache=1 

Use Apache 1.x.x instead of 2.x.x, but EPrints 3 does not support this.

Once you are happy with your configuration you may install eprints by running install.pl:

% ./install.pl

Now you should edit the configuration file for your copy of apache. This is often /usr/local/apache/conf/http.conf or /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Add this line: (If you didn't install eprints in /opt/eprints3/ replace that with the location on your system).

Include /opt/eprints3/cfg/apache.conf

Note that this file is only available after you created your archive via epadmin create. See Running epadmin for more information on creating an archive.

You need to make sure the apache user have read/write access to the installation directory (/opt/eprints3). The user must be the same as the user you installed eprints as. We recommend to configure your apache to run as:

User eprints
Group eprints