ljr/livejournal/doc/raw/lj.book/install/general_setup.xml

<chapter id="lj.install.general_setup">
  <title>General Setup</title>
  <!-- A departure from the name scheme, but its an easier reference -->
  <section id="lj.install.ljhome">
    <title>$LJHOME Environment Variable</title>
    <para>
      Be aware that nearly all LiveJournal code depends on the <envar>$LJHOME</envar>
      environment variable being set to the top-level directory that LiveJournal is installed at.
    </para>
    <para>
      <xref linkend="lj.install.apache_setup" /> has the necessary directives to make
      sure the web code always has $LJHOME set, but if you're running LJ maintenance
      commands from a terminal, you'll need to make sure <envar>$LJHOME</envar> is set
      for yourself.
    </para>
    <para>
      For example, we'll assume that you've installed LiveJournal on an operating system
      using the Bourne Shell: The easiest way to set <envar>$LJHOME</envar> is to put
      the following in your <filename>~/.bash_profile</filename>:
    </para>
    <informalexample>
<screen><literal>LJHOME=/home/lj; export LJHOME</literal></screen>

      <para>
        To test that it's set:
      </para>

<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>. ~/.bash_profile</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>echo $LJHOME</userinput></screen>

      <para>
        If the above was successful, it should print out <literal>/home/lj</literal>
        (or whatever the value of <envar>$LJHOME</envar> may be).
      </para>
    </informalexample>
    <note>
      <title>Other shells</title>
      <para>
        If you use another shell interface, you might be able to see what it reads on
        start-up by looking for the file: <filename>~/.profile</filename>. Please
        refer to the documentation provided with your shell, which can usually be
        found by typing:
      </para>

<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>help</userinput></screen>

    </note>
  </section>
  <section id="lj.install.install_files">
    <title>Installing the files</title>
    <para>
      The typical directory to install LiveJournal is
      <filename>/home/lj</filename>, but it is not a requirement at
      all.  To ease documentation, we'll assume that you'll want to
      install in that directory.  We'll also assume you'll be using
      user <literal>lj</literal>, but that also doesn't matter at all.
      Feel free to install wherever and as whoever &hellip; there shouldn't
      be any problems.
    </para>
    <formalpara>
      <title>Prerequisite: <envar>$LJHOME</envar></title>
      <para>
        Before you install using either method, you should create the directory
        where your LiveJournal installation will reside. This needs to be the same
        directory that the environment variable <envar>$LJHOME</envar> is set to,
        otherwise your installation will not work properly. Consult 
        <xref linkend="lj.install.ljhome" /> for more information on setting <envar>$LJHOME</envar>.
      </para>

<example><title>Creating the <envar>$LJHOME</envar> directory:</title>
<screen><prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>mkdir <replaceable>/home/lj</replaceable></userinput>
<prompt>#</prompt> <userinput>chown <replaceable>lj.lj /home/lj</replaceable></userinput></screen>
</example>

    </formalpara>
    <note>
      <title>Using Tarballs</title>
      <para>
        LiveJournal maintains the server code in <filename>tar.gz</filename> (<quote>tarball</quote>)
        format, which can be downloaded from: <ulink url="http://www.livejournal.org/download/code/" />.
        The tarballs are labelled by date, so be sure to grab the latest one.
      </para>
      <para>
        Untar the tarball from the <envar>$LJHOME</envar> directory, and then run the provided
        installation script, <filename>bootstrap.pl</filename>.
      </para>
      <example><title>Tarball Install:</title><para>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>cd $LJHOME</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>tar zxvf LiveJournal-<replaceable>YYYYMMDDNN</replaceable>.tar.gz</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>./bootstrap.pl</userinput></screen>
      </para></example>
    </note>
    <note>
      <title>Using <abbrev>CVS</abbrev></title>
      <para>
        Bleeding edge releases of the code can be found in <abbrev>CVS</abbrev> at the <abbrev>CVS</abbrev>
        server: <ulink url="http://cvs.livejournal.org/">cvs.livejournal.org</ulink>.
      </para>
      <warning>
        Installing and updating LiveJournal from <abbrev>CVS</abbrev> is not guaranteed as stable as tarball releases.
        If you need a more stable release, you're better off using the packaged tarballs as mentioned above.
      </warning>
      <example><title>CVS Install:</title><para>
<screen><prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>mkdir $LJHOME/cvs</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>cd $LJHOME/cvs</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.livejournal.org:/home/cvslj co livejournal</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@danga.com:/home/cvspub co wcmtools bml</userinput>
<prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>wcmtools/bin/multicvs.pl --conf=livejournal/cvs/multicvs.conf --init</userinput></screen>
      </para></example>
      <para>
        That last command will copy everything from the CVS directory
        over to <literal>$LJHOME</literal>, the live area.
      </para>
      <para>
        Having two copies of the code laying around may not make sense
        now, but it will later when we write the docs to explain how
        to run a heavily-customized version of the site and still stay
        up-to-date with the mainstream CVS.  (FIXME: write/link that section)
      </para>
    </note>
  </section>
</chapter>
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