Get the OpenACS Source Code

These instructions describe, how to obtain OpenACS, either as a released distribution (a .tar.gz file) or from CVS.

Obtain a released version of OpenACS via .tar file:

Download from OpenACS.org: //projects/openacs/download/?versions=all

Unpack the OpenACS tarball. Usually something like this works:

tar zxvf openacs-5.10.0.tgz

Obtain OpenACS from CVS (a certain release with potential patches, or the HEAD version):

If you want to track fresh code developments between releases, or you are an OpenACS core developer, you may want to install from CVS. This is identical to downloading a distribution, except that you get the files from CVS instead of the tarball. The following commands are used to obtain the newest version of the OpenACS 5.10 branch from CVS:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.openacs.org:/cvsroot login
# press enter for password
cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.openacs.org:/cvsroot checkout -r oacs-5-10 acs-core

The command above checks out the core packages of OpenACS in a directory named openacs-4. For  the entire OpenACS version 5.10 branch, you can use the following commands (adjust as required going forward):

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.openacs.org:/cvsroot checkout -r oacs-5-10 openacs-4

If the branch name (like oacs-5-10) is omitted, the leading edge developer version (the HEAD release) is obtained

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.openacs.org:/cvsroot checkout openacs-4

In order to check out a single package (e.g. the package cronjob) from e.g. the leading edge developer version (HEAD), use

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.openacs.org:/cvsroot checkout openacs-4/packages/cronjob

For most OpenACS packages, CVS aliases are defined. In order to check out e.g. the forums package from OpenACS 5.10, just use:

cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.openacs.org:/cvsroot checkout -r oacs-5-10 forums

Depending, from which directory you are performing the checkout, you might have to move the checked-out package directory to the main "packages" directory of your installation.

More info here: https://openacs.org/test-doc/using-cvs-with-openacs

Looking for README instructions or installers? View the OpenACS Installation instructions: en:openacs-system-install, otherwise continue by setting up the OpenACS distribution:

Set up the file system for one or more OpenACS sites

According to the Linux Filesystem Hierarchy Standard is currently not strict, where the files of web servers should be stored. Common places are /var/www/ or /srv/www/. Sticking to common names eases the maintenance of systems. This name is called SERVERROOT belwo. In case, multiple OpenACS installations are on a single system, it is recommended to use e.g. domain name of the system as a path, like e.g. /var/www/openacs.org/. We use here the conventions to name the installation based on the version number /var/www/oacs-5-10/. This folder is called OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME. All the files in each OpenACS site are stored in a subdirectory (see also: en:openacs-reference-platform). The first time you install an OpenACS site on a server, you must create the parent directory and set its permissions:

While logged in as root:

mkdir -p /var/www/oacs-5-10
chgrp web /var/www/oacs-5-10
chmod 770 /var/www/oacs-5-10

Move the uncompressed code to SERVERROOT and rename the directory to $OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME:

mv openacs-4 /var/www/oacs-5-10/$OPENACS_SERVICE_NAME