Installing OpenACS on Arch Linux

A package for OpenACS exists in the Arch User Repository: https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/openacs/

Several AUR helper applications exist for automating compiling and installing AUR packages. In case you are not familiar with installing AUR packages, read the documentation on the Arch Linux Wiki: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AUR_helpers

Let's start with installing postgres. Postgres is automatically pulled in as a dependency of openacs, but you should verify before installing openacs that everything is working. In case anything goes wrong with your postgres installation, OpenACS will run into errors when trying to setup the database after installation.

➤  sudo pacman -S postgresql

Let's start the service and check if it runs correctly.

➤  sudo systemctl start postgresql      
➤  sudo systemctl status postgresql                                                                                                                               
● postgresql.service - PostgreSQL database server
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/postgresql.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since ....

A fresh installation of postgres might require to run initdb first:

➤ sudo -u postgres -i
[postgres]➤ initdb --locale en_US.UTF-8 -E UTF8 -D '/var/lib/postgres/data'

Now let's install OpenACS.

Needless to say, you can replace yaourt (which is deprecated) in the following command with your preferred AUR helper application.

➤  yaourt -S openacs

In case you are wondering, this will also take care of dependencies.

After the installation we can start it conveniently with systemd:

➤  sudo systemctl start openacs

➤  sudo systemctl status openacs

Before you start the OpenACS (5.9.1 release) bootstrap installer for the first time on a system running Postgres 11, make sure the following change from the cvs is applied: http://cvs.openacs.org/browse/OpenACS/openacs-4/packages/acs-kernel/sql/postgresql/postgresql.sql?r1=1.51&r2=1.52

Have fun with OpenACS!