RefDB INSTALL
=============


This file explains how to get RefDB installed from the sources.
This is the short version for the impatient. It is strongly recommended
to read the installation chapter of the manual which gives the full
details of the procedure. You've been warned.

Prerequisites
=============

The following libraries have to be installed:

- libdbi (0.8.1 or newer, earlier versions do *NOT* work)
- libdbi-drivers (0.8.1 or newer, earlier versions do *NOT* work)
- libreadline
- expat

The following system libraries are required on some platforms:

- libz (not required on Linux)
- libnsl (may be required on Solaris, not required on other platforms)
- libdl (not required on FreeBSD)

The following library is optional (required only for BibTeX import):

- libbtparse

One of the following database servers has to be available, either on
this computer or somewhere in the network neighbourhood on any
operating system (refdb will build and install without this, but it
just won't work):

- MySQL 3.23 or newer
- PostgreSQL 7.1 or newer
- SQLite 2.7.2 or newer (embedded database engine)

Build
=====

./configure --help

This command will show you a list of things you can
customize (e.g. where the binaries and data get installed) and a few
options to help the script find library files of installed packages if
they are in non-standard directories. Another set of options helps to
customize the scripts and stylesheets which will be installed. It is
easier to figure out these settings now than after the installation,
so you should invest some time and, if nothing else helps, read the
manual.

./configure [your options]

make

This should build the application. If you get strange error messages
about syntax errors in a Makefile, you should try and run gmake
instead.


Install
=======

su root
make install

Again, you may have to run gmake install instead.


Post-Install Setup
==================

In order to run RefDB, a few more things need to be set up. You need a
main database for the bibliography styles, a reference database for
your reference data, and some configuration files. You can try and run
the refdb-init.sh script as root which performs these steps and should
work ok in most cases. If you need more control, or if the script
fails for some reason, please follow the instructions in the manual.


What if all this doesn't work?
==============================

Apparently you use a platform that RefDB has not been ported to. RefDB
has so far been tested only on Linux, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OSX, Solaris, and
WinNT/Cygwin. This might be an outstanding opportunity to gain 15
minutes of fame by providing a port to your platform. Otherwise you
should report your error messages to refdb-users@lists.sourceforge.net.


Recreating the configure script
===============================

To recreate the configure script from the input files, run the
autogen.sh script.