= Debian Packages =

Tahoe is compatible with various releases of Debian/Ubuntu. There are two
forms of compatibility: "runs-from-source" and "runs-from-package". Both are
pretty easy. If you just want to download a binary package and install it,
you'll need the "runs-from-package" kind of compability.

== Compability ==

(note, the contents of this table have not yet been verified)

||platform||runs-from-source||runs-from-package||support packages available||
||Debian "etch"||yes||?||yes||
||Debian "lenny"||yes||yes||yes (use etch)||
||Debian "sid"||yes||yes||yes||
||Ubuntu "dapper"||yes||no||no||
||Ubuntu "edgy"||yes||?||yes||
||Ubuntu "feisty"||yes||no?||yes||
||Ubuntu "gutsy"||yes||no (#149)||yes||
||Ubuntu "hardy"||yes||yes||yes||
||Ubuntu "intrepid"||yes||yes||yes||

"runs-from-source" means that it is possible to take a Tahoe source tree
(either from a downloaded tarball or from a darcs checkout) and run
{{{python setup.py build}}} on it, then run {{{./bin/tahoe}}} to use it. This
approach is described on the
[http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/install.html ""Install Tahoe""]
page.

(if you can run-from-source, you should also be able to use
{{{python setup.py install}}} to copy tahoe into /usr/bin/tahoe (or
whatever is appropriate for your system), so you can use it after the source
tree has been removed. However, using {{{setup.py install}}} will modify your
/usr partition without the knowledge of the Debian package-management tools,
making it more difficult to coordinate dependencies with other packages,
and making it difficult to remove Tahoe later)

"run-from-package" means that it is possible to download a pre-built Tahoe
binary package from the APT repository on allmydata.org (as well as packages
for any dependencies that are not otherwise available in the Debian/Ubuntu
release), and then run /usr/bin/tahoe to use that installation. It also means
that these .deb packages can be built from a source tree on those platforms
(which the allmydata.org buildbot does automatically, to populate the APT
repository).

"support packages available" means that the allmydata.org APT repository has
debian packages available for several of the libraries which Tahoe requires
(those which are not already in the debian release). This might make it
easier to build Tahoe from source (fewer things to download).

== Downloading/Installing Binary Packages ==

allmydata.org hosts an APT repository at http://allmydata.org/debian/ . To
install packages from this repository, add the following lines to your
{{{/etc/apt/sources.list}}}, replacing the word {{{$DIST}}} with one of
{{{etch}}}, {{{sid}}}, {{{edgy}}}, {{{feisty}}}, or {{{gutsy}}} as
appropriate.

{{{
deb http://allmydata.org/debian/  $DIST  main tahoe
deb-src http://allmydata.org/debian/  $DIST  main tahoe
}}}


Then update and install the {{{allmydata-tahoe}}} package. apt-get will
automatically acquire other dependency packages from the same repository
(including {{{foolscap}}}, {{{zfec}}}, {{{pycryptopp}}}, and others. The
"tahoe" section contains the Tahoe debian packages, while the "main" section
contains the support libraries.

Note that these {{{allmydata-tahoe}}} packages are generated each time the
code is changed, and represent the most up-to-date (read "unstable") version
available. The usual warnings about no guarantees apply: it might cause your
computer to catch fire, might steal your dog, etc.

In the future, we will add a section to the repository that only contains
released versions of Tahoe, probably called "tahoe-releases". The packages in
this section should be more stable than the bleeding-edge packages in the
"tahoe" section.

After installing see the [http://allmydata.org/source/tahoe/trunk/docs/running.html docs/running.html] for how to use it.

There are no pre-built packages available for dapper or sarge, as these
releases are too old to provide the necessary support packages
(python-central, setuptools, etc). You can probably still install from source
on these releases, however.

== Problems ==

=== Edgy ===

While the tahoe package on edgy will install, it appears that the version of
Nevow (0.7.0) which shipped with edgy is broken (ubuntu bug
[https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/nevow/+bug/61423 #61423]),
preventing the tahoe node's webserver from running. The symptom is an
exception at node startup that looks like this:

{{{
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.4/formless/annotate.py", line 17, in ?
     from nevow.compy import Interface, MetaInterface
exceptions.ImportError: cannot import name MetaInterface
}}}

We do not yet know of a solid workaround for this. One suggestion is to
comment out the "from allmydata.webish import WebishServer" line from
allmydata/client.py and not use the 'webport' feature. Another is to modify
formless/annotate.py and try to fix that import problem. A third is to find a
backport of a newer version of nevow.

=== Sid ===

The combination of Twisted-8.x and pyopenssl-0.7 triggers a bug (#402) that
causes many unit tests to fail. This bug does not appear to impact actual
operations. The current workaround is to downgrade to pyopenssl-0.6 or
refrain from running unit tests.

== Building From Source On Debian Systems ==

Many of Tahoe's build dependencies can be satisfied by first installing
certain debian packages, and the Tahoe build process will download and build
many of the others. Please see source:docs/debian.txt for details about
building Tahoe on a debian-based system.

== Building a Debian Package ==

Please see source:docs/debian.txt for details about building your own debian
packages from a Tahoe source tree.

Note that this is entirely optional. Tahoe will run just fine from a source
tree: creating a debian package is merely a convenience for sysadmins to help
them manage large numbers of Tahoe nodes with established tools like apt-get.