INSTALL

This file contains general instructions for building Piqi from source code.

The following files contain more specific information:

        INSTALL.erlang -- building and installing Piqi for Erlang

        INSTALL.ocaml -- building and installing Piqi for OCaml

        piqi-rpc/README -- building and installing Piqi-RPC

        INSTALL.windows -- building Piqi on Windows


SUPPORTED PLATFORMS
===================

Piqi has been tested on Linux (Debian Lenny and Squeeze, i386 and amd64
architectures) and on Mac OS X 10.6.4. It is also known to work on Windows and
Solaris.

Piqi is written in OCaml so, in theory, it should work on platforms and hardware
architectures supported by OCaml. See the list of supported platforms at:

        http://caml.inria.fr/ocaml/portability.en.html


The rest of this file describes the process of building Piqi on Unix platforms.


PREREQUISITES
=============

* OCaml compiler and standard library

        Recommended (tested) versions are 3.11.2 and 3.12.0. Older OCaml
        versions >= 3.10 may work as well.

        OCaml is available in most Linux distributions. It can also be
        downloaded from here:

                http://caml.inria.fr/download.en.html


* CamlP4 -- Caml Preprocessor and Pretty Printer

        It comes as a part of OCaml source distribution. It should be
        prepackaged in major Linux distributions as well.


* Ocamlfind/Findlib -- library manager for OCaml

        If installed separately form prepackaged OCaml distribution, it is
        recommended to build it from sources after you build/install OCaml. It
        can be downloaded from here:

                http://projects.camlcity.org/projects/findlib.html

* C compiler
        
        GCC works. Other compilers should work if they are able to build OCaml.


* GNU make, sed and probably some other tools.


On Debian Squeeze, the above dependencies can be installed using the following
command:

        apt-get install ocaml camlp4-extra ocaml-findlib gcc make sed


INSTALLATION INSTRUCTIONS
=========================

NOTE: these instruction are applicable only to Unix/Linux systems.


1. Edit setenv.sh file to set build configuration variables if necessary.

2. Apply build configuration by running
        
        . setenv.sh

        or

        source setenv.sh

3. Make sure that "ocamlfind" program is in PATH

4. Build third-party components
        
        make deps

5. Build Piqi

        make

6. Install "piqi" and "piqic" binaries (optional)

        make install


RUNNING TESTS
=============

See tests/README for instructions.