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System Requirements

06 August 2023 - 07:24 | Version 1 |

Low client and server base requirements are core features that keep Foswiki widely deployable, particularly across a range of browser platforms and versions. Many extensions exist which enhance and expand Foswiki's capabilities; they may have additional requirements.

Server Requirements

Foswiki is written in Perl 5, which is supported on Microsoft Windows as well as Unix and Unix-like systems (including Linux and OSX). On Unix-like systems, it uses a number of shell commands. It should be able to run out-of-the-box on any server platform that meets the following requirements.

Resource Required Server Environment
Perl 5.8.8 or higher. A minimum of perl 5.12 is recommended.
External programs GNU diff 2.7 or higher, fgrep, and egrep (not required on Windows)
Web server Apache, Nginx and Lighttpd are all well supported; Apache sample configs are provided. For information on other servers, see Foswiki:Support.InstallingOnSpecificPlatforms.

Foswiki is designed to automatically detect the platform and generate a basic configuration the first time the configure script is run, but start from your expected default "view" URL, so that Foswiki can figure out your URL scheme.

Prior versions of Foswiki shipped with the important CPAN modules. Foswiki 2.0 does not, and you must ensure that the perl dependencies listed below are installed before attempting to use Foswiki. For a detailed report, PerlDependencyReport (admin access only!) or the shell script tools/dependencies.

If you are unable to install CPAN modules, see Foswiki:Extensions.CpanContrib. Install this extension into your Foswiki installation directory if you cannot install Perl modules otherwise.

You can check the dependencies before Foswiki is fully operational with the following command. It will list all potentially missing dependencies. Not all listed dependences are required on all installations, Refer to the usage message that accompanies each missing dependency in the report. 

cd /path/to/foswiki
perl tools/dependencies

Specific distribution details

Find the closest match to your installed system. and click on the "Show ..." link to reveal the details.

Ubuntu and other Debian derived distributions

Minimum requirements

Install apache and rcs: apt-get install apache2 rcs

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff libalgorithm-diff-perl  
Archive::Tar libarchive-tar-perl  
Authen::SASL libauthen-sasl-perl  
CGI libcgi-pm-perl  
CGI::Session libcgi-session-perl  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 libcrypt-passwdmd5-perl  
Digest::SHA libdigest-sha-perl *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Email::Address::XS libemail-address-xs-perl  
Email::MIME libemail-mime-perl  
Encode libencode-perl  
Error liberror-perl  
File::Copy::Recursive libfile-copy-recursive-perl  
HTML::Parser libhtml-parser-perl  
HTML::Tree libhtml-tree-perl  
IO::Socket::IP libio-socket-ip-perl First shipped perl 5.19.8
IO::Socket::SSL libio-socket-ssl-perl  
JSON libjson-perl  
Locale::Codes liblocale-codes-perl  
Locale::Maketext liblocale-maketext-perl  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt liblocale-msgfmt-perl Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP libwww-perl  
LWP::Protocol::https liblwp-protocol-https-perl  
URI liburi-perl  
version libversion-perl Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

Note: to install all the above:
apt-get install libalgorithm-diff-perl libarchive-tar-perl libauthen-sasl-perl libcgi-pm-perl libcgi-session-perl libcrypt-passwdmd5-perl libdigest-sha-perl libemail-address-xs-perl libemail-mime-perl libencode-perl liberror-perl libfile-copy-recursive-perl libhtml-parser-perl libhtml-tree-perl libio-socket-ip-perl libio-socket-ssl-perl libjson-perl liblocale-codes-perl liblocale-maketext-perl liblocale-maketext-lexicon-perl liblocale-msgfmt-perl libwww-perl liblwp-protocol-https-perl liburi-perl libversion-perl

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 libapache2-mod-perl2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request libapache2-request-perl Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI libdbi-perl Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql libdbd-mysql-perl Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg libdbd-pg-perl Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite libdbd-sqlite3-perl Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI libfcgi-perl Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager libfcgi-procmanager-perl Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME libcrypt-smime-perl Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509 libcrypt-x509-perl Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM libconvert-pem-perl Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • Debian, Ubuntu, Kubunto: chown -R www-data:www-data /path/to/foswiki

Apache user should issue the following commands:
a2enmod rewrite
Enables mod_rewrite
a2enmod cgi OR a2enmod cgid
Enables CGI. May need cgid if using a threaded mpm.
a2enmod access_compat
Apache 2.4: Enables compatibility with foswiki example apache configurations.

RedHat, SuSE, CentOS and other RPM based distributions

Minimum requirements

Install apache2, rcs, and perl-CPAN

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff perl-Algorithm-Diff  
Archive::Tar perl-Archive-Tar *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Authen::SASL perl-Authen-SASL  
CGI perl-CGI  
CGI::Session perl-CGI-Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 perl-Crypt-PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA perl-Digest-SHA *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Email::Address::XS perl-Email-Address-XS  
Email::MIME perl-Email-MIME  
Encode perl-Encode  
Error perl-Error  
File::Copy::Recursive perl-File-Copy-Recursive  
HTML::Parser perl-HTML-Parser  
HTML::Tree perl-HTML-Tree  
IO::Socket::IP perl-IO-Socket-IP First shipped perl 5.19.8
IO::Socket::SSL perl-IO-Socket-SSL  
JSON perl-JSON  
Locale::Language perl-Locale-Codes  
Locale::Maketext perl-Locale-Maketext  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon perl-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization **
Locale::Msgfmt perl-Locale-Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization **
LWP perl-libwww-perl  
LWP::Protocol::https perl-LWP-Protocol-https  
URI perl-URI  
version perl-version Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

To install the above packages on CentOS
Note, Locale::Maketext::Lexicon and Locale::Msgfmt are not available on Centos. Install using CPAN if Internationalization is required.

First add the appropriate perl module repository, and then install the packages.
yum install -y epel-release
yum install perl-Algorithm-Diff perl-Archive-Tar perl-Authen-SASL perl-CGI perl-CGI-Session perl-Crypt-PasswdMD5 perl-Digest-SHA perl-Email-Address-XS perl-Email-MIME perl-Encode perl-Error perl-File-Copy-Recursive perl-HTML-Parser perl-HTML-Tree perl-IO-Socket-IP perl-IO-Socket-SSL perl-JSON perl-Locale-Codes perl-Locale-Maketext perl-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon perl-Locale-Msgfmt perl-libwww-perl perl-LWP-Protocol-https perl-URI perl-version

To install the above packages on SuSE
First add the appropriate SuSE perl-modules repository, and then install the packages. Note: Not all listed packages will install on SuSE, but all dependences are resolved.
zypper ar -f -n perl-modules http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/devel:/languages:/perl/openSUSE_13.1 perl-modules
zypper install perl-Algorithm-Diff perl-Archive-Tar perl-Authen-SASL perl-CGI perl-CGI-Session perl-Crypt-PasswdMD5 perl-Digest-SHA perl-Email-Address-XS perl-Email-MIME perl-Encode perl-Error perl-File-Copy-Recursive perl-HTML-Parser perl-HTML-Tree perl-IO-Socket-IP perl-IO-Socket-SSL perl-JSON perl-Locale-Codes perl-Locale-Maketext perl-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon perl-Locale-Msgfmt perl-libwww-perl perl-LWP-Protocol-https perl-URI perl-version

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 mod_perl Required if using Apache2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request perl-libapreq2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI perl-DBI Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql perl-DBD-mysql Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg perl-DBD-Pg Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite perl-DBD-SQLite Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI perl-FCGI Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager perl-FCGI-ProcManager Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME perl-Crypt-SMIME Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
(Not available in default repositories)
Crypt::X509 perl-Crypt-X509 Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM perl-Convert-PEM Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • RedHat, Fedora, CentOS Mandriva: chown -R apache:apache /path/to/foswiki=
  • Suse: chown -R wwwrun:www /path/to/foswiki

Gentoo (ebuild) based distributions

Minimum requirements

Install www-servers/apache, dev-vcs/rcs, and dev-lang/perl

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff dev-perl/Algorithm-Diff  
Archive::Tar perl-Archive-Tar *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Authen::SASL dev-perl/Authen-SASL Optional, needed for authenticated SMTP
CGI dev-perl/CGI  
CGI::Session dev-perl/CGI-Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 dev-perl/Crypt-PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA   Included with perl
Email::Address::XS dev-perl/Email-Address-XS  
Email::MIME dev-perl/Email-MIME  
Error dev-perl/Error  
Encode   Included with perl
File::Copy::Recursive dev-perl/File-Copy-Recursive  
HTML::Parser dev-perl/HTML-Parser  
HTML::Tree dev-perl/HTML-Tree  
IO::Socket::IP   Ebuild not avaiable. Install with g-cpan if IPv6 is needed.
IO::Socket::SSL dev-perl/IO-Socket-SSL Optional, support encrypted email connection: STARTTLS or SSL
JSON dev-perl/JSON  
Locale::Maketext   Included with perl
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon dev-perl/Locale-Maketext-Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt dev-perl/Locale-Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP dev-perl/libwww-perl  
LWP::Protocol::https dev-perl/LWP-Protocol-https  
URI dev-perl/URI  
version   Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.
To install the above packages on Gentoo

emerge dev-perl/Algorithm-Diff perl-Archive-Tar dev-perl/Authen-SASL dev-perl/CGI dev-perl/CGI-Session dev-perl/Crypt-PasswdMD5 dev-perl/Email-Address-XS dev-perl/Email-MIME dev-perl/Error dev-perl/File-Copy-Recursive dev-perl/HTML-Parser dev-perl/HTML-Tree dev-perl/IO-Socket-SSL dev-perl/JSON dev-perl/Locale-Maketext-Lexicon dev-perl/Locale-Msgfmt dev-perl/libwww-perl dev-perl/LWP-Protocol-https dev-perl/URI

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 www-apache/mod_perl Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request libapache2-request-perl Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI dev-perl/DBI Optional - Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql dev-perl/DBD-mysql Optional - Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg dev-perl/DBD-Pg Optional - Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite dev-perl/DBD-SQLite Optional - Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI dev-perl/FCGI Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager dev-perl/FCGI-ProcManager Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME dev-perl/Crypt-SMIME Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509 dev-perl/Crypt-X509 Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM dev-perl/convert-pem Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • chown -R apache:apache /var/www/path-to-foswiki

FreeBSD (pkg) based distributions

Minimum requirements

Install apache24, rcs, and perl5

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Algorithm::Diff p5-Algorithm-Diff  
Archive::Tar p5-Archive-Tar  
Authen::SASL p5-Authen-SASL  
CGI p5-CGI  
CGI::Session p5-CGI-Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5 p5-Crypt-PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA p5-Digest-SHA *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Email::Address::XS p5-Email-Address-XS  
Email::MIME p5-Email-MIME  
Encode p5-Encode  
Error p5-Error  
File::Copy::Recursive p5-File-Copy-Recursive  
HTML::Parser p5-HTML-Parser  
HTML::Tree p5-HTML-Tree  
IO::Socket::IP p5-IO-Socket-IP First shipped perl 5.19.8
IO::Socket::SSL p5-IO-Socket-SSL  
JSON p5-JSON  
Locale::Maketext p5-Locale-Maketext  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon p5-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt p5-Locale-Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP p5-libwww  
LWP::Protocol::https p5-LWP-Protocol-https  
URI p5-URI  
version p5-version Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

To install the above packages on FreeBSD

pkg install p5-Algorithm-Diff p5-Archive-Tar p5-Authen-SASL p5-CGI p5-CGI-Session p5-Crypt-PasswdMD5 p5-Digest-SHA p5-Email-Address-XS p5-Email-MIME p5-Encode p5-Error p5-File-Copy-Recursive p5-HTML-Parser p5-HTML-Tree p5-IO-Socket-IP p5-IO-Socket-SSL p5-JSON p5-Locale-Maketext p5-Locale-Maketext-Lexicon p5-Locale-Msgfmt p5-libwww p5-LWP-Protocol-https p5-URI p5-version

After expanding the Foswiki archive, change the ownership of the files:
  • chown -R www:wwwadmin /var/www/path-to-foswiki

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
mod_perl2 ap24-mod_perl2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
Apache2::Request libapreq2 Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
BSD-Resource p5-BSD-Resource Optional - used for FCGI process handler resource limits
DBI p5-DBI Optional - Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql p5-DBD-mysql Optional - Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg p5-DBD-Pg Optional - Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite p5-DBD-SQLite Optional - Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI p5-FCGI Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager p5-FCGI-ProcManager Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME p5-Crypt-SMIME Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509 p5-Crypt-X509 Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM p5-Convert-PEM Optional, used for S/MIME email signing

Installation with CPAN

Perl dependencies can also be installed on most systems using cpanm, aka App::cpanminus. On most unix* systems, cpanminus can bootstrap itself using curl or wget. If run as root, the modules will be installed in the System perl. Otherwise they are installed into the users local environment.

Perl Module Notes
Algorithm::Diff  
Archive::Tar *First shipped in perl 5.9.3
Authen::SASL Optional, needed for authenticated SMTP
CGI  
CGI::Session  
Crypt::PasswdMD5  
Digest::SHA Included with perl
Error  
Email::Address::XS  
Email::MIME  
Encode  
File::Copy::Recursive  
HTML::Parser  
HTML::Tree  
IO::Socket::IP  
IO::Socket::SSL Optional, support encrypted email connection: STARTTLS or SSL
JSON  
Locale::Maketext  
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon Optional, needed for internationalization
Locale::Msgfmt Optional, needed for internationalization
LWP  
LWP::Protocol::https  
URI  
version Must be version 0.77 or newer, included with perl 5.10.1 and newer.

To install the above packages with cpanm
Note: We do not recommend installing CPAN modules with cpanminus as root. See below for information on using a private module library with cpanminus.
curl -L http://cpanmin.us | perl - App::cpanminus (optional - install cpanminus if not available )
cpanm Algorithm::Diff Archive::Tar Authen::SASL CGI CGI::Session Crypt::PasswdMD5 Digest::SHA Error Email::Address::XS Email::MIME Encode File::Copy::Recursive HTML::Parser HTML::Tree IO::Socket::IP IO::Socket::SSL JSON Locale::Maketext Locale::Maketext::Lexicon Locale::Msgfmt LWP LWP::Protocol::https URI version

Optional dependencies

Install as needed.

Perl Module Package to install Notes
Apache2::Request Required if using Apache 2 and mod_perl
DBI   Optional - Used for the Foswiki Page cache
DBD::mysql   Optional - Used for MySQL based Page Cache
DBD::Pg   Optional - Used for PostgreSQL based Page Cache
DBD::SQLite   Optional - Used for SQLite based Page Cache
FCGI   Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi apache modules
FCGI::ProcManager   Optional, needed for fastcgi / fcgi process management on nginx
Crypt::SMIME   Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Crypt::X509   Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Convert::PEM   Optional, used for S/MIME email signing
Locale::Language Optional, Locale::Language will be removed from the Perl core distribution in 5.28.

Installation using cpanminus

See Foswiki:Support.HowToInstallCpanModules for more information.

If you want to install the dependendencies into a specified location, add the "-l" option to cpanm, and add the lib path to bin/LocalLib.cfg. The dependencies will be installed under the specified location, in the lib/perl5 subdirectory. Example: User "foswiki" logs in and installs the libraries locally under the foswikideps directory: 
cpanm -l foswikideps Algorithm::Diff Archive::Tar ...   (install libraries into =/home/foswiki/foswikideps=)

/path/to/foswiki/bin/LocalLib.txt is then edited, and the commented line is modified: 
# @localPerlLibPath = ( '/path/to/dir', '/path/to/another/dir', );
@localPerlLibPath = ( '/home/foswiki/foswikideps/lib/perl5', );

Foswiki will now run using the libraries installed by cpanm.

Client Requirements

The standard installation has relatively low browser requirements:

  • XHTML 1.0 Transitional compliant
  • Cookies, if persistent sessions are required
  • Javascript, is required for configure, edit save and upload functionality. Foswiki is viewable without javascript.

CSS and Javascript are used in most skins. Some skins will require more recent releases of browsers. The default (Pattern) skin is tested on IE 6+, Safari, Chrome and Firefox.

You can easily select a balance of browser capability versus look and feel. Try the installed skins at SkinBrowser and more at Foswiki:Extensions.SkinPackage.

Related Topics: AdminDocumentationCategory
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