To ensure an Ubuntu system is using the lastest stable version of CouchDB currently requires building from source. This tutorial describes how to download, build, install and configure the lastest stable version of CouchDB on an Ubuntu system.
Install Dependencies
Install the packages needed to download, build and install CouchDB.
sudo apt-get -y install build-essential autoconf automake libtool erlang libicu-dev libmozjs-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev
Install CouchDB
Get the Source
Download and extract the CouchDB 1.1.1 source code.
curl -O http://www.apache.org/dyn/closer.cgi?path=/couchdb/1.1.1/apache-couchdb-1.1.1.tar.gz
tar -C /tmp -xzf apache-couchdb-1.1.1.tar.gz
cd /tmp/apache-couchdb-1.1.1
OR
Clone the latest CouchDB source code:
git clone http://git-wip-us.apache.org/repos/asf/couchdb.git /tmp/couchdb
Checkout the 1.2.x branch:
cd /tmp/couchdb
git checkout --track -b 1.2.x origin/1.2.x
Run bootstrap to create the configure script:
./bootstrap
Build and Install
Build the source and install the compiled binaries.
./configure
make && sudo make install
Create a user account dedicated for CouchDB:
sudo adduser --system --home /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb --no-create-home --shell /bin/bash --group --gecos "CouchDB Administrator" couchdb
Change the ownership of the CouchDB directories:
sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/etc/couchdb
sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb
sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/log/couchdb
sudo chown -R couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/run/couchdb
Change the permission of the CouchDB directories:
sudo chmod 0770 /usr/local/etc/couchdb
sudo chmod 0770 /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb
sudo chmod 0770 /usr/local/var/log/couchdb
sudo chmod 0770 /usr/local/var/run/couchdb
Create a administrator, edit /usr/local/etc/couchdb/local.ini and add the section:
[admins]
root = <password>
To start the daemon on boot, copy the init script to /etc/init.d
sudo cp /usr/local/etc/init.d/couchdb /etc/init.d
sudo update-rc.d couchdb defaults
Manually start CouchDB:
sudo service couchdb start