Koha

Koha is an open source Integrated Library System (ILS) which can be installed on Dreamhost with a little effort. Normal installation of Koha requires root MySQL access, write access to Apache's config files and the ability to install Perl modules but these can all be avoided.

How hard is this
Getting Koha running on Dreamhost is not very hard but you will need to be comfortable with using the command line. Also, the first version of this HOWTO was written by someone after he had successfully installed Koha so there may be some gaps of things done but forgotten.

Getting ready
In the hosting panel:
 * create subdomain for koha
 * create mysql database for koha
 * set up ssh access

Install prerequisites
The installation of Koha will go more smoothly if we install a few prerequisites first.

Check your bashrc
You need to have certain entries in your .bashrc so that Perl will know where to find modules that are installed per-user, and so that you can run per-user installed programs. You should have entries similar to the following: export PERLMOD=perl5 # name of directory under home where perl modules are installed export PATH="$PATH:$HOME/$PERLMOD/bin:$HOME/bin" export PERL5LIB="$HOME/$PERLMOD/lib/perl5" export PERL_CPANM_OPT="--local-lib=$HOME/$PERLMOD --notest"

If not, add them, and do the command source .bashrc from the shell while in your home directory to reload the environment settings without having to log out and back in.

cpanminus and local:lib
We also need to have local::lib installed to help Perl deal with modules being installed to the home directory rather than systemwide. However, if you try to install it via CPAN, there's a high probability that procwatch will Killed to protect other customers. CPAN is bloated, and oftentimes will use more memory than dreamhost normally allows on their servers.

Fortunately, a lightweight alternative to CPAN exists, in the form of cpanminus.

If you have been using other Perl applications with your hosting account, you may already have cpanminus and local::lib set up, otherwise install them now. InstallCpanModules goes into detail on installing cpanminus.

Once cpanminus is installed, type cpanm local::lib to install local::lib.

yaz and zebra
Yaz and zebra are specialized programs Koha needs to search, and they are so deeply integrated into Koha that you won't even be able to install Koha without having them present.

Setting Perl environment

 * module path
 * C4::Context KOHA_CONF env.var.

find. -type f -name "*.pl" -print0 | \ xargs -0 perl -i -pe "s/#\!\/usr\/bin\/perl/#\!\/usr\/bin\/perl\nuse lib '\/home\/stuporor\/perl_modules\/share\/perl\/5.8.4\/';/g"

Libraries using Koha on Dreamhost
If you have a publicly accessible library using Koha on Dreamhost then you can list it here.