[rabbitmq-discuss] Can't run rabbitmq-server... Install issue?

Tue Oct 20 06:08:54 BST 2009

Alex,

Alex Wayne wrote:
> In my defense the installation instruction don't mention rabbit actually 
> has to be compiled at 
> all: http://www.rabbitmq.com/install.html#install-generic-unix
> It says:
> 
> 1. Install erlang
> 2. unpack rabbitmq tarball and place with other erlang libs
> 3. Customize script/rabbitmq-server environment variables

Actually, the instructions (at the above URL and in the INSTALL file 
inside the tarball) say

# Install a recent version of Erlang.
# Download rabbitmq-server-generic-unix-version.tar.gz, where version is 
the version of RabbitMQ Server you want to install.
# Contained in the tarball is a directory named rabbitmq_server-version. 
You should extract this into somewhere appropriate for application 
binaries on your system.
# Within the sbin directory is a shell script rabbitmq-server which may 
need customisation for your installation. [...]

> Not actually knowing erlang at all I had no idea this was a even a 
> compiled language at all.  It seems that a step 2.5 "run a make command 
> in the rabbitmq-server_version directory", would have saved me a headache.

The rabbitmq-server-generic-unix-version.tar.gz mentioned above, 
available from http://www.rabbitmq.com/server.html, is pre-compiled. So 
no compile steps are necessary. And there is no Makefile in that tar. 
Did you perhaps download the *source* tarball? In that case the clue is 
in the name ;) and the build instructions at 
http://www.rabbitmq.com/build-server.html tell you what to do.

As an aside, there is no need for rabbit to be put in a "place with 
other erlang libs" - that used to be the case prior to 1.7.0 but is no 
longer true (and the docs reflect that).

Regards,

Matthias.