Prerequisites

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Bcfg2 has several server side prerequisites and a minimal set of client side requirements. This page describes the prerequisite software situation on all supported platforms. The table describes what software is needed on the client and server side.

Bcfg2 Client Prereqs

Software Version Requires
libxml2 (if lxml is used) Any
libxslt (if lxml is used) Any libxml2
python 2.3-2.4, 2.5*
lxml or elementtree** Any lxml: libxml2, libxslt, python
python-apt*** Any python
debsums (if APT tool driver is used) Any
  • * python 2.5 works with elementtree
  • ** elementtree is included in python 2.5 and later
  • *** python-apt is only required on platforms that use apt, such as Debian and Ubuntu

Bcfg2 Server Prereqs

Software Version Requires
libxml2 2.6.24+
libxslt Any libxml2
python 2.2-2.5
lxml 0.9+ libxml2, libxslt, python
gamin or fam Any
python-gamin or python-fam Any gamin or fam, python
M2crypto Any python, openssl

Distribution Information

GNU/Linux Distributions

  • Debian Sarge - All prerequisites are included with the distribution, though the version of libxml2 is too old. An updated libxml2 package and bcfg2 client and server packages are available from: 
     deb ftp://ftp.mcs.anl.gov/pub/bcfg/debian sarge/
  • Debian Sid/Etch - All prerequisites are included with the distribution, as are Bcfg2 client and server packages. No external apt source is needed.
  • RHEL/CentOS 4 - lxml is not included in the distribution. It must be built from source. Also the version of Pyrex included in the distribution is not recent enough to compile lxml. bcfg2 is also not included in the distribution. All other prerequisites are included in the distribution.
  • SLES 9 - Python is new enough, though libxml2, and lxml must be built from source. Source and binary RPMS can be found at: 
     ftp://ftp.mcs.anl.gov/pub/bcfg/sles
  • Ubuntu Hardy - All prerequisites are included with the distribution, as are Bcfg2 client and server packages. No external apt source is needed.

Solaris-based Distributions

  • Sun Solaris 9/10 - TODO

Building from Source

Do the usual python distutils "python setup.py install" from the top of the bcfg2 distribution.

From total Scratch

If you are building from total scratch, be aware that many of the prereqs mentioned here first require other basic GNU software be installed, so pay attention to the README/INSTALL documents regarding prereqs.

Software Home Page
elementtree http://effbot.org/zone/element-index.htm
fam http://oss.sgi.com/projects/fam/
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/fam/
gamin http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/
libxml2 http://xmlsoft.org/
libxslt http://xmlsoft.org/XSLT/
lxml http://codespeak.net/lxml/
mycrypto http://chandlerproject.org/bin/view/Projects/MeTooCrypto
python http://www.python.org/
python-apt Source available from vendor's package sites, i.e.:
http://packages.debian.org/python-apt
http://packages.ubuntu.com/python-apt
python-fam http://python-fam.sourceforge.net/
python-gamin http://www.gnome.org/~veillard/gamin/python.html

With Encap

As an alternative to building from total scratch manually, you can use the EncapPackages, which automate the entire download/build/install/configure process.