How to build Zimbra from source?

[sasepp]

Hi,

has anyone actually managed to build Zimbra, either using sources from the p4 repository or from Zimbra community builds (FRANKLIN-5010.tar.gz or FRANKLIN-5010_2660.tar.gz)? I'm building Zimbra on CentOS5, which is basically identical to Redhat5.

I've read all these articles:

Franklin README - Zimbra :: Wiki or Building Zimbra using Perforce - Zimbra :: Wiki

but they are so incomplete that they're almost useless. Before I start listing the problems I encountered and fixed, could somebody share with me

- a revision number of / path to a known-good build
- the correct procedure on how to build Zimbra - no handholding needed
- any other things that might be necessary to complete build

Now on to the problems I encountered... When using the FRANKLIN P4 sources (a week or so old) I had to fix multitude of problems:

- several false program version definitions in ThirdParty build file
- lots undocumented build-time dependencies
- lots of (false) assumptions about the build environment, which I had to hack around with symlinks (/home/public/p4...)
- creating CentOS-specific directories and def-files
- false filename definitions in some of the CPAN perl modules causing the build to fail - these might be a side-effect of several build retries, though
- legacy syntax in RPM spec files, which causes rpm-build to fail

I managed to get as far as building the zimbra-apache RPM. That failed after trying to copy some files from

/root/FRANKLIN/ZimbraBuild/../ZimbraWebClient/build/dist/jetty/work/*

That directory is empty and I have no idea how to fill it with the stuff the build wants.

I also tried the community builds loosely following these instructions:

Ubuntu Hardy - Build Instructions

The FRANKLIN-5010.tar.gz was useless due to Windows linefeeds in buildThirdParty.sh. I didn't try fixing that yet. The FRANKLIN-5010_2660.tar.gz failed me too during cyrus-sasl compilation. It was missing some header files. When I installed the appropriate *-devel packages, the build started but failed, probably due to version mismatch between the *-devel package and the included cyrus-sasl version.

So how do I build Zimbra from source - and why is the process so poorly documented? I'd love to document the build process, but I'd have to finish it first.

Samuli

[dijichi2]

The build process is very poorly documented - so few people try/succeed. Get the source from p4, or you can use FRANKLIN-5010_2660.tar.gz that I posted to sourceforge. I'm not sure who has posted the FRANKLIN-5010.tar.gz tarball but as you say it's next to useless as it's full of windows linefeeds.
You can have a look at my build instructions for Solaris:
Solaris - Build Instructions
but obviously they are adapted for the solaris port, it might help a bit - the ubuntu instructions are out of date because official builds were provided for the past few versions.

[sasepp]

Thanks, dijichi!

I'll check your build instructions. Now, I noticed that you're also the project manager for Zimbra Community Builds. I'd be interested in contributing my Zimbra CentOS5 packages to your project. I'd also love to document the CentOS5 build process in your project's Wiki, but it's currently disabled. Would it be possible to enable it? I feel it would be more natural place for Zimbra community build documentation than Zimbra Wiki. You could limit the write access to project members to prevent spam.

Samuli

[phoenix]

FRANKLIN-5011 Branched

[sasepp]

I managed to get Zimbra to build on CentOS5. I made notes regarding the install, so I could pretty easily write a CentOS5 Zimbra install howto. Before that it would make sense to actually fix the problems I encountered. I'll be filing some bug reports and creating patches.