[Koha-devel] Lets improve the Koha installation documentation

[Mark Tompsett]

Greetings,

> will the RST be made available as text [snip]
> to allow copy/paste of cli lines using vi (or whatever) during the
> install process?

The tarball will have Git installation method instructions for Ubuntu. After 
all,
if you are doing a packages installation, you will not have an 
INSTALL.ubuntu
file on the machine. The Wiki will have Packages and Git installation method
instructions for Ubuntu. Packages for production and testing environments,
git for developers in testing and development environment.

The RSTs will be hidden away from the general populous in a git repository, 
and
conversions from the RST to Wiki or INSTALL.{OS} files will be made in
a human readable format. This is one reason the RST format was chosen. It
converts well to many different formats.

In a git repository, patches can be submitted against it to the Installation
Documentation Manager. The details of that process have yet to be worked
out exactly. But it will likely be similar to what is done for Koha 
Documentation
in general.

And no, the tarball instructions won't be deleted, they'll be hidden in that
git repository. And if someone is able to figure out how to get to the git
repository, perhaps they've learned enough to do a packages or git 
installation.
Tarball instructions have not been necessary for debian-based OSes since 
Koha 3.4.
Package installations were available as early as 3.0. Though pushes to use
that methodology were not made until version 3.4.


> Given that Koha "should" be installed on a server version of the library's
> chosen OS

Uh... No. The recommendation for OS is: Debian. My understanding is a
netinstall is a good no-desktop-environment setup for Debian. Ubuntu
has a Server edition, but I haven't seen such a beast for Debian.
Other debian-based OSes work, but are not the recommendation. Also,
support may be limited as the majority of developers for Koha are under 
Debian.
It's hard to support Redhat based OSes when you only have a Debian box.
Though, people have gotten Koha to work on non-debian based OSes.
I even tinkered with getting it to work on CentOS 6.3, but that isn't 
Debian.
Ubuntu is a debian-based OS and can run Koha well, but
Debian is the recommendation. I understand that organizational constraints
may require the use of a particular OS, but Debian is the preferred OS.
And I will admit to using Ubuntu, but it is not the recommended Debian.
I feel like Steve Ballmer, except instead of developers, I'm saying Debian.


> there is by most definitions no web browser available

lynx is a web browser and works perfectly well for doing the web install.
I wouldn't recommend it for anything past that though.


GPML,
Mark Tompsett

P.S. Did I get any details not quite right, mtj? 
(http://wiki.koha-community.org/wiki/Roles_for_3.12)