# Installation

> ***WARNING:*** Before upgrading to Netatalk 4 from an earlier version,
please read the [Upgrade](Upgrading.html) chapter in this manual.

## How to obtain Netatalk

Please have a look at the [Netatalk homepage](https://netatalk.io) for
the most up to date information on where to find the latest version of
the software.

### Binary packages

Binary packages of Netatalk are included in the package repositories of
some Linux, BSD, and Solaris-like distributions. Installing Netatalk
through this channel will give you the most seamless experience, with
managed updates when new package versions are available.

See the [Netatalk page on Repology](https://repology.org/project/netatalk/versions)
for a living list of known Netatalk packages.

You might also want to have a look at 3rd party package repositories for
your operating system, such as [rpmfind](https://rpmfind.net/) for Red
Hat based Linux distributions, [OpenCSW](https://www.opencsw.org/) for
Solaris and its descendants, and [Homebrew](https://brew.sh/) or
[MacPorts](https://www.macports.org/) for macOS.

### Source packages

Prepackaged tarballs with stable releases of the Netatalk source code
are available on the [Netatalk releases page on
GitHub](https://github.com/Netatalk/netatalk/releases).

The source code is also available from the [Netatalk Git
repository](https://github.com/Netatalk/netatalk).

See the [Installation Quick Start](https://netatalk.io/install) guide
for instructions on how to build Netatalk from source.

## Prerequisites

Netatalk depends on a number of third-party libraries and utilities.
There are a handful of mandatory packages that must be installed before
attempting to build Netatalk. In addition, there are a number of optional
packages that can be installed to enhance Netatalk's functionality.

### Required third-party software

- bstring

    Netatalk relies on the Better String Library for memory safe
    string data manipulation and retrieval.
    Version 1.0.1 or later of Mike Steinert's
    [bstring](https://github.com/msteinert/bstring) fork is recommended,
    but any version of the original [bstrlib](https://bstring.sourceforge.net/)
    library by Paul Hsieh should theoretically work just as well.

    In the absence of a shared *bstring* library, the Netatalk build system
    will build and install the library as a Meson subproject.

- iniparser

    The iniparser library is used to parse the configuration files.
    At least version 3.1 is required, while 4.0 or later is recommended.

- libevent

    Internal event callbacks in the netatalk service controller daemon are
    built on libevent version 2.

- Libgcrypt

    The [Libgcrypt](https://gnupg.org/software/libgcrypt/) library
    supplies the encryption for the standard User Authentication Modules
    (UAMs). They are: DHX2, DHCAST128 (a.k.a. DHX) and RandNum.

#### CNID database backends

At least one of the below database libraries is required to power the CNID scheme of your choice.

- Berkeley DB

    The default *dbd* (*Database Daemon*) CNID backend for netatalk uses Berkeley DB to store
    unique file identifiers.

    The recommended Berekeley DB version is 5.3, while versions 4.6 and later should work as well.
    Version 6 and later should generally be avoided due to licensing issues.

- MySQL Client or MariaDB Client

    By leveraging a MySQL-compatible client library, netatalk can be built
    with the *mysql* CNID backend that is highly scalable and reliable.
    The administrator has to provide a separate database instance for use with
    this backend.

- SQLite v3

    The SQLite library version 3 enables the *sqlite* CNID backend
    which is an alternative zero-configuration backend.

### Optional third-party software

Netatalk can use the following third-party software to enhance its
functionality.

- ACL and LDAP

    LDAP is an open and industry-standard user directory protocol that
    works in tandem with the advanced permissions scheme of ACL. On some
    operating systems ACL and LDAP libraries are built in to the system,
    while on others you have to install supporting packages to enable this
    functionality.

- Avahi or mDNSresponder for Bonjour

    Mac OS X 10.2 and later uses Bonjour (a.k.a. Zeroconf) for automatic
    service discovery. Netatalk can advertise AFP file sharing and Time
    Machine volumes by using Avahi or mDNSResponder.

    When using Avahi, D-Bus is also required, and the Avahi library must
    have been built with D-Bus support.

- cmark, cmark-gfm, or pandoc

    Netatalk's documentation is authored in Markdown format.
    The man page sources consist of standards-compliant CommonMark,
    while the rest of the documentation is authored in GitHub-Flavored
    Markdown (gfm).

    The pandoc library generates the nicest output, but is
    significantly more resource intensive than the other two options.
    The cmark reference implementation is the most widely distributed,
    but cmark-gfm handles GitHub extensions like tables better.

- CrackLib

    When using the Random Number UAMs and netatalk's own **afppasswd**
    password manager, CrackLib can help protect against setting weak
    passwords for authentication with netatalk.

    The CrackLib dictionary, which is sometimes distributed separately in
    a runtime package, is also a requirement both at compile and run time.

- D-Bus

    D-Bus provides a mechanism for sending messages between processes,
    used by multiple Netatalk features: Spotlight, Zeroconf with Avahi,
    and the **afpstats** tool.

- GLib and GIO

    Used by the **afpstats** tool to interface with D-Bus.

- iconv

    iconv provides conversion routines for many character encodings.
    Netatalk uses it to provide charsets it does not have built in
    conversions for, like ISO-8859-1. On glibc systems, Netatalk can use
    the glibc provided iconv implementation. Otherwise you can use the GNU
    libiconv implementation.

- Kerberos V

    Kerberos v5 is a client-server based authentication protocol invented
    at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. With the Kerberos
    library, netatalk can produce the GSS UAM library for authentication
    with existing Kerberos infrastructure.

- PAM

    PAM provides a flexible mechanism for authenticating users. PAM was
    invented by SUN Microsystems. Linux-PAM
    is a suite of shared libraries that enable the local system
    administrator to choose how applications authenticate users.

- Perl

    Netatalk's administrative utility scripts rely on the Perl runtime,
    version 5.8 or later. The required Perl modules include
    *IO::Socket::IP* (asip-status) and *Net::DBus* (afpstats).

- po4a

    With the help of po4a, Netatalk's documentation can be translated
    into other languages. It uses gettext to extract translatable
    strings from source files and merge them with the translations
    stored in PO files.

- TCP wrappers

    Wietse Venema's network logger, also known as TCPD or LOG_TCP.

    Security options are: access control per host, domain and/or service;
    detection of host name spoofing or host address spoofing; booby traps
    to implement an early-warning system.

- LocalSearch or Tracker

    Netatalk uses [GNOME LocalSearch](https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/localsearch/index.html),
    or Tracker as it was previously known, version 3 or later as the metadata backend for Spotlight
    compatible search indexing.

- talloc / bison / flex

    Samba's talloc library, a Yacc parser such as bison, and a lexer like
    flex are also required for Spotlight.

- UnicodeData.txt

    The [Unicode Character Database](https://www.unicode.org/Public/UNIDATA/UnicodeData.txt)
    is required to regenerate Netatalk's Unicode character conversion tables.

    This is mostly relevant for developers or package managers who want to regenerate
    the Unicode source files.

## Starting and stopping Netatalk

The Netatalk distribution comes with several operating system specific
startup script templates that are tailored according to the options
given to the build system before compiling. Currently, templates are
provided for systemd, openrc, in addition to platform specific scripts
for popular Linux distributions, BSD variants, Solaris descendants, and
macOS.

When building from source, the Netatalk build system will attempt to
detect which init style is appropriate for your platform. You can also
configure the build system to install the specific type of startup
script(s) you want by specifying the **with-init-style** option.
For the syntax, please refer to the build system's help text.

Since new Linux, \*BSD, and Solaris-like distributions appear at regular
intervals, and the startup procedure for the other systems mentioned
above might change as well, it is a good idea to not blindly install a
startup script but to confirm first that it will work on your system.

If you use Netatalk as part of a fixed setup, like a Linux distribution,
an RPM or a BSD package, things will probably have been arranged
properly for you. The previous paragraphs therefore apply mostly for
people who have compiled Netatalk themselves.

The following daemon need to be started by whatever startup script
mechanism is used:

- netatalk

In the absence of a startup script, you can also launch this daemon
directly (as root), and kill it with SIGTERM when you are done with it.

Additionally, make sure that the configuration file *afp.conf* is in the
right place. You can inquire netatalk where it is expecting the file to
be by running the **netatalk -V** command.

If you want to run AppleTalk services, you also need to start the
**atalkd** daemon, plus the optional **papd**, **timelord**, and **a2boot**
daemons. See the [AppleTalk](AppleTalk.html) chapter in this manual for more
information.
