• Firefish should happily run on any Unix and any Windows with Java jdk-1.4.x or higher. Currently, we know it runs at least on Linux, Solaris, MacOSX and Windows 2000 or higher.

• Download firebundle-{version}.(tar.gz, zip) from here. Releases can be installed via a tar.gz file (Unix) or zip file (Windows).

  Warning

  • Because of a bug in Solaris tar, Solaris users should use gnu tar to unpack archives.
  • Due too an obscure bug, Winzip and possibly other Windows decompression tools may miss empty directories such as tomcat/logs from tar[.gz] files. Consequently, use the .zip download file on Windows, and DO NOT decompress tar[.gz] files on Windows.

• Decompress the file into any convenient directory (the software is relocatable)

  In the examples below we assume as installation directory

  /opt/firebundle                         (Unix)
  c:\firebundle                           (Windows) 
  

  If you choose to install into an alternative location (e.g. /usr/local, $HOME, d:\apps) then substitute the paths used in examples on this website accordingly.

  cd /opt	 
  tar -zxvf firebundle-{version}.tar.gz   (Unix)
  Winzip firebundle-{version}.zip         (Windows)
  

  This will create the directory tree /opt/firebundle/ (Unix) or c:\firebundle (Windows). If a user other than the one you installed under should be able to run the software, give him/her proper file permissions:

  sudo chown -R `whoami` /opt/firebundle  (Unix)
  

• For any firefish command line tool to work, the JAVA_HOME environment variable must be defined, or the java executable must be in your PATH. JAVA_HOME takes precedence over the PATH settings. To find out if java is already in your PATH (which is typically the case), type

  java -version
  

  If it is not already in your path, set it along the lines of the following examples:

  UNIX bash-style: 
  	export JAVA_HOME=/home/dsd/java2/jdk/jdk-1.4
  	or
  	export PATH=/home/dsd/java2/jdk/jdk-1.4/bin:$PATH
  		
  Windows:
  	set JAVA_HOME=e:\java\jdk\sun-1.4.2
  	or
  	set PATH=e:\java\jdk\sun-1.4.2\bin;%PATH%
  

  Alternatively, you can edit the firefish/bin/util-find-jdk.{sh,bat} script to the same effect.
• Although not necessary, you may find it convenient to add firefish/bin to your PATH, as follows:

  UNIX bash-style: 
  	export PATH=$PATH:/opt/firebundle/firefish/bin
  	
  Windows:
  	set PATH=%PATH%;C:\firebundle\firefish\bin
  

• You can make these settings permanent by editing your ~/.bashrc or ~/.cshrc files (Unix) or by editing Start Menu/Settings/Control Panels/System/Advanced/Environment Variables/Path (Windows).
• Now try to run the software as described in Getting Started.

• If you ever want to uninstall the software, make sure Tomcat is shutdown, then type

  rm -fr /opt/firebundle                  (Unix)
  rmdir c:\firebundle /s/q                (Windows)
  

• Follow these instructions, if you want to use SQL database functionality like the fire-sql tool.
• Any kind of database with a JDBC driver will do (MySQL, Oracle, DB2, Postgres, Firebird, Sybase, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.). An open source driver for MySQL is included in the firefish/lib directory, and ready to go without further configuration.
• The quickest way to get a database server up and running in 5 minutes is to download, install and configure a standard binary MySQL by running the firefish/bin/util-download-and-install-mysql.sh script (Unix) or this installer (Windows) or else using the MySQL.com download area and the MySQL Installation Instructions.
• MySQL can run as any non-privileged user; it need not run as Unix root user.
• To start the MySQL server daemon

  cd /opt/firebundle/mysql bin/mysqld_safe &

• To stop the MySQL server daemon

  cd /opt/firebundle/mysql bin/mysqladmin -u root --password=changeit shutdown

• Follow these instructions, if you want to use embedded BerkeleyDB XML database functionality.
• The quickest way to get BerkeleyDB XML running is to download, install and configure it by running the firefish/bin/util-download-and-install-berkeleydbxml.sh script (Unix) or else using the sleepycat.com XML download area.
• To test if the installation was successful

  rm -fr /tmp/testdb; mkdir /tmp/testdb fire-java com.sleepycat.dbxml.examples.gettingStarted.exampleLoadContainer \ -h /tmp/testdb -p /opt/firebundle/dbxml-src/dbxml/examples/xmlData fire-java com.sleepycat.dbxml.examples.gettingStarted.simpleQuery -h /tmp/testdb /opt/firebundle/dbxml/dbxml/bin/dbxml_dump /tmp/testdb/namespaceExampleData.dbxml

• Follow these instructions, if you want to use embedded BerkeleyDB database functionality (without native XML support). If you are not sure, whether BerkeleyDB fits your needs, read these articles which highlight the key differences between embedded BerkeleyDB and client/server relational database systems.
• The quickest way to get BerkeleyDB running in 5 minutes is to download, install and configure it by running the firefish/bin/util-download-and-install-berkeleydb.sh script (Unix) or else using the sleepycat.com download area.
• To test if the installation was successful

  cd /tmp fire-java com.sleepycat.examples.db.AccessExample input> data1 input> data2 input> CTRL-D