path: root/doc/installation.adoc

// This file is part of chrony
//
// Copyright (C) Richard P. Curnow  1997-2003
// Copyright (C) Miroslav Lichvar  2009-2016
//
// This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of version 2 of the GNU General Public License as
// published by the Free Software Foundation.
//
// This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
// WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU
// General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
// with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
// 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA  02110-1301, USA.

= Installation

The software is distributed as source code which has to be compiled. The source
code is supplied in the form of a gzipped tar file, which unpacks to a
subdirectory identifying the name and version of the program.

After unpacking the source code, change directory into it, and type

----
./configure
----

This is a shell script that automatically determines the system type. There is
an optional parameter `--prefix`, which indicates the directory tree where the
software should be installed. For example,

----
./configure --prefix=/opt/free
----

will install the `chronyd` daemon into `/opt/free/sbin` and the `chronyc`
control program into `/opt/free/bin`. The default value for the prefix is
`/usr/local`.

The `configure` script assumes you want to use `gcc` as your compiler. If you
want to use a different compiler, you can configure this way:

----
CC=cc ./configure --prefix=/opt/free
----

for Bourne-family shells, or

----
setenv CC cc
setenv CFLAGS -O
./configure --prefix=/opt/free
----

for C-family shells.

If the software cannot (yet) be built on your system, an error message will be
shown. Otherwise, `Makefile` will be generated.

On Linux, if development files for the libcap library are available, `chronyd`
will be built with support for dropping root privileges. On other systems no
extra library is needed. The default user which `chronyd` should run as can be
specified with the `--with-user` option of the `configure` script.

If development files for the POSIX threads library are available, `chronyd`
will be built with support for asynchronous resolving of hostnames specified in
the `server`, `peer`, and `pool` directives. This allows `chronyd` operating as
a server to respond to client requests when resolving a hostname. If you don't
want to enable the support, specify the `--disable-asyncdns` flag to
`configure`.

If development files for the https://www.lysator.liu.se/~nisse/nettle/[Nettle],
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Mozilla/Projects/NSS[NSS], or
http://www.libtom.net/LibTomCrypt/[libtomcrypt] library are available,
`chronyd` will be built with support for other cryptographic hash functions
than MD5, which can be used for NTP authentication with a symmetric key. If you
don't want to enable the support, specify the `--disable-sechash` flag to
`configure`.

If development files for the editline or readline library are available,
`chronyc` will be built with line editing support. If you don't want this,
specify the `--disable-readline` flag to `configure`.

If a `timepps.h` header is available (e.g. from the
http://linuxpps.org[LinuxPPS project]), `chronyd` will be built with PPS API
reference clock driver. If the header is installed in a location that isn't
normally searched by the compiler, you can add it to the searched locations by
setting the `CPPFLAGS` variable to `-I/path/to/timepps`.

The `--help` option can be specified to `configure` to print all options
supported by the script.

Now type

----
make
----

to build the programs.

If you want to build the manual in HTML, type

----
make docs
----

Once the programs have been successfully compiled, they need to be installed in
their target locations. This step normally needs to be performed by the
superuser, and requires the following command to be entered.

----
make install
----

This will install the binaries and man pages.

To install the HTML version of the manual, enter the command

----
make install-docs
----

Now that the software is successfully installed, the next step is to set up a
configuration file. The default location of the file is _/etc/chrony.conf_.
Several examples of configuration with comments are included in the examples
directory. Suppose you want to use public NTP servers from the pool.ntp.org
project as your time reference. A minimal useful configuration file could be

----
pool pool.ntp.org iburst
makestep 1.0 3
rtcsync
----

Then, `chronyd` can be run. For security reasons, it's recommended to create an
unprivileged user for `chronyd` and specify it with the `-u` command-line
option or the `user` directive in the configuration file, or set the default
user with the `--with-user` configure option before building.

== Support for system call filtering

`chronyd` can be built with support for the Linux secure computing (seccomp)
facility. This requires development files for the
https://github.com/seccomp/libseccomp[libseccomp] library and the
`--enable-scfilter` option specified to `configure`. The `-F` option of
`chronyd` will enable a system call filter, which should significantly reduce
the kernel attack surface and possibly prevent kernel exploits from `chronyd`
if it is compromised.

== Support for line editing libraries

`chronyc` can be built with support for line editing, this allows you to use
the cursor keys to replay and edit old commands. Two libraries are supported
which provide such functionality, editline and GNU readline.

Please note that readline since version 6.0 is licensed under GPLv3+ which is
incompatible with chrony's license GPLv2. You should use editline instead if
you don't want to use older readline versions.

The `configure` script will automatically enable the line editing support if
one of the supported libraries is available. If they are both available, the
editline library will be used.

If you don't want to use it (in which case `chronyc` will use a minimal command
line interface), invoke `configure` like this:

----
./configure --disable-readline other-options...
----

If you have editline, readline or ncurses installed in locations that aren't
normally searched by the compiler and linker, you need to use extra options:

`--with-readline-includes=directory_name`::
  This defines the name of the directory above the one where `readline.h` is.
  `readline.h` is assumed to be in `editline` or `readline` subdirectory of the
  named directory.

`--with-readline-library=directory_name`::
  This defines the directory containing the `libedit.a` or `libedit.so` file,
  or `libreadline.a` or `libreadline.so` file.

`--with-ncurses-library=directory_name`::
  This defines the directory containing the `libncurses.a` or `libncurses.so`
  file.

== Extra options for package builders

The `configure` and `make` procedures have some extra options that may be
useful if you are building a distribution package for `chrony`.

The `--mandir=DIR` option to `configure` specifies an installation directory
for the man pages. This overrides the `man` subdirectory of the argument to the
`--prefix` option.

----
./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man
----

to set both options together.

The final option is the `DESTDIR` option to the `make` command. For example,
you could use the commands

----
./configure --prefix=/usr --mandir=/usr/share/man
make all docs
make install DESTDIR=./tmp
cd tmp
tar cvf - . | gzip -9 > chrony.tar.gz
----

to build a package. When untarred within the root directory, this will install
the files to the intended final locations.