Getting Started

To get imip-agent running on your own system you will need the following:

• The ability to install software and to configure the system
• A working mail configuration

It is possible to test the agent programs without these abilities, but any difficulties in getting the software to work will be compounded by any problem or deficiency in either of these areas.

Obtaining the Software

To get started, the imip-agent software must be downloaded and any prerequisites installed, the latter being software that imip-agent needs to work with. The choice of prerequisites will influence some of the activities described below.

Configuring System Users

The system users guide indicates the requirements for system user and group configuration.

If you are comfortable configuring your mail system, you may decide to choose the local SMTP delivery approach.

If you already use mail storage solutions that employ LMTP, you may decide to choose the LMTP delivery approach.

Once you have decided which approach is the most preferable, you will be able to use this choice to influence the configuration process mentioned below.

Installing the Software

Ideally, an operating system distribution package should be used to install the software. As a result, the software should already be suitably integrated and configured and guidance will be available to get everything working.

1. In the absence of a suitable system package, the installation locations and system user details must first be configured, as described above.
2. Then, the tools/install.sh script should install the software in appropriate locations. You may need to be root or use sudo to successfully use this script.

   tools/install.sh
   

See the prerequisites for other software that will be required for the software to function.

Initialising the Software

Once a suitable system user has been chosen, stored and published data is then initialised using the tools/init.sh script. The script employs the setgid flag on the directories initialised for stored and published data so that new files and directories have the appropriate group associated with them.

It should be possible to omit all arguments to the init.sh script, but it is also worth reading the help message:

tools/init.sh --help

Fixing ownership can be done using the tools/fix.sh script, as described in the administration guide in case some form of modification has altered the ownership or membership of the created files and directories.

Integrating with Other Software

The conf directory in the imip-agent source code distribution contains subdirectories for different systems:

In addition, a tools directory provides a configuration helper tool that can be used to quickly customise the above resources and produce files that, after review, may be deployed.

conf/tools/configure.sh --help

Use of this tool is covered in the configuration guide.

Configuring the Software

The behaviour of the imip-agent software itself can be configured using mechanisms described in the configuration guide.

Administering the Software

With the basic configuration performed, all that remains is to perform any necessary administration tasks to set the software up for certain kinds of users or participants.

Using the Software

With configuration and administration performed, it should be possible to get started using the software. See the usage guide for details.