# Couchdb

"Apache CouchDB is a document-oriented database that can be queried and indexed in a MapReduce fashion using JavaScript." - CouchDB homepage

## Installation

Install the couchdb package:

    # pacman -S couchdb

By default, the package depends on erlang-nox without GTK, for headless servers. You can also use the standard version, erlang, that does require GTK:

    # pacman -S erlang couchdb

## Running

Start Couch

    # systemctl start couchdb

To launch on startup, enable it:

    # systemctl enable couchdb

Test to see if the service is running by doing "curl -XGET http://127.0.0.1:5984/". Ping will not work (it's not supposed to unlike on other systems where it does). Note that in order to access this instance of CouchDB from another system you'll need to configure it (see below).

## Using Futon

You can now access the Futon admin interface by going to http://localhost:5984/_utils

## Configuring

Change the default port, bind address (set to 0.0.0.0 to access CouchDB from any computer other than local), log-level and other useful nuggets in `/etc/couchdb/local.ini`.

If you want to run CouchDB on port 80 you will have to run the daemon as root or use an iptables rule such as:

      iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-ports 5984

Note: Do not modify `/etc/couchdb/default.ini` as it gets overwritten whenever couchdb is updated, copy any values you would like to change and put them in your local.ini. Also be sure to restart couchdb after changes to this file.

If you would like to use ssl with a self-signed certificate you can create one like this:

     # cd /etc/couchdb
     # openssl genrsa -des3 -out server.key 1024
     # openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr
     # cp server.key server.key.org
     # openssl rsa -in server.key.org -out server.key
     # openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -out server.crt

Then uncomment httpsd and update the path in the [ssl] section

     [daemons]
     httpsd = {couch_httpd, start_link, [https]}

     [ssl]
     cert_file = /etc/couchdb/server.crt
     key_file = /etc/couchdb/server.key

Futon can be accessed over ssl on port 5984 via https://localhost:5984/_utils/

Admin users can be created in your `local.ini` file. Add the username and password in plaintext, next time couch is restarted it will hash the password. See create a read-only database for locking down databases and further security.

     [admins]
     admin = magicalunicorns

## More Resources

- Official CouchDB page
- CouchDB Wiki
- CouchDB - The Definitive Guide
- create a read-only database

Category:

- Database management systems