How to Install Papermerge on OpenBSD

Papermerge is an open-source document management system that helps you organize, store, and manage your documents. If you're running OpenBSD and want to install Papermerge, this tutorial will walk you through the steps.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure your OpenBSD system is up-to-date by running:

sudo pkg_add -vvvvu

You'll also need to have the following packages installed:

• python
• postgresql_server
• postgresql-contrib
• py3-virtualenv
• py3-pip
• py3-wheel
• npm.

You can install these packages by running:

sudo pkg_add -vvvvv python postgresql_server postgresql-contrib py3-virtualenv py3-pip py3-wheel npm

Step 1 - Install Optional Dependencies

Papermerge has some optional dependencies that can enhance its functionality. You can install these dependencies by running:

sudo pkg_add -vvvvv poppler-utils tesseract tesseract-data

Step 2 - Install and Set Up PostgreSQL

Papermerge uses PostgreSQL as its database backend. If you don't have PostgreSQL installed, you can do so by running:

sudo pkg_add -vvvvv postgresql-server postgresql-contrib

Next, we need to initialize the database:

sudo /usr/local/bin/initdb -D /var/postgresql/data

Once PostgreSQL is initialized, start the PostgreSQL server:

sudo rcctl enable postgresql
sudo rcctl start postgresql

Next, log in to the PostgreSQL server:

sudo su -l postgres -c "psql"

Create a new user and a new database:

CREATE USER papermerge WITH PASSWORD 'mypassword';
CREATE DATABASE papermerge OWNER papermerge;
ALTER USER papermerge CREATEDB;

Exit the PostgreSQL prompt by typing \q.

Step 3 - Install Papermerge

Download the latest version of Papermerge from the official website:

cd /tmp
sudo curl -LO https://github.com/ciur/papermerge/archive/master.zip
sudo unzip master.zip

Move to the extracted directory:

cd papermerge-master

Create a virtual environment for Papermerge:

sudo pyvenv venv
. venv/bin/activate

Install the required Python packages:

sudo pip install -r requirements.txt

Step 4 - Configure Papermerge

Copy the default configuration file:

sudo cp contrib/papermerge.ini.default conf/papermerge.ini

Edit conf/papermerge.ini to configure Papermerge as per your requirements. Set the SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI variable to your PostgreSQL database connection string:

SQLALCHEMY_DATABASE_URI = postgresql://papermerge:mypassword@localhost/papermerge

If you installed the optional dependencies, also add the following lines:

OCR_DEFAULT_LANGUAGE = 'eng'
OCR_BIN = '/usr/local/bin/tesseract'

If you want to enable email notifications, set the SMTP_* variables to your SMTP server settings.

Next, create the database schema:

sudo python manage.py create_db

Create an admin user:

sudo python manage.py create_user admin --password admin --admin

Step 5 - Start Papermerge

Compile the static assets:

sudo npm i && sudo npm run build

Start the server:

sudo python manage.py runserver

By default, Papermerge runs on port 8000. Access the Papermerge web interface by opening your web browser and visiting http://localhost:8000/. Log in with the admin account you created earlier.

Congratulations! You've successfully installed Papermerge on OpenBSD.

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