INSTALL

The following is a quick installation guide. Please see HOWTO.md for more
detailed information on how to configure your server.


TLDR:
# sudo ./configure
# sudo python ./setup.py install
# electrum-server start
# electrum-server stop


Note: If you want to run the server without installing it on your
system, just run 'run_electrum_server"


1. Install and run bitcoind.
----------------------------

You will need to run bitcoind with the config option txindex=1. If you
have not previously done so, you may need to reindex the bitcoind
blockchain

Note: you cannot use a ultra-pruning bitcoind (forthcoming in 0.9 or
later).  A full bitcoin node is required in order to know for each
address if it has been used. Pruning occurs only at the level of the
Electrum database.


2. Run the 'configure' script
---------------------------
You need to run the script as root:

# sudo ./configure

It will:
 * create the configuration file in /etc/electrum.conf
 * create a user that will run the daemon
 * optionally, download a fresh database from the Electrum Foundry.

If you choose not to use the Foundry, your server will have to build
the database from scratch. This process can take several days. To
speed it up, it is recommended to locate your database in shared
memory, in electrum.conf: path = /run/shm/electrum_db

Note: The 'configure' script does not configure SSL and IRC. You will
need to manually edit the configuration file in order to enable SSL on
your server, and to be visible on IRC.


3. Install the python package
-----------------------------

# sudo python setup.py install

Note: You will need to redo this everytime you pull code from git.


4. Using the server
-------------------

Use 'electrum-server' to start and stop the server:

# electrum-server <start|stop|status|getinfo>

The server will write a log file in its database path.


5. Add electrum-server to your system's services
------------------------------------------------

If your system supports it, you may add electrum-server to the
/etc/init.d directory. This will ensure that the server is started and
stopped automatically, and that the database is closed safely whenever
your machine is rebooted.

# ln -s `which electrum-server` /etc/init.d/electrum-server
# update-rc.d electrum-server defaults



6. Troubleshooting:
-------------------

 * if your server or bitcoind is killed because is uses too much
   memory, configure bitcoind to limit the number of connections

 * if you see "Too many open files" errors, you may need to increase
   your user's File Descriptors limit. For this, see
http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/linux-increase-the-maximum-number-of-open-files/