Compile and Install ejabberd

This document explains how to compile and install ejabberd from source code.

For a more detailed explanation, please check the ejabberd Docs: Source Code Installation.

Requirements

To compile ejabberd you need:

Other optional libraries are:

If your system splits packages in libraries and development headers, install the development packages too.

There are several ways to obtain the ejabberd source code:

The general instructions to compile ejabberd are:

./configure
make

If the source code doesn't contain a configure script, first of all install autoconf and run this to generate it:

./autogen.sh

To configure the compilation, features, install paths...

./configure --help

To install ejabberd in the system, run this with system administrator rights (root user):

sudo make install

This will:

Instead of installing ejabberd in the system, you can build an OTP release that includes all necessary to run ejabberd in a subdirectory:

./configure
make prod

Check the full list of targets:

make help

You can use the ejabberdctl command line administration script to start and stop ejabberd. Some examples, depending on your installation method:

When installed in the system:

ejabberdctl start
/sbin/ejabberdctl start

When built an OTP production release:

_build/prod/rel/ejabberd/bin/ejabberdctl start
_build/prod/rel/ejabberd/bin/ejabberdctl live

Start interactively without installing or building OTP release:
```
make relive
```