Downloading and Installing Zope

Selecting a Distribution File

There are several types of Zope release distributions, which can make people confused about what exactly they should download. We currently make available the following types of release distribution files:

Full distribution (binary)

These distribution files contain the entire Zope distribution for a specific version, and contains pre-compiled binaries for a specific platform.

These files have names like Zope-2.3.2-linux2-x86.tgz. This means that this is a full installation of Zope 2.3.2 with pre-compiled binaries for linux on the x86 architecture. Other platforms we commonly make binary releases for include Solaris 2.6 and Windows (95/98/NT/2000). For Solaris, the full install binary distribution would be named something like Zope-2.3.2-solaris-2.6-sparc.tgz and for Win32 platforms the name would be Zope-2.3.2-win32-x86.exe.

Note that Windows distributions of Zope have a .exe extension, as they come with a standard Windows installer.

Binary distributions also include a bundled version of Python for use by Zope. This means that you do not have to do anything to install Python on your machine before using Zope, and the bundled Python included in Zope will not affect any existing Python installations you may have in your deployment environment.

See the section "installing a distribution" for details on installing a binary release for any platform.

Full distribution (source)

These distribution files contain the entire Zope distribution for a specific version, but do not contain any pre-compiled binaries.

This file has a name like Zope-2.3.2-src.tgz. Use the source distribution if there is no binary release available for your platform. You will need to have a C compiler available to build the binaries in the source distribution for your platform. The source distribution can be built on almost any unix platform.

The source distribution does not include a Python distribution, and requires that you have a certain version of Python installed on the machine to build and run Zope. Zope versions 2.3.x and earlier require Python 1.5.2. Zope version 2.4.x and above require Python 2.1. If you do not currently have a Python installed and you want to run the Zope source distribution, see the Python website (www.python.org) for information on downloading and installing Python on your system.

Building the source distribution on Windows platforms is not currently supported, though if you search on www.zope.org) you will find some tools to help you do this if you need to.

See the section "installing a distribution" for details on building and installing a source release for any platform.

Update distribution (source or binary)

These distribution files contain only the files that have been added or changed since a particular (past) revision of Zope. These files are intended for those who simply want to update an existing Zope installation without installing a whole new distribution from scratch. They are sometimes called "diff" releases, as they are designed to be extracted over an existing release installation, overwriting files in the current installation that have changed with the newest versions.

Update releases have names like Zope-2.3.x-to-2.3.2-src.tgz. The update distributions come in both binary and source versions. Which one you pick depends upon what you already have installed. If your current installation was created with the source release, you would use the source update distribution (in this case Zope-2.3.x-to-2.3.2-src.tgz). If you had installed the linux binary originally, you would use Zope-2.3.x-to-2.3.2-linux2-x86.tgz, etc.

Binary update releases contain the updated binary files for the selected platform. Source update releases contain no binaries, so if you use the source update you should recompile the Zope binaries after applying an update.

Note that there are two "version numbers" in the name of an update distribution. The first is the minimum version of Zope that this update distribution can update from, and the second is the version that it will update to. So the file Zope-2.3.x-to-2.3.2-src.tgz will update any installation of Zope 2.3.0 or higher (2.3.x) to version 2.3.2.

It is important to note that update releases cannot always be used to update an arbitrary past release - the installation you are updating must be at least equal to the first version number in the update release name (in our example, 2.3.x). The reason for this is that there are limitations to what can be done by overlaying files from a tarball. We will probably be considering a smarter update system in the future.

See the section "installing a distribution" for details on installing an update release.

Installing a Distribution

The process for installing a Zope distribution varies depending upon the type of distribution you have selected.

Full Distribution (Source)

To install a source distribution, download the distribution and unpack the distribution in the directory where you want it using the tar command. For example: tar xzf Zope-2.3.2-src.tgz. (*Note to Solaris users: Zope requires the use of GNU tar. See the "frequently asked questions" section for details).

This will give you a directory named (for example) Zope-2.3.2-src (which you may change if you like, before starting the actual installation). This is the root directory of your Zope installation. Under your installation root there is a directory named doc that contains a file named INSTALL.txt. Read INSTALL.txt for information on how build the Zope binaries and finish setting up your Zope installation.

You may also find the Zope Installation How-To on zope.org helpful: http://www.zope.org/Members/mcdonc/HowTos/zopeinstall/ZOPE-INSTALL-HOWTO.

Full Distribution (Binary)

To install a binary distribution for non-windows plaforms, download the distribution and unpack the distribution in the directory where you want it using the tar command. For example: tar xzf Zope-2.3.2-linux2-x86.tgz. (*Note to Solaris users: Zope requires the use of GNU tar. See the "frequently asked questions" section for details).

This will give you a directory named (for example) Zope-2.3.2-linux2-x86 (which you may change if you like, before starting the actual installation). This is the root directory of your Zope installation. Under your installation root there is a directory named doc that contains a file named INSTALL.txt. Read INSTALL.txt for information on completing the installation.

Windows binary releases come with a standard windows installer. To install a binary release for Windows, download the distribution file into a temporary directory and double-click the distribution .exe file to start the installer. The installer will guide you through the rest of the installation process.

You may also find the Zope Installation How-To on zope.org helpful: http://www.zope.org/Members/mcdonc/HowTos/zopeinstall/ZOPE-INSTALL-HOWTO .

Update Distribution (Source)

To update an existing Zope installation, first determine the version of the current installation (you may visit the Control Panel to determine this, or look for a file named version.txt in the lib/python directory of the current installation).

Download a source update distribution that will work for the version of Zope that you already have installed. To apply the update, you need to:

• Copy or move the update distribution .tgz file to your Zope installation root directory
• Change (cd) to your installation root directory
• Use tar xzf Zope-2.3.x-to-2.3.2-src.tgz (using the actual filename, of course) to extract the update. This will overwrite the appropriate files in your installation with the updated versions.
• Rebuild the Zope binaries (see INSTALL.txt for details). On some platforms, you may need to stop Zope while you do this.
• Restart Zope so that the changes take effect.

Update Distribution (Binary)

To update an existing Zope binary installation, first determine the version of the current installation (you may visit the Control Panel to determine this, or look for a file named version.txt in the lib/python directory of the current installation).

Download the appropriate update distribution for your platform that will work for the version of Zope that you already have installed. To apply the update, you need to:

• Copy or move the update distribution .tgz file to your Zope installation root directory
• Change (cd) to your installation root directory
• Use tar xzf Zope-2.3.x-to-2.3.2-(platform).tgz (using the actual filename, of course) to extract the update. This will overwrite the appropriate files in your installation with the updated versions. If you are on Windows, use WinZip or a similar tool to extract the update distribution in your current Zope installation root directory.
• Restart Zope so that the changes take effect.

Frequently Asked Questions

• I get a "checksum error" when I try to untar the distribution. Is it corrupted?

  No - some vendor-supplied tar implementations (esp. Solaris) have problems with paths over a certain length stored in tar archives. This is a problem for a number of software distributions, not just Zope. You should install a GNU tar on your machine to solve this problem (and future similar problem you may have with other software packages created with GNU tar).