How to Install Fess on Arch Linux

Fess is an open-source, enterprise-level search engine that can be used for data retrieval and analysis. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Fess on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure that you have the following:

• A machine running Arch Linux.
• A user account with sudo privileges.

Step 1: Install Java

Fess is a Java-based application, so before we proceed with the Fess installation, we need to install Java on our machine.

To install Java on Arch Linux, run the following command:

sudo pacman -S jdk-openjdk

This will install the OpenJDK version of Java.

Step 2: Install Elasticsearch

Fess requires Elasticsearch to function properly. So, let’s install Elasticsearch first.

Run the following command to install Elasticsearch:

sudo pacman -S elasticsearch

Start and enable the elasticsearch server:

sudo systemctl start elasticsearch
sudo systemctl enable elasticsearch

Step 3: Download and Install Fess

Now that we have installed Java and Elasticsearch, we can proceed with the Fess installation.

Head over to the Fess download page, and grab the latest version of Fess.

wget https://github.com/codelibs/fess/releases/download/fess-13.5.2/fess-13.5.2.zip

Extract the downloaded file:

unzip fess-*.zip
cd fess-*

Run the bin/install.sh script to install Fess:

sudo bin/install.sh

This script will install Fess in /usr/share/fess/ and configure everything for you.

Step 4: Start Fess

To start Fess, run the following command:

sudo systemctl start fess

To make sure that Fess is running, check the status:

sudo systemctl status fess

If everything went well, you should see a message saying that Fess is active and running.

Step 5: Access Fess

Open your browser and navigate to http://localhost:8080/. If everything went well, you should see the Fess web interface.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Fess on Arch Linux. You now have a fully functioning powerful search engine on Arch Linux!