How to Install Nominatim on OpenBSD

Nominatim is a free and open source geocoding software that allows you to convert addresses into geographic coordinates. In this tutorial, we’ll show you how to install Nominatim on OpenBSD.

Requirements

OpenBSD server with root access
At least 30GB of free disk space
At least 8GB of RAM

Step 1: Update and install prerequisites

Before we can install Nominatim, we’ll need to install the prerequisites. Make sure your OpenBSD server is up to date by running the following commands:

sudo su
pkg_add -u && pkg_add vim git cmake automake autoconf libtool gcc g++ wget unzip bzip2 zlib postgresql-server postgis

Step 2: Create a user account and download Nominatim

Next, we need to create a user account for the Nominatim software to run under. Run the following command to create a new user called "nominatim":

adduser

Download Nominatim from the official website and extract the files:

wget https://nominatim.org/release/Nominatim-3.6.0.tar.bz2
bzip2 -d Nominatim-3.6.0.tar.bz2
tar xvf Nominatim-3.6.0.tar

Move the extracted files to the directory where the user "nominatim" has write access:

mv Nominatim-3.6.0 /home/nominatim/
chown -R nominatim:nominatim /home/nominatim/Nominatim-3.6.0

Step 3: Install Nominatim

Now that we have the prerequisites and Nominatim files, we can install Nominatim. Run the following commands:

cd /home/nominatim/Nominatim-3.6.0
./configure
make
make install

Step 4: Set up PostgresSQL and PostGIS

Nominatim requires PostgresSQL and PostGIS to run. Run the following commands to set up PostgresSQL and PostGIS:

su postgres
initdb -D /var/postgresql/data
pg_ctl -D /var/postgresql/data -l /var/postgresql/logfile start
exit

Create a new user for Nominatim to use:

sudo su postgres
createuser nominatim
exit

Create a new database and enable PostGIS extensions:

sudo su postgres
createdb -E UTF8 -O nominatim nominatim
psql -d nominatim -c "CREATE EXTENSION postgis;CREATE EXTENSION postgis_topology;"
exit

Step 5: Install and set up Apache

Lastly, we need to install and set up Apache to serve the Nominatim website. Run the following commands:

pkg_add apache-httpd
echo "ServerName localhost" >> /etc/httpd.conf

Create a new Apache configuration for Nominatim:

cd /etc/httpd/conf
vim nominatim.conf

Add the following contents to the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
   ServerName your-domain.com
   DocumentRoot /home/nominatim/Nominatim-3.6.0/build/website/
   <Directory "/">
      AllowOverride All
      Require all granted
   </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Restart Apache to load the new configuration:

apachectl restart

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we’ve shown you how to install Nominatim on OpenBSD. By following these instructions, you should now have a fully functional Nominatim installation that you can use for geocoding addresses.