Tutorial

Prerequisites

gzip (GNU zip) is the utility used to compress (and uncompress, natch) most open source software packages.

Solaris 2.6
Does not come with gzip. Either download an already-compiled gzip Sun Package from www.sunfreeware.com, or download (and compile) the gzip source code from the GNU Project.

Solaris 8
Comes with gzip. Cool.

C compilers (cc,gcc) preprocess, compile, assemble, and link C programming source code files. A C compiler is invoked when you run the make utility. Although you'll find out a step earlier (during config), whether or not a C compiler is on your system.

Solaris 2.6
Does not come with a C compiler, so it won't be on your system unless someone has gone to the trouble of installing it (see PATH section, below). If your server lacks a compiler, there are a couple of ways to go:

• GNU C compiler (gcc) - Since you can't compile source code until you have a C compiler (catch 22, eh), your best bet is to download a Solaris 2.6-ready gcc package from www.sunfreeware.com. The files on this site are Sun Packages that can be installed with the pkgadd command.
• Sun Workshop/Forte C compiler (cc) - If you are an educational institution and have a Sun Maintenance agreement with ScholarPAC, you should be able to get a dirt-cheap Workshop/Forte CD (and license) from your ScholarPAC software contact.

Solaris 8
Although not installed by default, gcc is included in the Solaris 8 media kit and is a snap to load. Insert the Bonus Software CD (or "Software Companion CD" depending on the release). Choose Custom Install and then select gcc from Development/Languages.

Perl is an interpreted high-level programming language. It has many wondrous and varied uses, but for the immediate task at hand (building Apache with SSL), it is needed to configure OpenSSL. (And mod_perl if you choose to include it.)

Solaris 2.6
Does not come with Perl. Again, either download the Solaris 2.6 Perl package from www.sunfreeware.com or download/compile the source code from www.perl.com.

Solaris 8
Comes with Perl already installed. You're good to go!

The make utility (/usr/ccs/bin/make) is already on your server, although your path variable probably disguises that fact (see PATH section, below). There is also a GNU version, if you prefer to install that.

PATH is a shell environment variable consisting of a list of one or more pathnames in which to search for commands to execute.

You may already be a winner! Even if you are still running Solaris 2.6, it is possible that you have some or all of the above but just don't know it because they are not in your PATH. The previous Unix sysadmin (the one who left for the dot com job) could have installed all those goodies before she left. It may take some poking around to tell, but that's what the find command is for. It sure beats re-installing something you already have on the system. (Note, however, that Solaris' /usr/ucb/cc is not a C compiler despite the misleading file name.)

After you have installed (or discovered on your system) any of the above software, it is important to make them more readily available as commands by adding their paths to the PATH environment variable. You'll probably want to make gzip and Perl available to all users, by editing the /etc/profile and /etc/.login files. (Obviously, any user can run any command provided they use the full path name and have execute permissions on the file.) Make sure you put the path to the C compiler ahead of /usr/ucb. You'll have to "source" the edited .profile or .login file in order for your current shell to inherit the new environment variables.

And while you're at it, create/edit a MANPATH variable so you can access all the helpful man pages that were installed at the same time as the executables. (Run catman -w, too.) It's the right thing to do.