If your web server has to be on a server running HP-UX 11.31 IA64, you would think that you are stuck with HP’s outdated Apache server (2.0.58 on my server).
That was the case for me a few weeks ago.
But what if you could run the latest Nginx web server with brotli and http/2 support ? Wouldn’t that be awesome? So let’s just do that!
Prerequisites
You will need the following:
- root access (or you are on your own to define the installation prefix)
- latest OpenSSL sources (1.0.2 revision “o” at the time of writing) from the HP-UX Porting and Archive Centre
- latest Zlib sources (1.2.11 at the time of writing) from the HP-UX Porting and Archive Centre
- latest PCRE sources (8.42 at the time of writing) from the HP-UX Porting and Archive Centre
- latest ngx_brotli module
- latest libbrotli library
- HP GCC 4.7.1 (it may work with previous versions of GCC but I didn’t try), it used to be available for registered HPE users. Unfortunately I don’t have the .depot anymore. Maybe try http://mirrors.develooper.com/hpux/downloads.html as an alternative to get GCC.
- (optional) latest precompiled git from the HP-UX Porting and Archive Centre (or you can compile it from sources)
- (optional) wget or curl to download files from the HP-UX Porting and Archive Centre
I did not have the HP ANSI C compiler so it is not required.
I have the following depots installed:
GNU_C_C++ 4.7.1 autoconf 2.69 autoconf automake 1.15 automake bash 4.4.23 bash binutils 2.30 binutils bison 3.0.5 bison bzip2 1.0.6 bzip2 curl 7.55.0 curl cyrus_sasl 2.1.26 cyrus_sasl db 6.2.32 db depothelper 2.10 depothelper editline 2.9 editline expat 2.2.3 expat expect 5.45 expect file 5.31 file flex 2.6.4 flex fontconfig 2.12.4 fontconfig freetype 2.8 freetype gawk 4.1.2 gawk gdbm 1.13 gdbm gettext 0.19.8.1 gettext git 2.14.0 git glib2 2.34.3 glib2 gmp 6.1.2 gmp heimdal 1.5.2 heimdal hpuxclnt 7.4.101-58 Avamar client libXft 2.3.2 libXft libXrender 0.9.10 libXrender libevent 2.1.8 libevent libgcc 4.2.3 libgcc libiconv 1.15 libiconv libidn 1.33 libidn libpng 1.6.30 libpng libtool 2.4.6 libtool libunistring 0.9.7 libunistring m4 1.4.18 m4 make 4.1 make mpc 1.1.0 mpc mpfr 4.0.1 mpfr nano 2.8.6 nano ncurses 6.0 ncurses openldap 2.4.45 openldap openssl 1.0.2l openssl p7zip 9.20.1 p7zip perl 5.10.1 perl pkgconfig 0.29.2 pkgconfig popt 1.16 popt readline 7.0.003 readline regex 0.12 regex rsync 3.0.9 rsync sed 4.5 sed tar 1.26 tar tcltk 8.5.19 tcltk termcap 1.3.1 termcap texinfo 5.2 texinfo zip 3.0 zip zlib 1.2.11 zlib
I think the important ones for building are GNU_C_C++ 4.7.1, autoconf, automake, binutils, bison, db, flex, m4, gettext, libiconv, libidn, libtool, libunistring, pkgconfig, readline, sed, tar, termcap, zlib. If anything important is missing in this list, then install it and send me a comment so that I can update it.
Environment
$ indicates a command run by your user and # indicates a command run as root (dont type those characters in the terminal).
Create the following directory and cd into it:
$ mkdir ~/dev && cd ~/dev
And place inside all the prerequisites archives you downloaded.
OpenSSL
Extract the OpenSSL archive and cd into the created directory (for example ~/dev/openssl-1.0.2o/), then:
$ ./Configure hpux64-ia64-gcc shared $ gmake depend $ gmake # gmake install
It should compile without any issue. If not, look at the error messages and try to guess what happened. If OpenSSL does not compile, you will not be able to compile Nginx with SSL support, and SSL is required for HTTP/2! So that’s a very important step, be sure that OpenSSL compiles before continuing anything else.
Zlib
Extract the Zlib archive and cd into the created directory (for example ~/dev/zlib-1.2.11/), then:
$ nano configure
Find this section:
if [ "`uname -s`" = "HP-UX" ]
then
export prefix="/usr/local"
export PATH="$prefix/bin:$PATH"
if [ "`uname -m`" = "ia64" ]
then
export libdir="$prefix/lib/hpux32"
export libext=".so"
else
export libext=".sl"
fi
export CC="cc"
export CFLAGS="+z -O -I." And replace it with:
if [ "`uname -s`" = "HP-UX" ]
then
export prefix="/usr/local"
export PATH="$prefix/bin:$PATH"
if [ "`uname -m`" = "ia64" ]
then
export libdir="$prefix/lib/hpux64"
export libext=".so"
else
export libext=".sl"
fi
export CC="gcc"
export CFLAGS="-mlp64 -O -I." Then type the following:
$ ./configure $ gmake # gmake install
PCRE
Extract the PCRE archive and cd into the created directory (for example ~/dev/pcre-8.42/), then:
$ nano configure
Find the following section:
if [ "`uname -s`" = "HP-UX" ]
then
export prefix="/usr/local"
export PATH="$prefix/bin:$PATH"
if [ "`uname -m`" = "ia64" ]
then
export libdir="$prefix/lib/hpux64"
flags64="+DD64"
else
export libdir="$prefix/lib"
flags64=""
fi
export CC="cc"
export CFLAGS="-O $flags64 +Z -I$prefix/include"
export CXX="/opt/aCC/bin/aCC"
export CPPFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS -AA"
export LDFLAGS="$flags64 +Z -Wl,+b -Wl,$libdir -L$libdir" And replace it with the following:
if [ "`uname -s`" = "HP-UX" ]
then
export prefix="/usr/local"
export PATH="$prefix/bin:$PATH"
if [ "`uname -m`" = "ia64" ]
then
export libdir="$prefix/lib/hpux64"
flags64="-mlp64"
else
export libdir="$prefix/lib"
flags64=""
fi
export CC="gcc"
export CFLAGS="-O $flags64 -I$prefix/include"
export CXX="g++"
export CPPFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
export CXXFLAGS="$CFLAGS"
export LDFLAGS="$flags64 -Wl,+b -Wl,$libdir -L$libdir" Then type the following:
$ ./configure --enable-shared $ gmake # gmake install
LibBrotli
Extract the Libbrotli archive and cd into the created directory (for example ~/dev/libbrotli/), then:
$ ./configure CC="gcc" CFLAGS="-mlp64" CPP="gcc -E" CXX="g++" CXXFLAGS="-mlp64" CXXCPP="g++ -E" $ gmake # gmake install
Nginx
We’re almost there!
- Extract the Nginx brotli module archive (for example in ~/dev/ngx_brotli/)
- Extract the Nginx archive and cd into the created directory (for example ~/dev/nginx-1.15/)
Then:
$ nano auto/lib/pcre/make
Find and replace the following line:
./configure --disable-shared $PCRE_CONF_OPT
With:
./configure --disable-cpp --disable-shared $PCRE_CONF_OPT
Then:
$ nano auto/lib/openssl/make
Find and replace the following line:
&& ./config --prefix=$ngx_prefix no-shared $OPENSSL_OPT \\
With:
&& ./Configure --prefix=$ngx_prefix hpux64-ia64-gcc no-shared no-threads $OPENSSL_OPT
Then:
$ CFLAGS="-mlp64" ./configure \ --with-pcre=/home/your_user/dev/pcre-8.42 \ --with-zlib=/home/your_user/dev/zlib-1.2.11 \ --with-openssl=/home/your_user/dev/openssl-1.0.2o \ --add-module=/home/your_user/dev/ngx_brotli \ --with-http_v2_module \ --with-http_ssl_module \ --with-http_auth_request_module \ --with-http_gzip_static_module \ --with-http_gunzip_module \ --with-ld-opt="-mlp64 -L /usr/local/ssl/lib -L /usr/local/lib" \ --with-cc-opt="-mlp64 -I /usr/local/ssl/include -I /usr/local/include -Wno-sign-compare" \ --with-cc=/opt/hp-gcc/bin/gcc \ --user=www \ --group=www \ --build=GabSoftware \ --with-threads \ --with-stream=dynamic \ --with-debug \ --with-http_realip_module \ --with-http_addition_module \ --with-http_sub_module \ --with-http_random_index_module \ --with-http_secure_link_module \ --with-http_degradation_module \ --with-http_slice_module \ --with-stream_ssl_module \ --with-http_stub_status_module
$ gmake
It should build without errors (it will take a while because it has to recompile OpenSSL…). Then check the output of
$ objs/nginx -V
If everything is okay, you should get something like:
nginx version: nginx/1.15.0 (GabSoftware) built with OpenSSL 1.0.2o 27 Mar 2018 TLS SNI support enabled configure arguments: --with-pcre=/home/your_user/dev/pcre-8.42 --with-zlib=/home/your_user/dev/zlib-1.2.11 --with-openssl=/home/your_user/dev/openssl-1.0.2o --add-module=/home/your_user/dev/ngx_brotli --with-http_v2_module --with-http_ssl_module --with-http_auth_request_module --with-http_gzip_static_module --with-http_gunzip_module --with-ld-opt='-mlp64 -L /usr/local/ssl/lib -L /usr/local/lib' --with-cc-opt='-mlp64 -I /usr/local/ssl/include -I /usr/local/include -Wno-sign-compare' --with-cc=/opt/hp-gcc/bin/gcc --user=www --group=www --build=GabSoftware --with-threads --with-stream=dynamic --with-debug --with-http_realip_module --with-http_addition_module --with-http_sub_module --with-http_random_index_module --with-http_secure_link_module --with-http_degradation_module --with-http_slice_module --with-stream_ssl_module --with-http_stub_status_module
Finally, install your freshly built Nginx:
# gmake install
Running Nginx
Don’t forget to create the www user and the associated www group with home directory /home/www.
As a courtesy, I give you the following script to manage your Nginx instance:
#!/usr/bin/bash
# This script must be run as root for every action except "status"
NGINX_HOME="/usr/local/nginx"
nginx="$NGINX_HOME/sbin/nginx"
function check_root {
if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
echo "This action must be run as root!" 1>&2
exit 1
fi
}
case $1 in
"status")
nbnginx="$(pgrep -f nginx | wc -l)"
if [ "$nbnginx" -eq "0" ]; then
echo "Nginx is not running"
else
echo "Nginx OK! ($nbnginx processes)"
fi
;;
"start")
check_root
echo "Starting Nginx..."
$nginx
echo "Done!"
;;
"stop")
check_root
echo "Stopping Nginx..."
$nginx -s stop
echo "Done!"
;;
"restart")
check_root
echo "Restarting Nginx..."
$nginx -s stop
$nginx
echo "Done!"
;;
"reload")
check_root
echo "Reloading Nginx config..."
$nginx -s reload
echo "Done!"
;;
*)
echo "Usage: webserver [status | start | stop | restart | reload]"
echo " status = Nginx status"
echo " start = Start Nginx (root required)"
echo " stop = Stop Nginx (root required)"
echo " restart = Stop Nginx, then Start Nginx (root required)"
echo " reload = Reload Nginx config (root required)"
;;
esac
You are free to use and modify this script as you want. I use Bash but maybe you use Ksh or Zsh.
Save this script as /home/www/webserver and chmod +x it so that it can be executed.
Then you just need to type the following, as root:
# /home/www/webserver start Starting Nginx... Done!
Check that Nginx is running:
$ /home/www/webserver status Nginx OK! (2 processes)
$ ps -ef | grep nginx root 1259 1 0 15:26:01 ? 0:00 /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx your_user 4553 21205 0 17:44:40 pts/2 0:00 grep nginx www 1260 1259 0 15:26:01 ? 0:01 /usr/local/nginx/sbin/nginx
You now have the latest Nginx with Brotli and HTTP/2 support! Good job 🙂
Note: if Nginx complains about ports already in use, check that your Apache server is stopped or not listening to the 80 and 443 ports!