Installing ImageMagick Without Root Access 


Very few people know about this installation procedure. Most assume that ImageMagick requires root access, and many hosts are unwilling to install it, which would ordinarily exclude any user with a virtual server from using PhotoPost. But you can install ImageMagick even without root access on your virtual server! Here's the procedure:

Download ImageMagick:

ImageMagick-5.3.8.2.tar.gz

(If you want to download the files directly to your server instead of downloading and ftping, use these commands instead):

$ wget http://www.techimo.com/photopost/ImageMagick-5.3.8.2.tar.gz

Create a directory for imagemagick. It doesn't need to be in your cgi-bin, it can be anywhere in your web root / web accessible directory tree. I called mine /home/techimo/public_html/imagemagick for the examples below (be sure to change the paths below to point to your imagemagick directory, not mine). Note: I would recommend installing ImageMagick without .TIF or .PNG support unless you absolutely need it, since the non-root install procedure is easier without it.

Copy the ImageMagick-5.3.8.2.tar.gz file to your imagemagick directory, and unpack it:

$ tar -xvf ImageMagick-5.3.8.2.tar

1. ImageMagick needs the jpeg library to install properly. You can check for the header files in /usr/include and /usr/local/include to see if the library is installed. If you don't find it then it will need to be installed.

jpeglib.h

2. Download the following files and FTP them (via binary mode) to your imagemagick directory:

jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz

(If you want to download the file directly to your server instead of downloading and ftping, use these commands instead):

$ wget http://www.techimo.com/photopost/jpegsrc.v6b.tar.gz

Once the file is in your imagemagick directory, uncompress it:

$ gunzip *.gz

Then unpack everything:

$ tar -xvf jpegsrc.v6b.tar
Create some directories within your imagemagick directory to hold library files:

$ mkdir bin
$ mkdir lib
$ mkdir man
$ mkdir man/man1
$ mkdir include

Now install the jpeg library:

$ cd jpeg-6b
$ ./configure --enable-shared --prefix=/home/techimo/public_html/imagemagick
$ make
$ make install
$ cd ..

$ cd ImageMagick-5.3.8
$ ./configure CFLAGS=-O2 --prefix=/home/techimo/public_html/imagemagick --without-perl --disable-static --enable-shared --with-modules --without-magick_plus_plus --without-bzlib --without-dps --without-fpx --without-hdf --without-lcms --without-jbig --without-png --without-tiff

$ make
$ make install

$ cd PerlMagick
$ perl Makefile.PL PREFIX=/home/techimo/public_html/imagemagick
$ make
$ make install

In order for PhotoPost to find your non-root installation of ImageMagick, you have to add one line to PhotoPost's upload_form.pl script. But first you have to find the path within your imagemagick directory that contains the Magick.pm file. There are a couple of ways to find that path, the easiest is (from within your imagemagick directory):

$ find . -name Magick.pm It should turn up in three places. What you're looking for is a path like this: ./lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-linux/Image/Magick.pm

Now add a line to upload_form.pl to tell PhotoPost where to find your installation of ImageMagick. Add this line immediately after the line in upload_form.pl, admin.pl, and install.pl, that contains "use lib "$Bin/";":

use lib "/home/techimo/public_html/imagemagick/lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-linux";

Note that you will need to change the path above to reflect your correct path, mine is simply an example. Note that the complete path that we found while searching for Magick.pm (in my example) was /lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-linux/Image/Magick.pm, but you only need the /lib/perl5/site_perl/5.005/i386-linux part of it.

That's it! If you have difficulty, you may wish to purchase our Advanced Installation Service.