.. _installation_bin_linux:
.. highlight:: bash

Linux
=====

.. note:: 
   This section is for the OS-independent binary.  Currently, no
   automated installer is available for Linux systems.

Installation
------------

#. Install the Java Runtime Environment (JRE).  The installation process varies
   by distribution (for example, Ubuntu's Java installation process is
   documented `on the Ubuntu wiki<https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Java>`_).
   If no instructions are available for your particular distribution, follow
   the `generic instructions from the Oracle Java website
   <http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/install-142943.html>`_.

#. Navigate to the `GeoServer Download
   <http://geoserver.org/display/GEOS/Stable>`_ page and click your preferred
   GeoServer version--Stable, Latest or Nightly.

#. On the resulting page, download and save the :guilabel:`Binary (OS independent)` format of your preferred GeoServer version.  

    .. note:: 
       Download GeoServer wherever you find appropriate.  In this example we
       download the GeoServer archive to the Desktop.  If GeoServer is in a
       different location, simply replace ``Desktop`` in the following command
       to your own folder path.

#. After saving the Geoserver archive, move to the location of your download,
   by first opening a terminal window 
   (:menuselection:`Applications-->System Tools-->Terminal` or
   :menuselection:`Applications --> Accessories --> Terminal` are common menu
   paths to the Terminal application) and then typing the
   following command::

       cd Desktop/

#. Confirm that you are in the right directory by listing its contents.  You
   should see your specific GeoServer archive (e.g.,
   ``GeoServer-2.0-RC1-bin.zip``) by typing::

       ls -l
    
#. Unzip ``geoserver-2.0-RC1.zip`` with the following command::
 
       unzip geoserver-2.0-RC1.zip

#. Add an environment variable to save the location of GeoServer by typing the
   following command::

       echo "export GEOSERVER_HOME=/usr/local/geoserver" >> ~/.profile
       source ~/.profile

#. Start GeoServer by running the ``startup.sh`` script included with
   GeoServer::

       sh geoserver/bin/startup.sh

#. Visit ``http://localhost:8080/geoserver`` in a web browser.