CouchDB requires Ubuntu 16.04. If building on 18.04, then LXD might be useful.
lxc launch ubuntu:16.04 couchdb-pkg
lxc exec couchdb-pkg bash
sudo apt update
sudo apt install snapd snapcraft
git clone https://github.com/couchdb/couchdb-pkg.git
cd couchdb-pkg
snap/snapcraft.yaml to point to the correct tag (e.g. 2.2.0)snapcraftYou may need to pull the LXD file to the host system.
$ lxc file pull couchdb-pkg/root/couchdb-pkg/couchdb_2.2.0_amd64.snap /tmp/couchdb_2.2.0_amd64.snap
The self crafted snap will need to be installed in devmode
$ sudo snap install /tmp/couchdb_2.2.0_amd64.snap --devmode
There are two levels of erlang and couchdb configuration hierarchy.
The default layer is stored in /snap/couchdb/current/rel/couchdb/etc/ and is read only. The user override layer, is stored in /var/snap/couchdb/current/etc/ and is writable. Within this second layer, configurations are set with the local.d directory (one file per section) or the local.ini (co-mingled). The “snap set” command works with the former (local.d) and couchdb http configuration overwrites the latter (local.ini). Entries in local.ini supersede those in the local.d directory.
The name of the erlang process and the security cookie used is set in vm.args file. This can be set through the snap native configuration. For example, when setting up a cluster over several machines the convention is to set the erlang name to couchdb@your.ip.address. Both erlang and couchdb configuration changes can be made at the same time.
$ sudo snap set couchdb name=couchdb@216.3.128.12 setcookie=cutter admin=Be1stDB bind-address=0.0.0.0
Snap set variable can not contain underscore character, but any dashes are converted to underscore when writing to file. Wrap double quotes around any bracets and avoid spaces.
$ sudo snap set couchdb delayed-commits=true erlang="{couch_native_process,start_link,[]}"
Snap Native Configuration changes only come into effect after a restart
$ sudo snap restart couchdb
See the HOWTO.md file to see an example of a three node cluster.