[PD] How to install netpd-server (was: netpd 2.2 released)

[Roman Haefeli]

Hey Julian

On Mon, 2020-05-04 at 15:53 +0100, Julian Brooks wrote:
> I've got a classful of computing 17yo's who I'd like to spend a few
> weeks with netpd, and also do some intro pd coding with. Sadly I've
> been told we have to do this on a private server - even more
> annoyingly this will be with aws (on ubuntu).

Sounds fine. No need to worry so far.

> Any gotchas or tips on setting up a netpd server you can share would
> be much appreciated. e.g. - Does the server need the various libs
> installed, realtime prios, memory allocation etc.? 

You need only the handful of externals as documented in the README of
netpd-server: iemnet, osc, slip. The server is basically only a relay
and doesn't need any special configuration or that much resources. It
is also not real-time sensitive. I've tested both, Debian 10 and Ubuntu
18.04. There you can simply use Pd and externals from official repos:

$ apt install --no-install-recommends puredata-core pd-iemnet pd-osc pd-slip git-core

And the software itself:

$ cd /opt
$ git clone https://github.com/reduzent/netpd-server

Then you can you already run it with:

$ pd -nogui -noaudio -nomidi -open /opt/netpd-server/netpd-server.pd


As systemd service
------------------

I usually create a systemd service unit file to run it as a service
proper that is automatically started when the system reboots.

For that, let's create a dedicated system user:

$ useradd -r -s /usr/sbin/nologin tpf-server


For creating a system unit file, put content between --- into
/etc/system/systemd/netpd-server.service:

---
[Unit]
Description=netpd server
After=syslog.target

[Service]
Type=simple
ExecStart=/usr/bin/pd \
   -nogui -noaudio -nomidi -nrt \
   -open /opt/netpd-server/netpd-server.pd
User=netpd-server
Group=netpd-server

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
---


Now, you enable the service with:

$ systemctl daemon-reload
$ systemctl enable netpd-server.service

and start it with:

$ systemctl start netpd-server.service

Done.

I hope this makes you fly within a few minutes. Beware that the client
defaults to netpd.org as server. However, you could distribute a
customized netpd-preferences.cnf near main.pd, so that your students do
not have to care about configuring the correct server first.

Cheers,
Roman

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