Database Reference
In-Depth Information
Understanding the Version Numbers
MongoDB uses the “odd-numbered versions for development releases” approach. In other words, you can tell by
looking at the second part of the version number (also called the release number) whether a version is a development
version or a stable version. If the second number is even, then it's a
stable
release. If the second number is odd, then
it's an
unstable
, or
development
, release.
Let's take a closer look at the three digits included in a version number's three parts, A, B, and C:
•
A, the first (or leftmost) number: Represents the major version and only changes when there is
a full version upgrade.
•
B, the second (or middle) number: Represents the release number and indicates whether
a version is a development version or a stable version. If the number is even, the version is
stable; if the number is odd, the version is unstable and considered a development release.
•
C, the third (or rightmost) number: Represents the revision number; this is used for bugs and
security issues.
For example, at the time of writing, the following versions were available from the MongoDB website:
•
2.4.3 (Production release)
•
2.2.4 (Previous release)
•
2.5.0 (Development release)
Installing MongoDB on Your System
So far, you've learned which versions of MongoDB are available and—hopefully—were able to select one. Now you're
ready to take a closer look at how to install MongoDB on your particular system. The two main operating systems for
servers at the moment are based on Linux and Microsoft Windows, so this chapter will walk you through how to install
MongoDB on both of these operating systems, beginning with Linux.
Installing MongoDB under Linux
The Unix-based operating systems are extremely popular choices at the moment for hosting services, including web
services, mail services, and, of course, database services. In this chapter, we'll walk you through how to get MongoDB
running on a popular Linux distribution: Ubuntu.
Depending on your needs, you have two ways of installing MongoDB under Ubuntu: you can install the packages
automatically through so-called
repositories
, or you can install it manually. The next two sections will walk you
through both options.
Installing MongoDB through the Repositories
Repositories are basically online directories filled with software. Every package contains information about the
version number, prerequisites, and possible incompatibilities. This information is useful when you need to install a
software package that requires another piece of software to be installed first because the prerequisites can be installed
at the same time.
The default repositories available in Ubuntu (and other Debian-based distributions) contain MongoDB, but they
may be out-of-date versions of the software. Therefore, let's tell
apt-get
(the software you use to install software
from repositories) to look at a custom repository. To do this, you need to add the following line to your repository-list
(
/etc/apt/sources.list
):
deb
http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart
dist 10gen
