Debian 5 comes with CouchDB 0.8 - this is too old. The same is true for Ubuntu 9.04 and 9.10.

I will show how to compile CouchDB 1.0.

• apt-get install couchdb
• apt-get remove erlang erlang-nox couchdb

Why? It's a good idea to install the debian Packages to resolve all dependencies. But you should remove this 3 packages before install the self-compiled versions.

• apt-get install autoconf m4 quilt unixodbc-dev bison flex libsctp-dev
• wget http://www.erlang.org/download/otp_src_R13B04.tar.gz
• cd otp_src_R13B04
• ./configure && make
• make install

⇒ erlang installed in /usr/local

Test: start erl (Quit with Ctrl-C, Ctrl-C, ….)

• - apt-get install cdbs debhelper erlang-dev help2man libicu-dev libmozjs-dev
• apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev (configure: error: Library requirements (curl) not met)
• ./configure && make
  • if you get the error message: configure: error: The installed Erlang version is less than 5.6.5 (R12B05). than you have to compile a newer version of erlang. See above.
• make install

Test: http://localhost:5984/_utils/index.html

• http://hostingfu.com/article/building-couchdb-0-9-debian-5
• How to solve dependencies for sources