Mueez Khan
Mueez Khan
ckan-devstaller CLI to Install CKAN in minutes
Skim a brief introduction to the ckan-devstaller command-line tool I helped build with Rust to speed up CKAN installations for development.
Published: 2025-09-06
Last updated: 2025-10-12
work
rust
This post is based on a blog post I wrote for datHere's blog that was also reposted to civicdataecosystem.org/blog.ckan-devstaller is an open-source command-line tool built with Rust to install a CKAN instance on Ubuntu 22.04 within minutes for development purposes.
CKAN users may be spending hours or even days attempting to set up a local development environment with CKAN installed. With ckan-devstaller, developers can now make use of this tool to more efficiently set up their environments for building extensions and exploring CKAN in just a few minutes by running a single script.
What problem does ckan-devstaller solve?
Developers may be hesitant to set up multiple CKAN instances for development as they have different configurations for each of their use cases. The ckan-devstaller tool allows for quickly setting up a CKAN source installation along with customizable features that can help get developers and team members up and running with CKAN to develop and user-test their extensions by building on top of ckan-devstaller.
People from all sorts of backgrounds can also benefit from ckan-devstaller as a way to try their own local CKAN instance. Launch an Ubuntu 22.04 Linux distribution from a virtual machine program such as VirtualBox, Boxes, VMWare Fusion, or even Windows Subsystem for Linux, and run the script to get set up in just minutes (speed may differ based on user's download speed).
What does ckan-devstaller have to offer?
The default configuration for ckan-devstaller does the following as of 2025-09-06:
- Install
openssh-serverto enable SSH access - Install ckan-compose which sets up the CKAN backend (PostgreSQL, SOLR, Redis)
- Install CKAN v2.11.3 or another compatible version
- Install the DataStore extension
- Install the ckanext-scheming extension
- Install the DataPusher+ extension
- Disable DRUF mode for DataPusher+
ckan-devstaller, or run the defaults with the non-interactive mode. There are more plans for ckan-devstaller such as including more extension options.
I also built a web app for the ckan-devstaller with a documentation section which is planned to include an interactive "Builder" page too. Learn more about ckan-devstaller at ckan-devstaller.dathere.com.
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