HeliDB requires Java 5 or a newer Java version to run.

Get HeliDB from http://www.helidb.org. There are two different HeliDB distributions. The binary archive contains everything necessary for using HeliDB. The source archive contains everything that the binary archive contains as well as the complete source code and an Eclipse workspace for developing HeliDB.

Unzip the distribution into a directory.

HeliDB Jar files are in the lib sub directory of the distribution. The helidb-full-1.1.1.jar file contains all HeliDB classes, except for the unit tests. The other Jar files contain subsets of the HeliDB classes. Together all subset Jars contain all of the classes in the "full" Jar. See the README.txt file in the lib directory for a listing of what the different Jar files contain.

The HeliDB source distribution comes with a Schmant script for running all unit tests. To run it, open a command window (terminal, cmd) and change directory to the distribution's build directory. Set the JAVA_HOME environment variable to point to a Java 6 installation.

On Unix, run:

$ cd [HeliDB install path]/build
$ # For instance
$ export JAVA_HOME=/opt/java6
$ schmant.sh run_unit_tests.js

On Windows, run:

> cd [HeliDB install path]\build
> rem For instance. Note the absence of quotes in JAVA_HOME
> set JAVA_HOME=c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_16
> schmant run_unit_tests.js

To run the tests using another JVM than the one used for running Schmant, set the Schmant variable javaCmd to point to the java command to use. For example, on Unix:

$ cd [HeliDB install path]/build
$ # For instance
$ export JAVA_HOME=/opt/java6
$ schmant.sh -p javaCmd=/opt/java5/bin/java run_unit_tests.js

Or on Windows:

> cd [HeliDB install path]\build
> rem For instance. Note the absence of quotes in JAVA_HOME
> set JAVA_HOME=c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_16
> rem Note how the javaCmd argument is quoted
> schmant -p "javaCmd=c:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.5.0_21\bin\java.exe" run_unit_tests.js

See the header of the run_unit_tests.js script for more ways to configure how the units are test run.

On Windows, anti-virus software may interfere with the test. Run the tests with the anti-virus software disabled.

Run the performance test suite by opening a command window and change directory to the distribution's root directory.

On Unix, run:

java -server -Xincgc -Xmx1024m \
  -cp lib/helidb-full-1.1.1.jar:lib/entityfs-core-[VERSION].jar:lib/helidb-junit4-1.1.1.jar:build/lib/helidb_perftest.jar \
  org.helidb.resources.perf.PerformanceTestRunner

Or, on Windows:

java -server -Xincgc -Xmx1024m \
  -cp lib\helidb-full-1.1.1.jar;lib\entityfs-core-[VERSION].jar;lib\helidb-junit4-1.1.1.jar;build\lib\helidb_perftest.jar \
  org.helidb.resources.perf.PerformanceTestRunner

To create graphs from the test results, add the argument -g last. The graphs are put in the platform's temporary directory (java.io.tmpdir).

All performance tests take approximately 50 hours to run…