Setting up the On-Premises Edition of axe DevTools Linter

The on-premises edition of axe DevTools Linter is a 64-bit x86 Linux binary that allows your organization to use axe DevTools Linter locally. This guide shows how to set up this software.

To install the on-premises axe DevTools Linter, you'll need the server binary, which is available for 64-bit x86 Linux. You'll also need NGINX if you want to set up a reverse proxy instance (to use encrypted requests because axe DevTools Linter doesn't understand encrypted connections).

Installation

To install the server, first copy the installer compressed tar file (axe_Linter_installer.tar.gz) to a new directory because the files will be extracted to root of the directory.

You can extract the installation files by typing the following:

tar xvfz axe_Linter_installer.tar.gz

Before you can run the installer, you need to set the execute flag on the file by typing the following:

chmod +x installer

You can now run the installer. You need to run it as root by typing the following:

sudo ./installer

Setting the Server to Run Automatically

The first step to running axe DevTools Linter at boot time is to edit the server's configuration as root:

vi /etc/systemd/system/axe-linter.service

Add the following lines to the bottom of the file:

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

Now you need to enable the service by typing:

sudo systemctl enable axe-linter

You should now reboot the machine to see if axe DevTools Linter starts automatically. The next section shows how to obtain the server's status.

Obtaining Server Status

You can use the systemctl command to check the status of the running server as shown below:

systemctl status axe-linter

The following shows an example of output from a running server:

● axe-linter.service - Axe Linter Service
   Loaded: loaded (/opt/deque/service/axe-linter.service; linked; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2021-11-24 12:34:11 PST; 6 days ago
     Docs: https://deque.com/axe
 Main PID: 4401 (axe-linter-serv)
    Tasks: 10 (limit: 2108)
   CGroup: /system.slice/axe-linter.service
           └─4401 /opt/deque/axe-linter-service

Nov 24 12:34:11 galliumos systemd[1]: Started Axe Linter Service.

If the server is not running you will see output similar to the following:

● axe-linter.service - Axe Linter Service
   Loaded: loaded (/opt/deque/service/axe-linter.service; linked; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: inactive (dead)
     Docs: https://deque.com/axe