Tested on NetBSD 5.0
Install prerequisites:
pkg_add icu erlang spidermonkey gmake
Download the source tarball from http://couchdb.apache.org/downloads.html untar and cd in to the directory. Then configure and compile:
./configure --with-js-lib=/usr/pkg/lib --with-js-include=/usr/pkg/include --with-erlang=/usr/pkg/lib/erlang/usr/include gmake gmake install
Take care of permissions:
su useradd couchdb group add couchdb touch /usr/local/var/run/couchdb.pid chown couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/run/couchdb.pid chown couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/log/couchdb/couch.log chown couchdb:couchdb /usr/local/var/lib/couchdb
Start:
/usr/local/etc/rc.d/couchdb start
Test: http://localhost:5984/