7 - Getting it up and running
23 The following software packages are *required* for this software to
26 - PHP 5.4+ For newer versions, some functions that are used may be
27 disabled by default, such as the pcntl_* family. See the
28 section on 'Queues and daemons' for more information.
29 - MariaDB 5+ GNU Social uses, by default, a MariaDB server for data
30 storage. Versions 5.x and 10.x have both reportedly
31 worked well. It is also possible to run MySQL 5.x.
32 - Web server Apache, lighttpd and nginx will all work. CGI mode is
33 recommended and also some variant of 'suexec' (or a
34 proper setup php-fpm pool)
35 NOTE: mod_rewrite or its equivalent is extremely useful.
37 Your PHP installation must include the following PHP extensions for a
38 functional setup of GNU Social:
40 - openssl (compiled in for Debian, enabled manually in Arch Linux)
41 - php5-curl Fetching files by HTTP.
42 - php5-gd Image manipulation (scaling).
43 - php5-gmp For Salmon signatures (part of OStatus).
44 - php5-json For WebFinger lookups and more.
45 - php5-mysqlnd The native driver for PHP5 MariaDB connections. If you
46 use MySQL, 'mysql' or 'mysqli' may work.
48 The above package names are for Debian based systems. In the case of
49 Arch Linux, PHP is compiled with support for most extensions but they
50 require manual enabling in the relevant php.ini file (mostly php5-gmp).
55 For some functionality, you will also need the following extensions:
57 - memcache A client for the memcached server, which caches database
58 information in volatile memory. This is important for
59 adequate performance on high-traffic sites. You will
60 also need a memcached server to store the data in.
61 - mailparse Efficient parsing of email requires this extension.
62 Submission by email or SMS-over-email uses this.
63 - sphinx A client for the sphinx server, an alternative to MySQL
64 or Postgresql fulltext search. You will also need a
65 Sphinx server to serve the search queries.
66 - gettext For multiple languages. Default on many PHP installs;
67 will be emulated if not present.
68 - exif For thumbnails to be properly oriented.
70 You may also experience better performance from your site if you install
71 a PHP bytecode cache/accelerator. Currently the recommended cache module
72 is 'xcache', which after installation (php5-xcache) can be enabled in
73 your site's config.php with:
80 Getting it up and running
81 -------------------------
83 Installing the basic GNU Social web component is relatively easy,
84 especially if you've previously installed PHP/MariaDB packages.
86 1. Unpack the tarball you downloaded on your Web server. Usually a
87 command like this will work:
89 tar zxf gnusocial-*.tar.gz
91 ...which will make a gnusocial-x.y.z subdirectory in your current
92 directory. (If you don't have shell access on your Web server, you
93 may have to unpack the tarball on your local computer and FTP the
96 2. Move the tarball to a directory of your choosing in your Web root
97 directory. Usually something like this will work:
99 mv gnusocial-x.y.z /var/www/gnusocial
101 This will often make your GNU Social instance available in the gnusocial
102 path of your server, like "http://example.net/gnusocial". "social" or
103 "blog" might also be good path names. If you know how to configure
104 virtual hosts on your web server, you can try setting up
105 "http://social.example.net/" or the like.
107 If you have "rewrite" support on your webserver, and you should,
108 then please enable this in order to make full use of your site. This
109 will enable "Fancy URL" support, which you can read more about if you
110 scroll down a bit in this document.
112 3. Make your target directory writeable by the Web server.
114 chmod a+w /var/www/gnusocial/
116 On some systems, this will probably work:
118 chgrp www-data /var/www/gnusocial/
119 chmod g+w /var/www/gnusocial/
121 If your Web server runs as another user besides "www-data", try
122 that user's default group instead. As a last resort, you can create
123 a new group like "gnusocial" and add the Web server's user to the group.
125 4. You should also take this moment to make your avatar, background, and
126 file subdirectories writeable by the Web server. An insecure way to do
129 chmod a+w /var/www/gnusocial/avatar
130 chmod a+w /var/www/gnusocial/background
131 chmod a+w /var/www/gnusocial/file
133 You can also make the avatar, background, and file directories
134 writeable by the Web server group, as noted above.
136 5. Create a database to hold your site data. Something like this
139 mysqladmin -u "root" --password="rootpassword" create gnusocial
141 Note that GNU Social should have its own database; you should not share
142 the database with another program. You can name it whatever you want,
145 (If you don't have shell access to your server, you may need to use
146 a tool like phpMyAdmin to create a database. Check your hosting
147 service's documentation for how to create a new MariaDB database.)
149 6. Create a new database account that GNU Social will use to access the
150 database. If you have shell access, this will probably work from the
153 GRANT ALL on gnusocial.*
154 TO 'gnusocial'@'localhost'
155 IDENTIFIED BY 'agoodpassword';
157 You should change the user identifier 'gnusocial' and 'agoodpassword'
158 to your preferred new database username and password. You may want to
159 test logging in to MariaDB as this new user.
161 7. In a browser, navigate to the GNU Social install script; something like:
163 http://social.example.net/install.php
165 Enter the database connection information and your site name. The
166 install program will configure your site and install the initial,
167 almost-empty database.
169 8. You should now be able to navigate to your social site's main directory
170 and see the "Public Timeline", which will probably be empty. You can
171 now register new user, post some notices, edit your profile, etc.
176 By default, GNU Social will use URLs that include the main PHP program's
177 name in them. For example, a user's home profile might be found at:
179 http://example.net/gnusocial/index.php/gnusocial/fred
181 On certain systems that don't support this kind of syntax, they'll
184 http://example.net/gnusocial/index.php?p=gnusocial/fred
186 It's possible to configure the software so it looks like this instead:
188 http://example.net/gnusocial/fred
190 These "fancy URLs" are more readable and memorable for users. To use
191 fancy URLs, you must either have Apache 2.x with .htaccess enabled and
192 mod_rewrite enabled, -OR- know how to configure "url redirection" in
193 your server (like lighttpd or nginx).
195 1. Copy the htaccess.sample file to .htaccess in your StatusNet
198 2. Change the "RewriteBase" in the new .htaccess file to be the URL path
199 to your GNU Social installation on your server. Typically this will
200 be the path to your GNU Social directory relative to your Web root.
201 If you are installing it in the root directory, leave it as '/'.
203 3. Add, uncomment or change a line in your config.php file so it says:
205 $config['site']['fancy'] = true;
207 You should now be able to navigate to a "fancy" URL on your server,
210 http://example.net/gnusocial/main/register
212 If you changed your HTTP server configuration, you may need to restart
215 If it doesn't work, double-check that AllowOverride for the GNU Social
216 directory is 'All' in your Apache configuration file. This is usually
217 /etc/httpd.conf, /etc/apache/httpd.conf, or (on Debian and Ubuntu)
218 /etc/apache2/sites-available/default. See the Apache documentation for
219 .htaccess files for more details:
221 http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html
223 Also, check that mod_rewrite is installed and enabled:
225 http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_rewrite.html
230 To use a Sphinx server to search users and notices, you'll need to
231 enable the SphinxSearch plugin. Add to your config.php:
233 addPlugin('SphinxSearch');
234 $config['sphinx']['server'] = 'searchhost.local';
236 You also need to install, compile and enable the sphinx pecl extension for
237 php on the client side, which itself depends on the sphinx development files.
239 See plugins/SphinxSearch/README for more details and server setup.
244 StatusNet supports a cheap-and-dirty system for sending update messages
245 to mobile phones and for receiving updates from the mobile. Instead of
246 sending through the SMS network itself, which is costly and requires
247 buy-in from the wireless carriers, it simply piggybacks on the email
248 gateways that many carriers provide to their customers. So, SMS
249 configuration is essentially email configuration.
251 Each user sends to a made-up email address, which they keep a secret.
252 Incoming email that is "From" the user's SMS email address, and "To"
253 the users' secret email address on the site's domain, will be
254 converted to a notice and stored in the DB.
256 For this to work, there *must* be a domain or sub-domain for which all
257 (or most) incoming email can pass through the incoming mail filter.
259 1. Run the SQL script carrier.sql in your StatusNet database. This will
262 mysql -u "statusnetuser" --password="statusnetpassword" statusnet < db/carrier.sql
264 This will populate your database with a list of wireless carriers
265 that support email SMS gateways.
267 2. Make sure the maildaemon.php file is executable:
269 chmod +x scripts/maildaemon.php
271 Note that "daemon" is kind of a misnomer here; the script is more
272 of a filter than a daemon.
274 2. Edit /etc/aliases on your mail server and add the following line:
276 *: /path/to/statusnet/scripts/maildaemon.php
278 3. Run whatever code you need to to update your aliases database. For
279 many mail servers (Postfix, Exim, Sendmail), this should work:
283 You may need to restart your mail server for the new database to
286 4. Set the following in your config.php file:
288 $config['mail']['domain'] = 'yourdomain.example.net';
295 Some activities that StatusNet needs to do, like broadcast OStatus, SMS,
296 XMPP messages and TwitterBridge operations, can be 'queued' and done by
297 off-line bots instead.
299 Two mechanisms are available to achieve offline operations:
301 * New embedded OpportunisticQM plugin, which is enabled by default
302 * Legacy queuedaemon script, which can be enabled via config file.
304 ### OpportunisticQM plugin
306 This plugin is enabled by default. It tries its best to do background
307 job during regular HTTP requests, like API or HTML pages calls.
309 Since queueing system is enabled by default, notices to be broadcasted
310 will be stored, by default, into DB (table queue_item).
312 Each time it can, OpportunisticQM will try to handle some of them.
314 This is a good solution whether you:
316 * have no access to command line (shared hosting)
317 * do not want to deal with long-running PHP processes
318 * run a low traffic GNU social instance
320 In other case, you really should consider enabling the queuedaemon for
321 performance reasons. Background daemons are necessary anyway if you wish
322 to use the Instant Messaging features such as communicating via XMPP.
326 If you want to use legacy queuedaemon, you must be able to run
327 long-running offline processes, either on your main Web server or on
328 another server you control. (Your other server will still need all the
329 above prerequisites, with the exception of Apache.) Installing on a
330 separate server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites.
332 1. You'll need the "CLI" (command-line interface) version of PHP
333 installed on whatever server you use.
335 Modern PHP versions in some operating systems have disabled functions
336 related to forking, which is required for daemons to operate. To make
337 this work, make sure that your php-cli config (/etc/php5/cli/php.ini)
338 does NOT have these functions listed under 'disable_functions':
340 * pcntl_fork, pcntl_wait, pcntl_wifexited, pcntl_wexitstatus,
341 pcntl_wifsignaled, pcntl_wtermsig
343 Other recommended settings for optimal performance are:
344 * mysqli.allow_persistent = On
345 * mysqli.reconnect = On
347 2. If you're using a separate server for queues, install StatusNet
348 somewhere on the server. You don't need to worry about the
349 .htaccess file, but make sure that your config.php file is close
350 to, or identical to, your Web server's version.
352 3. In your config.php files (both the Web server and the queues
353 server!), set the following variable:
355 $config['queue']['enabled'] = true;
356 $config['queue']['daemon'] = true;
358 You may also want to look at the 'daemon' section of this file for
359 more daemon options. Note that if you set the 'user' and/or 'group'
360 options, you'll need to create that user and/or group by hand.
361 They're not created automatically.
363 4. On the queues server, run the command scripts/startdaemons.sh.
365 This will run the queue handlers:
367 * queuedaemon.php - polls for queued items for inbox processing and
368 pushing out to OStatus, SMS, XMPP, etc.
369 * imdaemon.php - if an IM plugin is enabled (like XMPP)
370 * other daemons, like TwitterBridge ones, that you may have enabled
372 These daemons will automatically restart in most cases of failure
373 including memory leaks (if a memory_limit is set), but may still die
374 or behave oddly if they lose connections to the XMPP or queue servers.
376 It may be a good idea to use a daemon-monitoring service, like 'monit',
377 to check their status and keep them running.
379 All the daemons write their process IDs (pids) to /var/run/ by
380 default. This can be useful for starting, stopping, and monitoring the
381 daemons. If you are running multiple sites on the same machine, it will
382 be necessary to avoid collisions of these PID files by setting a site-
383 specific directory in config.php:
385 $config['daemon']['piddir'] = __DIR__ . '/../run/';
387 It is also possible to use a STOMP server instead of our kind of hacky
388 home-grown DB-based queue solution. This is strongly recommended for
389 best response time, especially when using XMPP.
394 Older themes (version 0.9.x and below) no longer work with StatusNet
395 1.0.x, due to major changes in the site layout. We ship with three new
396 themes for this version, 'neo', 'neo-blue' and 'neo-light'.
398 As of right now, your ability to change the theme is site-wide; users
399 can't choose their own theme. Additionally, the only thing you can
400 change in the theme is CSS stylesheets and some image files; you can't
401 change the HTML output, like adding or removing menu items.
403 You can choose a theme using the $config['site']['theme'] element in
404 the config.php file. See below for details.
406 You can add your own theme by making a sub-directory of the 'theme'
407 subdirectory with the name of your theme. Each theme can have the
410 display.css: a CSS2 file for "default" styling for all browsers.
411 logo.png: a logo image for the site.
412 default-avatar-profile.png: a 96x96 pixel image to use as the avatar for
413 users who don't upload their own.
414 default-avatar-stream.png: Ditto, but 48x48. For streams of notices.
415 default-avatar-mini.png: Ditto ditto, but 24x24. For subscriptions
416 listing on profile pages.
418 You may want to start by copying the files from the default theme to
424 Translations in StatusNet use the gettext system <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/>.
425 Theoretically, you can add your own sub-directory to the locale/
426 subdirectory to add a new language to your system. You'll need to
427 compile the ".po" files into ".mo" files, however.
429 Contributions of translation information to StatusNet are very easy:
430 you can use the Web interface at translatewiki.net to add one
431 or a few or lots of new translations -- or even new languages. You can
432 also download more up-to-date .po files there, if you so desire.
434 For info on helping with translations, see http://status.net/wiki/Translations
439 There is no built-in system for doing backups in StatusNet. You can make
440 backups of a working StatusNet system by backing up the database and
441 the Web directory. To backup the database use mysqldump <http://ur1.ca/7xo>
442 and to backup the Web directory, try tar.
447 The administrator can set the "private" flag for a site so that it's
448 not visible to non-logged-in users. (This is the default for new installs of version 1.0!)
450 This might be useful for workgroups who want to share a social
451 networking site for project management, but host it on a public
454 Total privacy is attempted but not guaranteed or ensured. Private sites
455 currently don't work well with OStatus federation.
457 Access to file attachments can also be restricted to logged-in users only.
459 1. Add a directory outside the web root where your file uploads will be
460 stored. Usually a command like this will work:
462 mkdir /var/www/statusnet-files
464 2. Make the file uploads directory writeable by the web server. An
465 insecure way to do this is:
467 chmod a+x /var/www/statusnet-files
469 3. Tell StatusNet to use this directory for file uploads. Add a line
470 like this to your config.php:
472 $config['attachments']['dir'] = '/var/www/statusnet-files';