4 We've tried very hard to ensure that Friendica will run on commodity hosting
5 platforms - such as those used to host Wordpress blogs and Drupal websites.
6 But be aware that Friendica is more than a simple web application. It is a
7 complex communications system which more closely resembles an email server
8 than a web server. For reliability and performance, messages are delivered in
9 the background and are queued for later delivery when sites are down. This
10 kind of functionality requires a bit more of the host system than the typical
11 blog. Not every PHP/MySQL hosting provider will be able to support Friendica.
12 Many will. But please review the requirements and confirm these with your
13 hosting provider prior to installation.
15 Before you begin: Choose a domain name or subdomain name for your server.
16 Put some thought into this - because changing it is currently not-supported.
17 Things will break, and some of your friends may have difficulty communicating
18 with you. We plan to address this limitation in a future release. Also decide
19 if you wish to connect with members of the Diaspora network, as this will
20 impact the installation requirements.
22 Decide if you will use SSL and obtain an SSL cert. Communications with the
23 Diaspora network MAY require both SSL AND an SSL cert signed by a CA which is
24 recognised by the major browsers. Friendica will work with self-signed certs
25 but Diaspora communication may not. For best results, install your cert PRIOR
26 to installing Friendica and when visiting your site for the initial
27 installation in step 5, please use the https: link. (Use the http: or non-SSL
28 link if your cert is self-signed).
32 - Apache with mod-rewrite enabled and "Options All" so you can use a
35 - PHP 5.2+. The later the better. PHP 5.3 is required for communications
36 with the Diaspora network and improved security.
38 - PHP *command line* access with register_argc_argv set to true in the
39 php.ini file [or see 'poormancron' in section 8]
41 - curl, gd (with at least jpeg support), mysql, mbstring, mcrypt, and openssl extensions
43 - some form of email server or email gateway such that PHP mail() works
47 - ability to schedule jobs with cron (Linux/Mac) or Scheduled Tasks
48 (Windows) [Note: other options are presented in Section 8 of this document]
50 - Installation into a top-level domain or sub-domain (without a
51 directory/path component in the URL) is preferred. This is REQUIRED if
52 you wish to communicate with the Diaspora network.
55 - For alternative server configurations (such as Nginx server and MariaDB
56 database engine), refer to the wiki at https://github.com/friendica/friendica/wiki
58 2. Unpack the Friendica files into the root of your web server document area.
60 - If you copy the directory tree to your webserver, make sure
61 that you also copy .htaccess - as "dot" files are often hidden
62 and aren't normally copied.
64 3. Create an empty database and note the access details (hostname, username,
65 password, database name).
67 - Friendica needs the permission to create and delete fields and tables in its own database.
70 4. If you know in advance that it will be impossible for the web server to
71 write or create files in your web directory, create an empty file called
72 .htconfig.php and make it writable by the web server.
74 5. Visit your website with a web browser and follow the instructions. Please
75 note any error messages and correct these before continuing. If you are using
76 SSL with a known signature authority (recommended), use the https: link to your
77 website. If you are using a self-signed cert or no cert, use the http: link.
79 6. *If* the automated installation fails for any reason, check the following:
81 - ".htconfig.php" exists
82 If not, edit htconfig.php and change system settings. Rename
84 - Database is populated.
85 If not, import the contents of "database.sql" with phpmyadmin
88 7. At this point visit your website again, and register your personal account.
89 Registration errors should all be recoverable automatically.
90 If you get any *critical* failure at this point, it generally indicates the
91 database was not installed correctly. You might wish to move/rename
92 .htconfig.php to another name and empty (called 'dropping') the database
93 tables, so that you can start fresh.
95 ****************************************************************************
96 ****************************************************************************
97 ******** THIS NEXT STEP IS IMPORTANT!!!! ***********
98 ****************************************************************************
99 ****************************************************************************
101 8. Set up a cron job or scheduled task to run the poller once every 5-10
102 minutes to pick up the recent "public" postings of your friends. Example:
104 cd /base/directory; /path/to/php include/poller.php
106 Change "/base/directory", and "/path/to/php" as appropriate for your situation.
108 If you are using a Linux server, run "crontab -e" and add a line like the
109 one shown, substituting for your unique paths and settings:
111 */10 * * * * cd /home/myname/mywebsite; /usr/bin/php include/poller.php
113 You can generally find the location of PHP by executing "which php". If you
114 have troubles with this section please contact your hosting provider for
115 assistance. Friendica will not work correctly if you cannot perform this step.
117 You should also be sure that $a->config['php_path'] is set correctly, it should
118 look like (changing it to the correct PHP location)
120 $a->config['php_path'] = '/usr/local/php53/bin/php'
122 Alternative: You may be able to use the 'poormancron' plugin to perform this
123 step if you are using a recent Friendica release. 'poormancron' may result in
124 perfomance and memory issues and is only suitable for small sites with one or
125 two users and a handful of contacts. To do this, edit the file
126 ".htconfig.php" and look for a line describing your plugins. On a fresh
127 installation, it will look like
129 $a->config['system']['addon'] = 'js_upload';
131 This indicates the "js_upload" addon module is enabled. You may add additional
132 addons/plugins using this same line in the configuration file. Change it to
135 $a->config['system']['addon'] = 'js_upload,poormancron';
137 and save your changes.
139 9. (Optional) Reverse-proxying and HTTPS
141 Friendica looks for some well-known HTTP headers indicating a reverse-proxy
142 terminating an HTTPS connection. While the standard from RFC 7239 specifies
143 the use of the `Forwaded` header.
145 Forwarded: for=192.0.2.1; proto=https; by=192.0.2.2
147 Friendica also supports a number on non-standard headers in common use.
150 X-Forwarded-Proto: https
156 It is however preferable to use the standard approach if configuring a new server.
158 #####################################################################
160 If things don't work...
162 #####################################################################
165 #####################################################################
166 - If you get the message
167 "System is currently unavailable. Please try again later"
168 #####################################################################
170 Check your database settings. It usually means your database could not
171 be opened or accessed. If the database resides on the same machine, check that
172 the database server name is "localhost".
174 #####################################################################
176 #####################################################################
178 This could be the result of one of our Apache directives not being
179 supported by your version of Apache. Examine your apache server logs.
180 You might remove the line "Options -Indexes" from the .htaccess file if
181 you are using a Windows server as this has been known to cause problems.
182 Also check your file permissions. Your website and all contents must generally
185 It is likely that your web server reported the source of the problem in
186 its error log files. Please review these system error logs to determine what
187 caused the problem. Often this will need to be resolved with your hosting
188 provider or (if self-hosted) your web server configuration.
190 #####################################################################
191 - 400 and 4xx "File not found" errors
192 #####################################################################
194 First check your file permissions. Your website and all contents must
195 generally be world-readable.
197 Ensure that mod-rewite is installed and working, and that your
198 .htaccess file is being used. To verify the latter, create a file test.out
199 containing the word "test" in the top directory of Friendica, make it world
200 readable and point your web browser to
202 http://yoursitenamehere.com/test.out
204 This file should be blocked. You should get a permission denied message.
206 If you see the word "test" your Apache configuration is not allowing
207 your .htaccess file to be used (there are rules in this file to block access
208 to any file with .out at the end, as these are typically used for system logs).
210 Make certain the .htaccess file exists and is readable by everybody, then
211 look for the existence of "AllowOverride None" in the Apache server
212 configuration for your site. This will need to be changed to
215 If you do not see the word "test", your .htaccess is working, but it is
216 likely that mod-rewrite is not installed in your web server or is not working.
218 On most flavour of Linux,
221 % /etc/init.d/apache2 restart
223 Consult your hosting provider, experts on your particular Linux
224 distribution or (if Windows) the provider of your Apache server software if
225 you need to change either of these and can not figure out how. There is
226 a lot of help available on the web. Google "mod-rewrite" along with the
227 name of your operating system distribution or Apache package (if using
231 #####################################################################
232 - If you are unable to write the file .htconfig.php during installation
233 due to permissions issues:
234 #####################################################################
236 create an empty file with that name and give it world-write permission.
239 % touch .htconfig.php
240 % chmod 777 .htconfig.php
242 Retry the installation. As soon as the database has been created,
244 ******* this is important *********
246 % chmod 755 .htconfig.php
248 #####################################################################
249 - Some configurations with "suhosin" security are configured without
250 an ability to run external processes. Friendica requires this ability.
251 Following are some notes provided by one of our members.
252 #####################################################################
254 On my server I use the php protection system Suhosin
255 [http://www.hardened-php.net/suhosin/]. One of the things it does is to block
256 certain functions like proc_open, as configured in /etc/php5/conf.d/suhosin.ini:
258 suhosin.executor.func.blacklist = proc_open, ...
260 For those sites like Friendica that really need these functions they can be
261 enabled, e.g. in /etc/apache2/sites-available/friendica:
263 <Directory /var/www/friendica/>
264 php_admin_value suhosin.executor.func.blacklist none
265 php_admin_value suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist none
268 This enables every function for Friendica if accessed via browser, but not for
269 the cronjob that is called via php command line. I attempted to enable it for
270 cron by using something like
272 */10 * * * * cd /var/www/friendica/friendica/ && sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php
273 -d suhosin.executor.func.blacklist=none -d suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist=none
274 -f include/poller.php
276 This worked well for simple test cases, but the friendica-cron still failed with
278 suhosin[22962]: ALERT - function within blacklist called: proc_open() (attacker
279 'REMOTE_ADDR not set', file '/var/www/friendica/friendica/boot.php', line 1341)
281 After a while I noticed, that include/poller.php calls further php script via
282 proc_open. These scripts themselves also use proc_open and fail, because they
283 are NOT called with -d suhosin.executor.func.blacklist=none.
285 So the simple solution is to put the correct parameters into .htconfig.php:
286 // Location of PHP command line processor
287 $a->config['php_path'] = '/usr/bin/php -d suhosin.executor.func.blacklist=none
288 -d suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist=none';
291 This is obvious as soon as you notice that the friendica-cron uses proc_open to
292 execute php-scripts that also use proc_open, but it took me quite some time to
293 find that out. I hope this saves some time for other people using suhosin with