-- PHP 5.3+. Newer versions may complain on some coding standards, but
- glitches are intended to be fix asap.
-- MySQL 5.x. The StatusNet database is stored, by default, in a MySQL
- server. It has been primarily tested on 5.x servers, although it may
- be possible to install on earlier (or later!) versions. The server
- *must* support the MyISAM storage engine -- the default for most
- MySQL servers -- *and* the InnoDB storage engine.
-- A Web server. Preferably, you should have Apache 2.2.x with the
- mod_rewrite extension installed and enabled.
-
-Your PHP installation must include the following PHP extensions:
-
-- Curl. This is for fetching files by HTTP.
-- XMLWriter. This is for formatting XML and HTML output.
-- MySQL. For accessing the database.
-- GD. For scaling down avatar images.
-- mbstring. For handling Unicode (UTF-8) encoded strings.
+- PHP 5.4+ For newer versions, some functions that are used may be
+ disabled by default, such as the pcntl_* family. See the
+ section on 'Queues and daemons' for more information.
+- MariaDB 5.x GNU Social uses, by default, a MariaDB server for data
+ storage. Versions 5.x and 10.x have both reportedly
+ worked well. It is also possible to run MySQL 5.x.
+- Web server Apache, lighttpd and nginx will all work. CGI mode is
+ recommended and also some variant of 'suexec' (or a
+ proper setup php-fpm pool)
+ NOTE: mod_rewrite or its equivalent is extremely useful.
+
+Your PHP installation must include the following PHP extensions for a
+functional setup of GNU Social:
+
+- Curl Fetching files by HTTP.
+- XMLWriter For formatting XML and HTML output.
+- mysqlnd The native driver for PHP5 MariaDB connections. If you
+ use MySQL, 'mysql' or 'mysqli' may work.
+- GD Image manipulation (scaling).
+- mbstring For handling Unicode (UTF-8) encoded strings.
+- bcmath or gmp For Salmon signatures (part of OStatus).
+
+Better performance
+------------------