Merge pull request #2149 from annando/issue-1921

[friendica.git] / INSTALL.txt

diff --git a/INSTALL.txt b/INSTALL.txt
index 574e90975b1e2ed1d6fc904502f150e545227248..7726bdb0d7d6d3374f30b24b37fd5338ed1ce325 100644 (file)
--- a/INSTALL.txt
+++ b/INSTALL.txt
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ php.ini file [or see 'poormancron' in section 8]
 directory/path component in the URL) is preferred. This is REQUIRED if
 you wish to communicate with the Diaspora network.
 
 directory/path component in the URL) is preferred. This is REQUIRED if
 you wish to communicate with the Diaspora network.
 

+
+       - For alternative server configurations (such as Nginx server and MariaDB 
+       database engine), refer to the wiki at https://github.com/friendica/friendica/wiki
+

 2. Unpack the Friendica files into the root of your web server document area.
 
        - If you copy the directory tree to your webserver, make sure
 2. Unpack the Friendica files into the root of your web server document area.
 
        - If you copy the directory tree to your webserver, make sure


@@ -60,6 +64,8 @@ you wish to communicate with the Diaspora network.
 3. Create an empty database and note the access details (hostname, username, 
 password, database name).
 
 3. Create an empty database and note the access details (hostname, username, 
 password, database name).
 

+    - Friendica needs the permission to create and delete fields and tables in its own database.
+

 
 4. If you know in advance that it will be impossible for the web server to 
 write or create files in your web directory, create an empty file called 
 
 4. If you know in advance that it will be impossible for the web server to 
 write or create files in your web directory, create an empty file called 


@@ -222,3 +228,50 @@ Retry the installation. As soon as the database has been created,
 
 % chmod 755 .htconfig.php
 
 
 % chmod 755 .htconfig.php
 

+#####################################################################
+- Some configurations with "suhosin" security are configured without
+an ability to run external processes. Friendica requires this ability.
+Following are some notes provided by one of our members.
+#####################################################################
+
+On my server I use the php protection system Suhosin
+[http://www.hardened-php.net/suhosin/]. One of the things it does is to block
+certain functions like proc_open, as configured in /etc/php5/conf.d/suhosin.ini:
+
+ suhosin.executor.func.blacklist = proc_open, ...
+
+For those sites like Friendica that really need these functions they can be
+enabled, e.g. in /etc/apache2/sites-available/friendica:
+
+ <Directory /var/www/friendica/>
+  php_admin_value suhosin.executor.func.blacklist none
+  php_admin_value suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist none
+ </Directory>
+
+This enables every function for Friendica if accessed via browser, but not for
+the cronjob that is called via php command line. I attempted to enable it for
+cron by using something like
+
+ */10 * * * * cd /var/www/friendica/friendica/ && sudo -u www-data /usr/bin/php
+-d suhosin.executor.func.blacklist=none -d suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist=none
+-f include/poller.php
+
+This worked well for simple test cases, but the friendica-cron still failed with
+a fatal error:
+suhosin[22962]: ALERT - function within blacklist called: proc_open() (attacker
+'REMOTE_ADDR not set', file '/var/www/friendica/friendica/boot.php', line 1341)
+
+After a while I noticed, that include/poller.php calls further php script via
+proc_open. These scripts themselves also use proc_open and fail, because they
+are NOT called with -d suhosin.executor.func.blacklist=none.
+
+So the simple solution is to put the correct parameters into .htconfig.php:
+ // Location of PHP command line processor
+ $a->config['php_path'] = '/usr/bin/php -d suhosin.executor.func.blacklist=none
+-d suhosin.executor.eval.blacklist=none';
+
+
+This is obvious as soon as you notice that the friendica-cron uses proc_open to
+execute php-scripts that also use proc_open, but it took me quite some time to
+find that out. I hope this saves some time for other people using suhosin with
+function blacklists.