* Apache with mod-rewrite enabled and "Options All" so you can use a local `.htaccess` file
* PHP 7+ (PHP 7.1+ is recommended for performance and official support)
* PHP *command line* access with register_argc_argv set to true in the php.ini file
- * Curl, GD, PDO, MySQLi, hash, xml, zip and OpenSSL extensions
+ * Curl, GD, PDO, mbstrings, MySQLi, hash, xml, zip and OpenSSL extensions
* The POSIX module of PHP needs to be activated (e.g. [RHEL, CentOS](http://www.bigsoft.co.uk/blog/index.php/2014/12/08/posix-php-commands-not-working-under-centos-7) have disabled it)
* some form of email server or email gateway such that PHP mail() works
* MySQL 5.6+ or an equivalent alternative for MySQL (MariaDB, Percona Server etc.)
### Optional
* PHP ImageMagick extension (php-imagick) for animated GIF support.
-* [Composer](https://getcomposer.org/) for a git install
## Installation procedure
### Get Friendica
+Download the full archive of the stable release of Friendica core and the addons from [the project homepage](https://friendi.ca/resources/download-files/).
+Make sure that the version of the Friendica archive and the addons match.
Unpack the Friendica files into the root of your web server document area.
If you copy the directory tree to your webserver, make sure that you also copy `.htaccess-dist` - as "dot" files are often hidden and aren't normally copied.
The Linux commands to clone the repository into a directory "mywebsite" would be
- git clone https://github.com/friendica/friendica.git -b master mywebsite
+ git clone https://github.com/friendica/friendica.git -b stable mywebsite
cd mywebsite
bin/composer.phar install --no-dev
Clone the addon repository (separately):
- git clone https://github.com/friendica/friendica-addons.git -b master addon
+ git clone https://github.com/friendica/friendica-addons.git -b stable addon
If you want to use the development version of Friendica you can switch to the develop branch in the repository by running