+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+=================
+* Prerequisites
+ - PHP modules
+ - Better performance
+* Installation
+ - Getting it up and running
+ - Fancy URLs
+ - Themes
+ - Private
+* Extra features
+ - Sphinx
+ - SMS
+ - Translation
+ - Queues and daemons
+* After installation
+ - Backups
+ - Upgrading
+
Prerequisites
=============
+PHP modules
+-----------
+
The following software packages are *required* for this software to
run correctly.
-- PHP 5.3+ For newer versions, some functions that are used may be
+- PHP 5.5+ 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
+- MariaDB 5+ 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.
+ worked well. It is also possible to run MySQL 5.5+.
- 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)
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 MySQL/MariaDB connections.
-- GD Image manipulation (scaling).
-- mbstring For handling Unicode (UTF-8) encoded strings.
-- bcmath or gmp For Salmon signatures (part of OStatus)
+- openssl (compiled in for Debian, enabled manually in Arch Linux)
+- php5-curl Fetching files by HTTP.
+- php5-gd Image manipulation (scaling).
+- php5-gmp For Salmon signatures (part of OStatus).
+- php5-intl Internationalization support (transliteration et al).
+- php5-json For WebFinger lookups and more.
+- php5-mysqlnd The native driver for PHP5 MariaDB connections. If you
+ use MySQL, 'php5-mysql' or 'php5-mysqli' may be enough.
+
+The above package names are for Debian based systems. In the case of
+Arch Linux, PHP is compiled with support for most extensions but they
+require manual enabling in the relevant php.ini file (mostly php5-gmp).
Better performance
------------------
For some functionality, you will also need the following extensions:
-- memcache A client for the memcached server, which caches database
- information in volatile memory. This is important for
- adequate performance on high-traffic sites. You will
- also need a memcached server to store the data in.
+- opcache Improves performance a _lot_. Included in PHP, must be
+ enabled manually in php.ini for most distributions. Find
+ and set at least: opcache.enable=1
- mailparse Efficient parsing of email requires this extension.
Submission by email or SMS-over-email uses this.
- sphinx A client for the sphinx server, an alternative to MySQL
Sphinx server to serve the search queries.
- gettext For multiple languages. Default on many PHP installs;
will be emulated if not present.
+- exif For thumbnails to be properly oriented.
-You may also experience better performance from your site if you install
-a PHP bytecode cache/accelerator. Currently the recommended cache module
-is 'xcache', which after installation (php5-xcache) can be enabled in
-your site's config.php with:
-
- addPlugin('XCache');
-
-External libraries
-------------------
-
-A number of external PHP libraries are used to provide basic
-functionality and optional functionality for your system. For your
-convenience, they are available in the "extlib" directory of this
-package, and you do not have to download and install them. However,
-you may want to keep them up-to-date with the latest upstream version,
-and the URLs are listed here for your convenience.
-
-- DB_DataObject http://pear.php.net/package/DB_DataObject
-- Validate http://pear.php.net/package/Validate
-- OpenID by Janrain, http://janrain.com/openid-enabled/
-- PEAR DB. Although this is an older data access system (new
- packages should use PDO), the OpenID libraries depend on PEAR DB
- or MDB2.
-- OAuth.php from http://oauth.googlecode.com/svn/code/php/
-- markdown.php from http://michelf.com/projects/php-markdown/
-- PEAR Mail, for sending out mail notifications
- http://pear.php.net/package/Mail
-- PEAR Net_SMTP, if you use the SMTP factory for notifications
- http://pear.php.net/package/Net_SMTP
-- PEAR Net_Socket, if you use the SMTP factory for notifications
- http://pear.php.net/package/Net_Socket
-- XMPPHP, the follow-up to Class.Jabber.php. Probably the best XMPP
- library available for PHP. http://xmpphp.googlecode.com/. Note that
- as of this writing the version of this library that is available in
- the extlib directory is *significantly different* from the upstream
- version (patches have been submitted). Upgrading to the upstream
- version may render your StatusNet site unable to send or receive XMPP
- messages.
-- Facebook library. Used for the Facebook application.
-- PEAR Validate is used for URL and email validation.
-- Console_GetOpt for parsing command-line options.
- predecessor to OStatus.
-- HTTP_Request2, a library for making HTTP requests.
-- PEAR Net_URL2 is an HTTP_Request2 dependency.
-
-A design goal of GNU Social is that the basic Web functionality should
-work on even the most restrictive commercial hosting services.
-However, additional functionality, such as receiving messages by XMPP,
-require that you be able to run long-running processes on your account.
-In addition, posting by email require that you be able to install a mail
-filter in your mail server.
+You may also experience better performance from your site if you configure
+a PHP cache/accelerator. Most distributions come with "opcache" support.
+Enable it in your php.ini where it is documented together with its settings.
Installation
============
+Getting it up and running
+-------------------------
+
Installing the basic GNU Social web component is relatively easy,
especially if you've previously installed PHP/MariaDB packages.
writeable by the Web server group, as noted above.
5. Create a database to hold your site data. Something like this
- should work:
+ should work (you will be prompted for your database password):
- mysqladmin -u "root" --password="rootpassword" create gnusocial
+ mysqladmin -u "root" -p create social
Note that GNU Social should have its own database; you should not share
the database with another program. You can name it whatever you want,
database. If you have shell access, this will probably work from the
MariaDB shell:
- GRANT ALL on gnusocial.*
- TO 'gnusocial'@'localhost'
+ GRANT ALL on social.*
+ TO 'social'@'localhost'
IDENTIFIED BY 'agoodpassword';
- You should change the user identifier 'gnusocial' and 'agoodpassword'
+ You should change the user identifier 'social' and 'agoodpassword'
to your preferred new database username and password. You may want to
test logging in to MariaDB as this new user.
7. In a browser, navigate to the GNU Social install script; something like:
- http://social.example.net/install.php
+ https://social.example.net/install.php
Enter the database connection information and your site name. The
install program will configure your site and install the initial,
----------
By default, GNU Social will use URLs that include the main PHP program's
-name in them. For example, a user's home profile might be found at:
-
- http://example.net/gnusocial/index.php/gnusocial/fred
+name in them. For example, a user's home profile might be found at either
+of these URLS depending on the webserver's configuration and capabilities:
-On certain systems that don't support this kind of syntax, they'll
-look like this:
+ https://social.example.net/index.php/fred
+ https://social.example.net/index.php?p=fred
- http://example.net/gnusocial/index.php?p=gnusocial/fred
+It's possible to configure the software to use fancy URLs so it looks like
+this instead:
-It's possible to configure the software so it looks like this instead:
-
- http://example.net/gnusocial/fred
+ https://social.example.net/fred
These "fancy URLs" are more readable and memorable for users. To use
fancy URLs, you must either have Apache 2.x with .htaccess enabled and
mod_rewrite enabled, -OR- know how to configure "url redirection" in
your server (like lighttpd or nginx).
-1. Copy the htaccess.sample file to .htaccess in your StatusNet
- directory.
-
-2. Change the "RewriteBase" in the new .htaccess file to be the URL path
- to your GNU Social installation on your server. Typically this will
- be the path to your GNU Social directory relative to your Web root.
- If you are installing it in the root directory, leave it as '/'.
-
-3. Add, uncomment or change a line in your config.php file so it says:
-
+1. See the instructions for each respective webserver software:
+ * For Apache, inspect the "htaccess.sample" file and save it as
+ ".htaccess" after making any necessary modifications. Our sample
+ file is well commented.
+ * For lighttpd, inspect the lighttpd.conf.example file and apply the
+ appropriate changes in your virtualhost configuration for lighttpd.
+ * For nginx, inspect the nginx.conf.sample file and apply the appropriate
+ changes.
+ * For other webservers, we gladly accept contributions of
+ server configuration examples.
+
+2. Assuming your webserver is properly configured and have its settings
+ applied (remember to reload/restart it), you can add this to your
+ GNU social's config.php file:
$config['site']['fancy'] = true;
You should now be able to navigate to a "fancy" URL on your server,
like:
- http://example.net/gnusocial/main/register
+ https://social.example.net/main/register
-If you changed your HTTP server configuration, you may need to restart
-the server first.
+Themes
+------
-If it doesn't work, double-check that AllowOverride for the GNU Social
-directory is 'All' in your Apache configuration file. This is usually
-/etc/httpd.conf, /etc/apache/httpd.conf, or (on Debian and Ubuntu)
-/etc/apache2/sites-available/default. See the Apache documentation for
-.htaccess files for more details:
+As of right now, your ability change the theme is limited to CSS
+stylesheets and some image files; you can't change the HTML output,
+like adding or removing menu items, without the help of a plugin.
- http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/howto/htaccess.html
+You can choose a theme using the $config['site']['theme'] element in
+the config.php file. See below for details.
-Also, check that mod_rewrite is installed and enabled:
+You can add your own theme by making a sub-directory of the 'theme'
+subdirectory with the name of your theme. Each theme can have the
+following files:
- http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.2/mod/mod_rewrite.html
+display.css: a CSS2 file for "default" styling for all browsers.
+logo.png: a logo image for the site.
+default-avatar-profile.png: a 96x96 pixel image to use as the avatar for
+ users who don't upload their own.
+default-avatar-stream.png: Ditto, but 48x48. For streams of notices.
+default-avatar-mini.png: Ditto ditto, but 24x24. For subscriptions
+ listing on profile pages.
+
+You may want to start by copying the files from the default theme to
+your own directory.
+
+Private
+-------
+
+A GNU social node can be configured as "private", which means it will not
+federate with other nodes in the network. It is not a recommended method
+of using GNU social and we cannot at the current state of development
+guarantee that there are no leaks (what a public network sees as features,
+private sites will likely see as bugs).
+
+Private nodes are however an easy way to easily setup collaboration and
+image sharing within a workgroup or a smaller community where federation
+is not a desired feature. Also, it is possible to change this setting and
+instantly gain full federation features.
+
+Access to file attachments can also be restricted to logged-in users only:
+
+1. Add a directory outside the web root where your file uploads will be
+ stored. Use this command as an initial guideline to create it:
+
+ mkdir /var/www/gnusocial-files
+
+2. Make the file uploads directory writeable by the web server. An
+ insecure way to do this is (to do it properly, read up on UNIX file
+ permissions and configure your webserver accordingly):
+
+ chmod a+x /var/www/gnusocial-files
+
+3. Tell GNU social to use this directory for file uploads. Add a line
+ like this to your config.php:
+
+ $config['attachments']['dir'] = '/var/www/gnusocial-files';
+
+Extra features
+==============
Sphinx
------
$config['mail']['domain'] = 'yourdomain.example.net';
-At this point, post-by-email and post-by-SMS-gateway should work. Note
-that if your mail server is on a different computer from your email
-server, you'll need to have a full installation of StatusNet, a working
-config.php, and access to the StatusNet database from the mail server.
-
-XMPP
-----
-
-XMPP (eXtended Message and Presence Protocol, <http://xmpp.org/>) is the
-instant-messenger protocol that drives Jabber and GTalk IM. You can
-distribute messages via XMPP using the system below; however, you
-need to run the XMPP incoming daemon to allow incoming messages as
-well.
-
-1. You may want to strongly consider setting up your own XMPP server.
- Ejabberd, OpenFire, and JabberD are all Open Source servers.
- Jabber, Inc. provides a high-performance commercial server.
-
-2. You must register a Jabber ID (JID) with your new server. It helps
- to choose a name like "update@example.com" or "notice" or something
- similar. Alternately, your "update JID" can be registered on a
- publicly-available XMPP service, like jabber.org or GTalk.
-
- StatusNet will not register the JID with your chosen XMPP server;
- you need to do this manually, with an XMPP client like Gajim,
- Telepathy, or Pidgin.im.
-
-3. Configure your site's XMPP variables, as described below in the
- configuration section.
-
-On a default installation, your site can broadcast messages using
-XMPP. Users won't be able to post messages using XMPP unless you've
-got the XMPP daemon running. See 'Queues and daemons' below for how
-to set that up. Also, once you have a sizable number of users, sending
-a lot of SMS, OStatus, and XMPP messages whenever someone posts a message
-can really slow down your site; it may cause posting to timeout.
-
-NOTE: stream_select(), a crucial function for network programming, is
-broken on PHP 5.2.x less than 5.2.6 on amd64-based servers. We don't
-work around this bug in StatusNet; current recommendation is to move
-off of amd64 to another server.
-
-Public feed
------------
-
-You can send *all* messages from your social networking site to a
-third-party service using XMPP. This can be useful for providing
-search, indexing, bridging, or other cool services.
+Translations
+------------
-To configure a downstream site to receive your public stream, add
-their "JID" (Jabber ID) to your config.php as follows:
+For info on helping with translations, see the platform currently in use
+for translations: https://www.transifex.com/projects/p/gnu-social/
- $config['xmpp']['public'][] = 'downstream@example.net';
+Translations use the gettext system <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/>.
+If you for some reason do not wish to sign up to the Transifex service,
+you can review the files in the "locale/" sub-directory of GNU social.
+Each plugin also has its own translation files.
-(Don't miss those square brackets at the end.) Note that your XMPP
-broadcasting must be configured as mentioned above. Although you can
-send out messages at "Web time", high-volume sites should strongly
-consider setting up queues and daemons.
+To get your own site to use all the translated languages, and you are
+tracking the git repo, you will need to install at least 'gettext' on
+your system and then run:
+ $ make translations
Queues and daemons
------------------
Some activities that StatusNet needs to do, like broadcast OStatus, SMS,
-and XMPP messages, can be 'queued' and done by off-line bots instead.
-For this to work, you must be able to run long-running offline
-processes, either on your main Web server or on another server you
-control. (Your other server will still need all the above
-prerequisites, with the exception of Apache.) Installing on a separate
-server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites.
+XMPP messages and TwitterBridge operations, can be 'queued' and done by
+off-line bots instead.
+
+Two mechanisms are available to achieve offline operations:
+
+* New embedded OpportunisticQM plugin, which is enabled by default
+* Legacy queuedaemon script, which can be enabled via config file.
+
+### OpportunisticQM plugin
+
+This plugin is enabled by default. It tries its best to do background
+job during regular HTTP requests, like API or HTML pages calls.
+
+Since queueing system is enabled by default, notices to be broadcasted
+will be stored, by default, into DB (table queue_item).
+
+Each time it can, OpportunisticQM will try to handle some of them.
+
+This is a good solution whether you:
+
+* have no access to command line (shared hosting)
+* do not want to deal with long-running PHP processes
+* run a low traffic GNU social instance
+
+In other case, you really should consider enabling the queuedaemon for
+performance reasons. Background daemons are necessary anyway if you wish
+to use the Instant Messaging features such as communicating via XMPP.
+
+### queuedaemon
+
+If you want to use legacy queuedaemon, you must be able to run
+long-running offline processes, either on your main Web server or on
+another server you control. (Your other server will still need all the
+above prerequisites, with the exception of Apache.) Installing on a
+separate server is probably a good idea for high-volume sites.
1. You'll need the "CLI" (command-line interface) version of PHP
installed on whatever server you use.
.htaccess file, but make sure that your config.php file is close
to, or identical to, your Web server's version.
-3. In your config.php files (both the Web server and the queues
- server!), set the following variable:
+3. In your config.php files (on the server where you run the queue
+ daemon), set the following variable:
- $config['queue']['enabled'] = true;
+ $config['queue']['daemon'] = true;
- You may also want to look at the 'daemon' section of this file for
- more daemon options. Note that if you set the 'user' and/or 'group'
- options, you'll need to create that user and/or group by hand.
- They're not created automatically.
+ You may also want to look at the 'Queues and Daemons' section in
+ this file for more background processing options.
4. On the queues server, run the command scripts/startdaemons.sh.
* queuedaemon.php - polls for queued items for inbox processing and
pushing out to OStatus, SMS, XMPP, etc.
* imdaemon.php - if an IM plugin is enabled (like XMPP)
-* other daemons that you may have enabled
+* other daemons, like TwitterBridge ones, that you may have enabled
These daemons will automatically restart in most cases of failure
including memory leaks (if a memory_limit is set), but may still die
home-grown DB-based queue solution. This is strongly recommended for
best response time, especially when using XMPP.
-Themes
-------
-
-Older themes (version 0.9.x and below) no longer work with StatusNet
-1.0.x, due to major changes in the site layout. We ship with three new
-themes for this version, 'neo', 'neo-blue' and 'neo-light'.
-
-As of right now, your ability to change the theme is site-wide; users
-can't choose their own theme. Additionally, the only thing you can
-change in the theme is CSS stylesheets and some image files; you can't
-change the HTML output, like adding or removing menu items.
-
-You can choose a theme using the $config['site']['theme'] element in
-the config.php file. See below for details.
-
-You can add your own theme by making a sub-directory of the 'theme'
-subdirectory with the name of your theme. Each theme can have the
-following files:
-
-display.css: a CSS2 file for "default" styling for all browsers.
-ie6.css: a CSS2 file for override styling for fixing up Internet
- Explorer 6.
-ie7.css: a CSS2 file for override styling for fixing up Internet
- Explorer 7.
-logo.png: a logo image for the site.
-default-avatar-profile.png: a 96x96 pixel image to use as the avatar for
- users who don't upload their own.
-default-avatar-stream.png: Ditto, but 48x48. For streams of notices.
-default-avatar-mini.png: Ditto ditto, but 24x24. For subscriptions
- listing on profile pages.
-
-You may want to start by copying the files from the default theme to
-your own directory.
-
-Translation
------------
-
-Translations in StatusNet use the gettext system <http://www.gnu.org/software/gettext/>.
-Theoretically, you can add your own sub-directory to the locale/
-subdirectory to add a new language to your system. You'll need to
-compile the ".po" files into ".mo" files, however.
-
-Contributions of translation information to StatusNet are very easy:
-you can use the Web interface at translatewiki.net to add one
-or a few or lots of new translations -- or even new languages. You can
-also download more up-to-date .po files there, if you so desire.
-
-For info on helping with translations, see http://status.net/wiki/Translations
+After installation
+==================
Backups
-------
-There is no built-in system for doing backups in StatusNet. You can make
+There is no built-in system for doing backups in GNU social. You can make
backups of a working StatusNet system by backing up the database and
-the Web directory. To backup the database use mysqldump <http://ur1.ca/7xo>
+the Web directory. To backup the database use mysqldump <https://mariadb.com/kb/en/mariadb/mysqldump/>
and to backup the Web directory, try tar.
-Private
--------
-
-The administrator can set the "private" flag for a site so that it's
-not visible to non-logged-in users. (This is the default for new installs of version 1.0!)
-
-This might be useful for workgroups who want to share a social
-networking site for project management, but host it on a public
-server.
-
-Total privacy is attempted but not guaranteed or ensured. Private sites
-currently don't work well with OStatus federation.
-
-Access to file attachments can also be restricted to logged-in users only.
-
-1. Add a directory outside the web root where your file uploads will be
- stored. Usually a command like this will work:
-
- mkdir /var/www/statusnet-files
-
-2. Make the file uploads directory writeable by the web server. An
- insecure way to do this is:
-
- chmod a+x /var/www/statusnet-files
-
-3. Tell StatusNet to use this directory for file uploads. Add a line
- like this to your config.php:
+Upgrading
+---------
- $config['attachments']['dir'] = '/var/www/statusnet-files';
+Upgrading is strongly recommended to stay up to date with security fixes
+and new features. For instructions on how to upgrade GNU social code,
+please see the UPGRADE file.
projects / quix0rs-gnu-social.git / blobdiff