BookStack is a free and open-source platform for storing and organizing documentation, written in PHP and using a MySQL/MariaDB database. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install BookStack on Arch Linux.
Before you proceed with the installation, make sure you have:
Before we begin installing BookStack, we need to ensure that the required dependencies are installed. Open a terminal and run the following commands:
sudo pacman -Syu
sudo pacman -S git mariadb php php-gd php-intl php-apcu php-mysql php-bcmath php-ldap
This will ensure that your system is up-to-date, and will install the necessary dependencies including git, MariaDB, and all required PHP extensions.
Next, we need to download and configure BookStack. Start by creating a new directory to store the application files:
mkdir ~/bookstack
cd ~/bookstack
Now, clone the latest version of BookStack from the official Git repository:
git clone https://github.com/BookStackApp/BookStack.git --branch release --single-branch .
This will download the latest release of BookStack into the ~/bookstack directory.
Next, we need to create a new database and user for BookStack within MariaDB. Open the MariaDB client with the following command:
sudo mariadb
Once you’re logged into MariaDB, create a new database and user for BookStack as follows:
CREATE DATABASE bookstack;
CREATE USER 'bookstack'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'StrongPassword';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON bookstack.* TO 'bookstack'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
EXIT;
Replace the word StrongPassword with a strong password of your choice.
Now that we have installed and configured the prerequisites, we can move on to configuring BookStack.
First, copy the default environment file:
cp .env.example .env
Next, edit the environment file and update the values to reflect the settings you want to use for your BookStack installation:
nano .env
Some of the key settings that you may want to update include:
APP_URL=http://localhost
DB_DATABASE=bookstack
DB_USERNAME=bookstack
DB_PASSWORD=StrongPassword
Make sure to replace the word StrongPassword with the password you set for your MariaDB 'bookstack' user.
Once you have updated the environment file, run the BookStack installer with the following command:
php artisan app:install
This will step you through the process of setting up the application, including creating an administrator account and selecting the SMTP settings.
Once you have completed the installation, BookStack will be accessible by visiting the URL you specified in the APP_URL setting within your browser.
In this tutorial, you learned how to install BookStack on Arch Linux. Now you can start creating and organizing documentation using this powerful open-source platform.
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