How to Install Etherpad on Arch Linux

Etherpad is a web-based collaborative document editor that allows multiple users to edit a document simultaneously in real-time. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of installing Etherpad on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before you can install Etherpad on your Arch Linux machine, you must first ensure that the following prerequisites are met:

• A running instance of Arch Linux.
• Node.js installed on the system.
• npm (Node Package Manager) installed on the system.
• PostgreSQL database installed on the system.

Step 1 - Install Dependencies

Before proceeding, we need to ensure that all the required dependencies are installed. To install the required dependencies, run the following command in the terminal:

sudo pacman -S nodejs npm postgresql

Step 2 - Download and Install Etherpad

To download and install Etherpad, follow the steps below:

1. Create a new directory to store Etherpad.

sudo mkdir /opt/etherpad

2. Change the ownership of the directory to the current user.

sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/etherpad

3. Change into the new directory.

cd /opt/etherpad

4. Download the latest version of Etherpad.

sudo npm install ep-lite -g

5. Create a new database for Etherpad.

sudo su - postgres
createdb etherpad
exit

Step 3 - Configure Etherpad

1. Change into the Etherpad directory.

cd /opt/etherpad

2. Copy the default configuration file.

cp settings.json.template settings.json

3. Open the configuration file in your favorite text editor.

nano settings.json

4. Update the following configuration options:

{
    "title" : "My Etherpad",
    "ip" : "0.0.0.0",
    "port" : 9001,
    "dbType" : "postgres",
    "dbSettings" : {
        "user"    : "postgres",
        "host"    : "localhost",
        "database": "etherpad",
        "password": "your_password",
        "charset" : "utf8mb4"
    },
    "sessionKey" : "your_secret_key",
    "users" : {
        "admin" : {
            "password" : "your_password",
            "is_admin" : true
        }
    }
}

5. Save and close the file.

Step 4 - Start Etherpad

1. Change into the Etherpad directory.

cd /opt/etherpad

2. Start Etherpad by running the following command:

bin/run.sh

3. Etherpad will start and listen on port 9001. You can now access it by visiting http://localhost:9001 in your web browser.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we have shown you how to install Etherpad on Arch Linux. With this collaborative document editor, you can now edit documents in real-time with multiple users. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below.

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