How to Install HyperKitty on Arch Linux

HyperKitty is an open-source web-based mailing list archiver that provides a modern, user-friendly interface for managing and searching mailing list archives. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to install HyperKitty on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

Before proceeding with the installation, make sure that you have the following prerequisites:

• A running instance of PostgreSQL or MySQL/MariaDB
• Python version 3.6 or higher
• Git and pip package manager installed on your system.

Step 1: Install System Dependencies

First, update the package index and install required system dependencies by running the following command:

sudo pacman -Syu python python-psycopg2 python-lxml python-pytz python-django python-pillow python-pip python-django-compressor python-setuptools python-sphinx python-sphinx_rtd_theme python-sphinxcontrib-httpdomain python-sphinx_bootstrap_theme python-sphinxcontrib-applehelp python-sphinxcontrib-htmlhelp python-sphinxcontrib-qthelp python-sphinxcontrib-jsmath python-sphinxcontrib-serializinghtml postgresql-libs memcached nginx uwsgi uwsgi-plugin-python

Step 2: Create Database

Next, create a new database and user for HyperKitty. Login to your PostgreSQL server as a user with administrative privileges:

sudo -u postgres psql

Then, create a new PostgreSQL database and user with the following commands:

CREATE DATABASE hyperkitty;
CREATE USER hyperkitty WITH PASSWORD 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON DATABASE hyperkitty TO hyperkitty;

Replace the 'password' with a strong password of your choice.

Step 3: Install HyperKitty

Now, clone HyperKitty's Git repository and install it using pip package manager:

git clone https://gitlab.com/mailman/hyperkitty.git
cd hyperkitty
pip install -r requirements.txt
python setup.py install

Step 4: Configure HyperKitty

Create the following HyperKitty configuration file:

[general]
# PostgreSQL database configuration
DATABASE_URL=postgresql://hyperkitty:password@localhost/hyperkitty

# HyperKitty email settings
EMAIL_BACKEND=django.core.mail.backends.smtp.EmailBackend
EMAIL_USE_TLS=True
EMAIL_HOST=smtp.gmail.com
EMAIL_PORT=587
EMAIL_HOST_USER=your_gmail_username
EMAIL_HOST_PASSWORD=your_gmail_password
DEFAULT_FROM_EMAIL=you_email_address

# HyperKitty archive location
HYPERKITTY_DIR=/var/lib/hyperkitty

# Celery task queuing broker
CELERY_BROKER_URL=redis://localhost:6379/0
CELERY_RESULT_BACKEND=redis://localhost:6379/0
CELERY_ACCEPT_CONTENT=json

# Mandatory HyperKitty settings
SECRET_KEY=your_secret_key
LOGIN_URL=/accounts/login/
ROOT_URLCONF=hyperkitty.urls

# Extra settings
ENABLE_ACCOUNT_CONFIRMATION=False
MODULES_FOR_PYGMENTS=python,shell
USE_X_ACCELERATE=auto
USE_X_ACCEL_REDIRECT=True

[server]
# HTTP configuration
HTTP_SERVER_NAME=localhost
HTTP_PORT=8000

Replace the PostgreSQL database, email, and HTTP settings with the appropriate values for your system.

Then, create a new HyperKitty superuser account:

python manage.py createsuperuser

And, create a new HyperKitty site:

python manage.py create_mailman_site --name my_site

Finally, run the following command to initialize HyperKitty's database:

python manage.py migrate

Step 5: Start the Services

Here, we will start Nginx, uWSGI and Celery.

Start Nginx by running the following command:

sudo systemctl start nginx

Start the uWSGI service by running the following command:

uwsgi --ini /path/to/hyperkitty/uwsgi.ini

Start the Celery service by running the following command:

celery -A hyperkitty worker -l info

That's it! You have successfully installed and configured HyperKitty on Arch Linux. You can now access HyperKitty in your web browser by navigating to http://localhost:8000.

If you want to self-host in an easy, hands free way, need an external IP address, or simply want your data in your own hands, give IPv6.rs a try!

Alternatively, for the best virtual desktop, try Shells!