Answer is a modern and lightweight blogging platform with a minimalist design. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the installation of Answer on FreeBSD Latest.
Before starting the installation process, you need to have the following prerequisites:
Firstly, it is essential to check if your system packages are up-to-date to avoid any compatibility issues. Run the following command to update the system:
sudo pkg update && sudo pkg upgrade
Answer requires some specific dependencies to run correctly. Run the following command to install those dependencies:
sudo pkg install -y nginx mariadb104-client mariadb104-server php74 php74-fpm php74-mysqli php74-json php74-filter php74-xml php74-gd php74-bcmath
After installing all required dependencies, you can download the latest version of Answer by running the following command:
wget https://answer.dev/download/answer-latest.tar.gz
Once the download is complete, extract the downloaded file using the following command:
tar -zxvf answer-latest.tar.gz
Next, we need to configure Nginx to serve the Answer web application. Open the Nginx configuration file in your preferred text editor, such as nano:
sudo nano /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
Then, replace the contents of the file with the following configuration:
user www;
worker_processes auto;
error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
pid /var/run/nginx.pid;
events {
worker_connections 1024;
}
http {
include /usr/local/etc/nginx/mime.types;
default_type application/octet-stream;
log_format main '$remote_addr - $remote_user [$time_local] "$request" '
'$status $body_bytes_sent "$http_referer" '
'"$http_user_agent" "$http_x_forwarded_for"';
sendfile on;
keepalive_timeout 65;
server {
listen 80;
server_name your_domain_name;
root /path/to/answer/folder/;
index index.php;
location / {
try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
}
location ~ \.php$ {
try_files $uri =404;
fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm.sock;
fastcgi_index index.php;
fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
include fastcgi_params;
}
}
}
Note: Replace your_domain_name with your domain name and /path/to/answer/folder/ with the path to your Answer installation directory.
Save and close the file using Ctrl+X, Y, and Enter.
Once the configuration is saved, test the configuration using the following command:
sudo nginx -t
You should get the following output:
nginx: configuration file /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf test is successful
Then, restart the nginx service using the following command:
sudo service nginx restart
Answer needs a database to store all data. We will install MariaDB as a database and configure it for Answer. To install MariaDB, run the following command:
sudo pkg install mariadb104-server
After installing MariaDB, run the following command to start the MariaDB service at boot time:
sudo sysrc mysql_enable=YES
sudo service mysql-server start
Then, secure your MariaDB installation with the following command:
sudo mysql_secure_installation
Follow the prompts to set up a root password, remove anonymous users, disable root login remotely, and remove test databases.
Now, log in to the MariaDB shell by running the following command:
sudo mysql -u root -p
Enter the root password to log in.
Create a new database and user for Answer with the following commands:
CREATE DATABASE answer_db;
CREATE USER 'answer_user'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'your_password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON answer_db.* TO 'answer_user'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
exit;
Note: Replace your_password with your desired password.
Navigate to your Answer installation directory:
cd /path/to/answer/
Then, rename the .env.example file to .env:
mv .env.example .env
Open the .env file in your preferred text editor:
nano .env
Find the following lines and replace them with your MariaDB configuration:
DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
DB_PORT=3306
DB_DATABASE=answer_db
DB_USERNAME=answer_user
DB_PASSWORD=your_password
Note: Replace your_password with the password you created in Step 5.
Save and close the file.
The last step is to start up php-fpm, which is required to run Answer. Start php-fpm service and enable it to start automatically at boot time by running the following commands:
sudo sysrc php_fpm_enable=YES
sudo service php-fpm start
Visit your domain name or IP address in your web browser to test if the installation succeeded. You should see the Answer installation page. Follow the prompts to finish the installation.
Once done, you can log in to the admin panel using the credentials provided during the installation.
Congratulations! You have successfully installed Answer on your FreeBSD Latest server.
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!
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