How to Install Paperless-ngx on OpenBSD

Paperless-ngx is a self-hosted document manager that allows you to store, organize, and search your documents. This tutorial will guide you through the installation process of Paperless-ngx on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• Access to an OpenBSD machine with root privileges.
• A non-root user account with sudo privileges.

Step 1: Install Required Dependencies

First, update the system packages by running the following command:

sudo pkg_add -u

Next, install the required dependencies by executing the following command:

sudo pkg_add python-3.7.9p1 py3-pip git postgresql-server postgresql-client nginx

Step 2: Clone Paperless-ngx

Create a directory where you want to store the Paperless-ngx files and then clone the repository by running the following:

sudo mkdir /opt/paperless-ngx
sudo chown -R username:username /opt/paperless-ngx
cd /opt/paperless-ngx
git clone https://github.com/jonaswinkler/paperless-ng.git paperless-ngx
cd paperless-ngx

Make sure to replace username with your non-root user account.

Step 3: Install Python Dependencies

Install the Python dependencies using pip by executing the following command:

sudo pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Step 4: Setup PostgreSQL

Initialize the PostgreSQL database using the following commands:

sudo rcctl enable postgresql
sudo rcctl start postgresql
sudo su - _postgresql -c "initdb -D /var/postgresql/data -U _postgresql"
sudo sed -Ei "s/(.*ssl.*)/#\1/" /var/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf

Next, create a user and database for Paperless-ngx:

sudo su - _postgresql -c "createuser -SDRP paperless"
sudo su - _postgresql -c "createdb -O paperless paperless"

Finally, configure PostgreSQL to listen on all IP addresses:

sudo echo "listen_addresses = '*'" >> /var/postgresql/data/postgresql.conf
sudo rcctl restart postgresql

Step 5: Configure Paperless-ngx

Rename the sample configuration file and replace the settings with your own:

cd /opt/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx
cp paperless.conf.dist paperless.conf
nano paperless.conf

Make sure to update the following settings:

• POSTGRES_DB: Enter paperless as the value.
• POSTGRES_USER: Enter paperless as the value.
• POSTGRES_PASSWORD: Set a strong password for the paperless user.
• SECRET_KEY: Set a long and random string for the secret key.

Save and close the file.

Step 6: Setup Nginx

Create a new Nginx configuration file:

sudo nano /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

And paste the following:

worker_processes  1;

events {
    worker_connections  1024;
}

http {
    upstream paperless {
        server 127.0.0.1:8000;
    }

    server {
        listen 80 default_server;
        server_name example.com;

        location / {
            proxy_pass http://paperless;
            proxy_set_header Host $host;
            proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
            proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $remote_addr;
        }

        location /static/ {
            alias /opt/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx/static/;
        }
    }
}

Make sure to replace example.com with your website domain name.

Step 7: Run Paperless-ngx

Run the following command to start the Paperless-ngx server:

cd /opt/paperless-ngx/paperless-ngx
./manage.py migrate
./manage.py createsuperuser
./manage.py collectstatic
./manage.py runserver

Step 8: Launch Paperless-ngx

Point your browser to http://example.com to launch Paperless-ngx.

Conclusion

This tutorial has shown you how to install Paperless-ngx on OpenBSD. You can now start organizing and managing your documents using Paperless-ngx. Happy document managing!

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