How to Install Retrospring on OpenBSD

Retrospring is a web application that lets you create a Q&A-like social network with anonymous answers. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the steps on how to install Retrospring on OpenBSD.

Prerequisites

• OpenBSD installed and updated
• Web server (Apache, Nginx or Caddy)
• PHP installed and configured

Step 1: Clone the Retrospring repository

Open the command line and navigate to the document root of your web server then type the following command to clone the Retrospring repository:

git clone https://github.com/retrospring/retrospring.git

Step 2: Configure the database

Retrospring uses MySQL/MariaDB as its database server. Make sure you have configured MySQL/MariaDB on your OpenBSD machine or remotely. Then, create a new database called retrospring and a new user with access to this database, and remember to grant all privileges to this user.

Step 3: Configure environment variables

Copy the .env.example file to .env file:

cd retrospring
cp .env.example .env

Edit the .env file and set the database details, such as the database name, database user, and password. Also, you need to set the APP_URL variable to your web server's URL, including the protocol (http or https). After setting these variables, save the file.

Step 4: Install dependencies

Retrospring uses Composer to manage its PHP dependencies. If you haven't installed it yet, run the following command to install Composer:

curl -sS https://getcomposer.org/installer | php -- --install-dir=/usr/local/bin --filename=composer

Run the following command to install the dependencies:

composer install

Step 5: Migrate the database schema

Now it's time to migrate the database schema to the newly created database. Run the following command:

php artisan migrate

Step 6: Serve the web application

Start your web server and make sure it is serving the public directory of Retrospring.

If you use Apache, create a new virtual host configuration with the following content:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName retrospring.example.com
    DocumentRoot /path/to/retrospring/public
    <Directory /path/to/retrospring/public>
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks
        AllowOverride all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Replace retrospring.example.com with your own domain name and /path/to/retrospring/public with the path to the public directory of Retrospring.

If you use Nginx, create a new server block configuration with the following content:

server {
    listen 80;
    server_name retrospring.example.com;
    root /path/to/retrospring/public;

    index index.php index.html index.htm;

    location / {
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
    }

    location ~ \.php$ {
        fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php-fpm.sock;
        fastcgi_index index.php;
        include fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
        fastcgi_param QUERY_STRING $query_string;
    }
}

Again, replace retrospring.example.com with your own domain name, and /path/to/retrospring/public with the path to the public directory of Retrospring.

Finally, restart your web server:

sudo rcctl restart httpd # Apache
sudo rcctl restart nginx # Nginx
sudo rcctl restart caddy # Caddy

Step 7: Access the Retrospring application

Open up your web browser and navigate to the domain name you just configured in the previous steps. You should be able to see the Retrospring application loaded.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Retrospring on your OpenBSD machine. Now you can create a Q&A-like social network that allows anonymous answers.

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!