How to Install WriteFreely on OpenBSD

WriteFreely is a lightweight, open-source blogging platform that allows you to start a blog or publish content on the web. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install WriteFreely on OpenBSD, a free and open source Unix-like operating system.

Prerequisites

• A running OpenBSD instance with root access
• An active internet connection

Installation Steps

1. Install dependencies:

• OpenBSD comes with the needed software to run WriteFreely, but you might need to install the Go programming language if it's not already installed.

2. Download and extract WriteFreely:

• Go to the official WriteFreely website and download the latest release.

• Extract the downloaded archive using the tar command:

  tar -xzf writefreely-vX.X.X-<os>-<arch>.tar.gz
  

3. Move WriteFreely to /usr/local/bin:

• Move the extracted writefreely binary to /usr/local/bin:

  mv writefreely /usr/local/bin/
  

4. Create a user for WriteFreely:

• It's best practice to run WriteFreely as a non-root user for security reasons.

• To create a new user, use the following command:

  useradd -m -s /bin/ksh -G www writefreely
  

5. Create WriteFreely's directory structure:

• We'll create the following directories in /var/www to store WriteFreely's data and assets:

  mkdir /var/www/writefreely
  mkdir /var/www/writefreely/data
  mkdir /var/www/writefreely/static
  

• Set ownership of the directories to the writefreely user:

  chown -R writefreely:www /var/www/writefreely
  chmod -R 775 /var/www/writefreely
  

6. Configure WriteFreely:

• Copy the example configuration file to the /etc directory:

  cp /usr/local/bin/writefreely.conf /etc/writefreely.conf
  

• Edit the writefreely.conf file and change the following parameters:

  # change this to your domain name
  base_url = "https://yourdomain.com"
  
  # change this to the "root" directory of your installation
  data_dir = "/var/www/writefreely/data"
  
  # change this to the directory where you will store static assets like themes and templates
  static_dir = "/var/www/writefreely/static"
  

7. Start the WriteFreely service:

• Run the following command to start WriteFreely:

  writefreely -c /etc/writefreely.conf -d
  

• You can now visit https://yourdomain.com and start using WriteFreely!

Conclusion

You now know how to install WriteFreely on OpenBSD. By following these steps, you can easily create a blog or publish content on the internet using WriteFreely. Enjoy!

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