How to Install Piler on macOS

Piler is an open-source email archiving application that allows you to store, index, and manage your email messages efficiently. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps of installing Piler on macOS.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• A macOS-powered system
• A user account with sudo privileges
• Homebrew package manager installed
• Latest version of PHP installed

Step 1: Install Required Dependencies

1. Open the Terminal app on your macOS system.

2. Run the following command to update Homebrew:

   brew update
   

3. Install the required dependencies by running the following commands:

   brew install mariadb
   brew install redis
   brew install elasticsearch
   

4. Start and enable the dependencies by running the following commands:

   brew services start mariadb
   brew services start redis
   brew services start elasticsearch
   

Step 2: Install Piler

1. Download the latest version of Piler from the official website:

   wget https://github.com/mailpiler/piler/releases/download/v1.3.11/piler-1.3.11.tar.gz
   

2. Extract the downloaded file using the following command:

   tar -zxvf piler-1.3.11.tar.gz
   

3. Move the extracted files to the /usr/local/bin/ directory:

   sudo mv piler-1.3.11 /usr/local/bin/piler
   

4. Change directory to the piler directory:

   cd /usr/local/bin/piler
   

5. Install Piler dependencies using the following command:

   composer install
   

6. Create a .env file by copying the .env.example file:

   cp .env.example .env
   

7. Edit the .env file to configure Piler:

   nano .env
   

   Set the APP_URL and APP_ENV variables to your preferred value. Configure the database connection by setting the DB_* variables to the appropriate values.

8. Run the following command to migrate the database:

   php artisan migrate --seed
   

Step 3: Configure and Start the Piler Web Server

1. Install the Piler web server by running the following command:

   brew install nginx
   

2. Edit the nginx configuration to add Piler:

   sudo nano /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
   

   Add the following configuration block inside the http block:

   server {
       listen       80;
       server_name  your-domain.com;
   
       root /usr/local/bin/piler/public;
   
       index index.php index.html index.htm;
   
       location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$query_string;
       }
   
       location ~\.php$ {
            try_files $uri =404;
            fastcgi_pass 127.0.0.1:9000;
            fastcgi_index index.php;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
            include /usr/local/etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
       }
   }
   

   Replace your-domain.com with your domain name.

3. Start and enable Nginx using the following command:

   brew services start nginx
   

4. Open your browser and browse to http://your-domain.com to verify that Piler is installed and running.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Piler on your macOS system. You can now start archiving your emails with Piler.

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!