Diaspora* is a free and decentralized social networking platform that allows users to communicate and share content with their network without relying on a central authority. In this tutorial, we will walk you through the steps to install Diaspora* on macOS.
Before starting, ensure that you have the following requirements:
Follow the steps below to install Diaspora* on your macOS operating system.
Homebrew is a package manager for macOS that allows installation of software packages easily. It simplifies the installation process of dependencies for Diaspora*. To install Homebrew, paste the following command in your terminal:
/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
Diaspora* is built in Ruby on Rails. Ruby is already pre-installed on macOS. However, we need to upgrade the version to the latest release version. Enter the following command in your terminal:
brew install ruby
Diaspora* uses Redis as its message broker. To install Redis, enter the following command in your terminal:
brew install redis
Diaspora* uses PostgreSQL as its database. To install PostgreSQL, enter the following command in your terminal:
brew install postgresql
Download the Diaspora* source code from its official GitHub repository. Enter the following command in your terminal:
git clone https://github.com/diaspora/diaspora.git
This command will clone Diaspora* code in the current working directory.
Bundler is a dependency manager for Ruby that aids in managing dependencies for Ruby applications. To install it, we use the following command:
gem install bundler
Diaspora* requires some additional dependencies to function correctly. Navigate to the Diaspora* directory and use the following command to install the dependencies:
cd diaspora/
bundle install
Diaspora* requires some basic configurations before we start it officially. Create a config file by using the command:
cp config/database.yml.example config/database.yml
Then create and configure the application.yml file by using the command:
cp config/application.yml.example config/application.yml
Enter the following command in your terminal to create the PostgreSQL database:
bundle exec rake db:create
To migrate the database, enter the following command in your terminal:
bundle exec rake db:migrate
Finally, it's time to start the Diaspora* server. Enter the following command in your terminal:
bundle exec rails server
This will start the Diaspora* server, and it will be accessible at localhost:3000.
In this tutorial, you have learned how to install Diaspora* on macOS. By following the steps mentioned above, you can set up Diaspora* on your computer and enjoy the decentralized social networking experience.
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