InstallChecklist14

PRE-INSTALLATION CHECKLIST (new installation)

Before installing Geeklog for the first time, please make sure you have or know the following:

1. A web server running PHP 4.1.0 or higher
2. A web server running MySQL 3.23.2 or higher, with access to a database or the ability to create a database
3. The ability to create a new database in MySQL or access to an existing one
4. A telnet or SSH connection to your web server (although FTP will work). This document will be written assuming you have command line access to your server, but we will note the major differences for FTP users.
5. The ability to unpack a tarball (file ending in tar.gz)
6. You know the difference between a path and a URL
7. You know how to determine your system paths

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT PARSE ERRORS:

Some users have reported that WinZip corrupts certain files in the Geeklog tarball during decompression which will cause errors during the installation process. You are strongly urged not to use WinZip. Try WinRAR if you must decompress the file locally, or better yet, unpack the file from your server (requires telnet/SSH access).

Parse errors can also be caused by using a WYSIWYG editor on lib-common.php, e.g. Dreamweaver - you should use a "plain text editor".

The following instructions will refer to the public_html directory a lot. Here is what this is all about:

Basically, a Geeklog installation consists of two parts: The part that is visible "to the world" - which is everything in the public_html directory. "public_html" is a popular name for the world-accessible directory that can be found on a webserver ("htdocs" and "www" are other popular names). So if you have such a directory, just copy everything from Geeklog's public_html directory into that directory on your webserver. Then you only need to set up $_CONF['path_html'] (in config.php) to point to that directory.

The other part of Geeklog, which is everything outside the public_html directory, should not be accessible via a URL since it contains sensitive information. So you should really put those files and directories outside of your document root (i.e. outside the web server's public_html, htdocs, or www directory). Then you only need to set up $_CONF['path'] (again, in config.php) to point to the place where you put those files and directories.

Separating the install in this way will also ensure that you can access your Geeklog site directly via a domain name (if you have one), e.g. http://www.yourdomain.com/, and that you don't need to include "public_html" in the URL.

If your hosting service does not allow you to install files outside of your document root, please see this FAQ entry on geeklog.net: Installing Geeklog entirely within the web root.