7 ### Operating system and web server
9 Shaarli can be hosted on dedicated/virtual servers, or shared hosting. The smallest DigitalOcean VPS (Droplet with 1 CPU, 1 GiB RAM and 25 GiB SSD) costs about $5/month and will run any Shaarli installation without problems.
11 You need write access to the Shaarli installation directory - you should have received instructions from your hosting provider on how to connect to the server using SSH (or FTP for shared hosts).
13 Examples in this documentation are given for [Debian](https://www.debian.org/), a GNU/Linux distribution widely used in server environments. Please adapt them to your specific Linux distribution.
15 ### Network and domain name
17 Try to host the server in a region that is geographically close to your users.
19 A **domain name** ([DNS record](https://opensource.com/article/17/4/introduction-domain-name-system-dns)) pointing to the server's public IP address is required to obtain a SSL/TLS certificate and setup HTTPS to secure client traffic to your Shaarli instance.
21 You can obtain a domain name from a [registrar](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_name_registrar) ([1](https://www.ovh.co.uk/domains), [2](https://www.gandi.net/en/domain)), or from free subdomain providers ([1](https://freedns.afraid.org/)). If you don't have a domain name, please set up a private domain name ([FQDN](ttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fully_qualified_domain_name)) in your clients' [hosts files](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hosts_(file)) to access the server (direct access by IP address can result in unexpected behavior).
26 Supported PHP versions:
28 Version | Status | Shaarli compatibility
32 7.0 | EOL: 2018-12-03 | Yes (up to Shaarli 0.10.x)
33 5.6 | EOL: 2018-12-31 | Yes (up to Shaarli 0.10.x)
34 5.5 | EOL: 2016-07-10 | Yes
35 5.4 | EOL: 2015-09-14 | Yes (up to Shaarli 0.8.x)
36 5.3 | EOL: 2014-08-14 | Yes (up to Shaarli 0.8.x)
38 Required PHP extensions:
40 Extension | Required? | Usage
42 [`openssl`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.openssl.php) | All | OpenSSL, HTTPS
43 [`php-json`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.json.php) | required | configuration parsing
44 [`php-mbstring`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.mbstring.php) | CentOS, Fedora, RHEL, Windows, some hosting providers | multibyte (Unicode) string support
45 [`php-gd`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.image.php) | optional | required to use thumbnails
46 [`php-intl`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.intl.php) | optional | localized text sorting (e.g. `e->รจ->f`)
47 [`php-curl`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.curl.php) | optional | using cURL for fetching webpages and thumbnails in a more robust way
48 [`php-gettext`](http://php.net/manual/en/book.gettext.php) | optional | Use the translation system in gettext mode (faster)
50 Some [plugins](Plugins.md) may require additional configuration.
55 We recommend setting up [HTTPS](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTPS) on your webserver for secure communication between clients and the server.
57 For public-facing web servers this can be done using free SSL/TLS certificates from [Let's Encrypt](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Let's_Encrypt), a non-profit certificate authority provididing free certificates.
59 - [How to secure Apache with Let's Encrypt](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-apache-with-let-s-encrypt-on-debian-10)
60 - [How to secure Nginx with Let's Encrypt](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-secure-nginx-with-let-s-encrypt-on-debian-10)
61 - [How To Use Certbot Standalone Mode to Retrieve Let's Encrypt SSL Certificates](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-use-certbot-standalone-mode-to-retrieve-let-s-encrypt-ssl-certificates-on-debian-10).
67 sudo apt install certbot
69 # stop your webserver if you already have one running
70 # certbot in standalone mode needs to bind to port 80 (only needed on initial generation)
71 sudo systemctl stop apache2
72 sudo systemctl stop nginx
74 # generate initial certificates - Let's Encrypt ACME servers must be able to access your server!
75 # (DNS records must be correctly pointing to it, firewall/NAT on port 80/443 must be open)
76 sudo certbot certonly --standalone --noninteractive --agree-tos --email "admin@shaarli.mydomain.org" -d shaarli.mydomain.org
77 # this will generate a private key and certificate at /etc/letsencrypt/live/shaarli.mydomain.org/{privkey,fullchain}.pem
79 # restart the web server
80 sudo systemctl start apache2
81 sudo systemctl start nginx
84 If you don't want to rely on a certificate authority, or the server can only be accessed from your own network, you can also generate self-signed certificates. Not that this will generate security warnings in web browsers/clients trying to access Shaarli:
86 - [How To Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate for Apache](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-for-apache-on-debian-10)
87 - [How To Create a Self-Signed SSL Certificate for Nginx](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-create-a-self-signed-ssl-certificate-for-nginx-on-debian-10)
89 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
93 The following examples assume a Debian-based operating system is installed. On other distributions you may have to adapt details such as package installation procedures, configuration file locations, and webserver username/group (`www-data` or `httpd` are common values).
95 In these examples we assume the document root for your web server/virtualhost is at `/var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/`:
98 sudo mkdir -p /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/
101 You can install Shaarli at the root of your virtualhost, or in a subdirectory as well. See [Directory structure](Directory-structure)
107 # Install apache + mod_php and PHP modules
109 sudo apt install apache2 libapache2-mod-php php-json php-mbstring php-gd php-intl php-curl php-gettext
111 # Edit the virtualhost configuration file with your favorite editor
112 sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/shaarli.mydomain.org.conf
117 ServerName shaarli.mydomain.org
118 DocumentRoot /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/
120 # Log level. Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, alert, emerg.
123 ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
124 CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
126 # Redirect HTTP requests to HTTPS
128 RewriteRule ^.well-known/acme-challenge/ - [L]
129 # except for Let's Encrypt ACME challenge requests
130 RewriteCond %{HTTP_HOST} =shaarli.mydomain.org
131 RewriteRule ^ https://shaarli.mydomain.org%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
135 ServerName shaarli.mydomain.org
136 DocumentRoot /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/
138 # Log level. Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit, alert, emerg.
141 ErrorLog /var/log/apache2/error.log
142 CustomLog /var/log/apache2/access.log combined
144 # SSL/TLS configuration (for Let's Encrypt certificates)
146 SSLCertificateFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/shaarli.mydomain.org/fullchain.pem
147 SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/letsencrypt/live/shaarli.mydomain.org/privkey.pem
148 Include /etc/letsencrypt/options-ssl-apache.conf
150 # SSL/TLS configuration (for self-signed certificates)
152 #SSLCertificateFile /etc/ssl/certs/ssl-cert-snakeoil.pem
153 #SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/ssl/private/ssl-cert-snakeoil.key
155 # Optional, log PHP errors, useful for debugging
156 #php_flag log_errors on
157 #php_flag display_errors on
158 #php_value error_reporting 2147483647
159 #php_value error_log /var/log/apache2/shaarli-php-error.log
161 <Directory /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/>
162 # Required for .htaccess support
168 <LocationMatch "/\.">
169 # Prevent accessing dotfiles
170 RedirectMatch 404 ".*"
173 <LocationMatch "\.(?:ico|css|js|gif|jpe?g|png)$">
174 # allow client-side caching of static files
175 Header set Cache-Control "max-age=2628000, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate"
178 # serve the Shaarli favicon from its custom location
179 Alias favicon.ico /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/images/favicon.ico
185 # Enable the virtualhost
186 sudo a2ensite shaarli
188 # mod_ssl must be enabled to use TLS/SSL certificates
189 # https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_ssl.html
192 # mod_rewrite must be enabled to use the REST API
193 # https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_rewrite.html
196 # mod_version must only be enabled if you use Apache 2.2 or lower
197 # https://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/mod/mod_version.html
198 # sudo a2enmod version
200 # restart the apache service
201 systemctl restart apache
204 See [How to install the Apache web server](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-the-apache-web-server-on-debian-10) for a complete guide.
208 Guide on setting up the Nginx web server: [How to install the Nginx web server](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-nginx-on-debian-10)
210 You will also need to install the [PHP-FPM](http://php-fpm.org) interpreter as detailed [here](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-install-linux-nginx-mariadb-php-lemp-stack-on-debian-10#step-3-%E2%80%94-installing-php-for-processing). Nginx and PHP-FPM must be running using the same user and group, here we assume the user/group to be `www-data:www-data` but this may vary depending on your Linux distribution.
214 # install nginx and php-fpm
216 sudo apt install nginx php-fpm
218 # Edit the virtualhost configuration file with your favorite editor
219 sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/shaarli.mydomain.org
225 server_name shaarli.mydomain.org;
227 # redirect all plain HTTP requests to HTTPS
228 return 301 https://shaarli.mydomain.org$request_uri;
233 server_name shaarli.mydomain.org;
234 root /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org;
237 # combined log format prepends the virtualhost/domain name to log entries
238 access_log /var/log/nginx/access.log combined;
239 error_log /var/log/nginx/error.log;
241 # paths to private key and certificates for SSL/TLS
242 ssl_certificate /etc/ssl/shaarli.mydomain.org.crt;
243 ssl_certificate_key /etc/ssl/private/shaarli.mydomain.org.key;
245 # increase the maximum file upload size if needed: by default nginx limits file upload to 1MB (413 Entity Too Large error)
246 client_max_body_size 100m;
248 # relative path to shaarli from the root of the webserver
250 # default index file when no file URI is requested
252 try_files $uri /index.php$is_args$args;
255 location ~ (index)\.php$ {
257 # slim API - split URL path into (script_filename, path_info)
258 fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+\.php)(/.+)$;
259 # pass PHP requests to PHP-FPM
260 fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
261 fastcgi_index index.php;
262 include fastcgi.conf;
266 # deny access to all other PHP scripts
267 # disable this if you host other PHP applications on the same virtualhost
272 # deny access to dotfiles
277 # deny access to temp editor files, e.g. "script.php~"
281 location = /favicon.ico {
282 # serve the Shaarli favicon from its custom location
283 alias /var/www/shaarli/images/favicon.ico;
286 # allow client-side caching of static files
287 location ~* \.(?:ico|css|js|gif|jpe?g|png)$ {
289 add_header Cache-Control "public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
290 # HTTP 1.0 compatibility
291 add_header Pragma public;
298 # enable the configuration/virtualhost
299 sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/shaarli.mydomain.org /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/shaarli.mydomain.org
300 # reload nginx configuration
301 sudo systemctl reload nginx
307 If Shaarli is hosted on a server behind a [reverse proxy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reverse_proxy) (i.e. there is a proxy server between clients and the web server hosting Shaarli), configure it accordingly. See [Reverse proxy](Reverse-proxy.md) configuration.
311 ## Allow import of large browser bookmarks export
313 Web browser bookmark exports can be large due to the presence of base64-encoded images and favicons/long subfolder names. Edit the PHP configuration file.
315 - Apache: `/etc/php/<PHP_VERSION>/apache2/php.ini`
316 - Nginx + PHP-FPM: `/etc/php/<PHP_VERSION>/fpm/php.ini` (in addition to `client_max_body_size` in the [Nginx configuration](#nginx))
320 # (optional) increase the maximum file upload size:
323 # (optional) increase the maximum file upload size:
324 upload_max_filesize = 100M
327 To verify PHP settings currently set on the server, create a `phpinfo.php` in your webserver's document root
331 echo '<?php phpinfo(); ?>' | sudo tee /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/phpinfo.php
332 #give read-only access to this file to the webserver user
333 sudo chown www-data:root /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/phpinfo.php
334 sudo chmod 0400 /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/phpinfo.php
337 Access the file from a web browser (eg. <https://shaarli.mydomain.org/phpinfo.php> and look at the _Loaded Configuration File_ and _Scan this dir for additional .ini files_ entries
339 It is recommended to remove the `phpinfo.php` when no longer needed as it publicly discloses details about your webserver configuration.
342 ## Robots and crawlers
344 To opt-out of indexing your Shaarli instance by search engines, create a `robots.txt` file at the root of your virtualhost:
351 By default Shaarli already disallows indexing of your local copy of the documentation by default, using `<meta name="robots">` HTML tags. Your Shaarli instance may still be indexed by various robots on the public Internet, that do not respect this header or the robots standard.
353 - [Robots exclusion standard](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robots_exclusion_standard)
354 - [Introduction to robots.txt](https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/6062608?hl=en)
355 - [Robots meta tag, data-nosnippet, and X-Robots-Tag specifications](https://developers.google.com/search/reference/robots_meta_tag)
356 - [About robots.txt](http://www.robotstxt.org)
357 - [About the robots META tag](https://www.robotstxt.org/meta.html)
362 [fail2ban](http://www.fail2ban.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page) is an intrusion prevention framework that reads server (Apache, SSH, etc.) and uses `iptables` profiles to block brute-force attempts. You need to create a filter to detect shaarli login failures in logs, and a jail configuation to configure the behavior when failed login attempts are detected:
365 # /etc/fail2ban/filter.d/shaarli-auth.conf
369 failregex = \s-\s<HOST>\s-\sLogin failed for user.*$
374 # /etc/fail2ban/jail.local
378 filter = shaarli-auth
379 logpath = /var/www/shaarli.mydomain.org/data/log.txt
380 # allow 3 login attempts per IP address
381 # (over a period specified by findtime = in /etc/fail2ban/jail.conf)
383 # permanently ban the IP address after reaching the limit
389 - [Apache/PHP - error log per VirtualHost - StackOverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/q/176)
390 - [Apache - PHP: php_value vs php_admin_value and the use of php_flag explained](https://ma.ttias.be/php-php_value-vs-php_admin_value-and-the-use-of-php_flag-explained/)
391 - [Server-side TLS (Apache) - Mozilla](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Apache)
392 - [Nginx Beginner's guide](http://nginx.org/en/docs/beginners_guide.html)
393 - [Nginx ngx_http_fastcgi_module](http://nginx.org/en/docs/http/ngx_http_fastcgi_module.html)
394 - [Nginx Pitfalls](http://wiki.nginx.org/Pitfalls)
395 - [Nginx PHP configuration examples - Karl Blessing](http://kbeezie.com/nginx-configuration-examples/)
396 - [Apache 2.4 documentation](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/)
397 - [Apache mod_proxy](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy.html)
398 - [Apache Reverse Proxy Request Headers](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/mod/mod_proxy.html#x-headers)
399 - [HAProxy documentation](https://cbonte.github.io/haproxy-dconv/)
400 - [Nginx documentation](https://nginx.org/en/docs/)
401 - [`X-Forwarded-Proto`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-Proto)
402 - [`X-Forwarded-Host`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-Host)
403 - [`X-Forwarded-For`](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Headers/X-Forwarded-For)
404 - [Server-side TLS (Nginx) - Mozilla](https://wiki.mozilla.org/Security/Server_Side_TLS#Nginx)
405 - [How to Create Self-Signed SSL Certificates with OpenSSL](http://www.xenocafe.com/tutorials/linux/centos/openssl/self_signed_certificates/index.php)
406 - [How do I create my own Certificate Authority?](https://workaround.org/certificate-authority)
407 - [Travis configuration](https://github.com/shaarli/Shaarli/blob/master/.travis.yml)
408 - [PHP: Supported versions](http://php.net/supported-versions.php)
409 - [PHP: Unsupported versions (EOL/End-of-life)](http://php.net/eol.php)
410 - [PHP 7 Changelog](http://php.net/ChangeLog-7.php)
411 - [PHP 5 Changelog](http://php.net/ChangeLog-5.php)
412 - [PHP: Bugs](https://bugs.php.net/)
413 - [Transport Layer Security](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transport_Layer_Security)
414 - Hosting providers: [DigitalOcean](https://www.digitalocean.com/) ([1](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/overview/), [2](https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/), [3](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/how-to/create/), [How to Add SSH Keys to Droplets](https://www.digitalocean.com/docs/droplets/how-to/add-ssh-keys/), [4](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/initial-server-setup-with-debian-8), [5](https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/an-introduction-to-securing-your-linux-vps)), [Gandi](https://www.gandi.net/en), [OVH](https://www.ovh.co.uk/), [RackSpace](https://www.rackspace.com/), etc.