drupal/INSTALL.txt

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// $Id$
CONTENTS OF THIS FILE
---------------------
* Changes
* Requirements
* Optional requirements
* Installation
* Drupal administration
* Customizing your theme(s)
* Multisite Configuration
* More Information
CHANGES
-------
As of Drupal 5.0 installation has been automated by an install script. It is no
longer necessary to manually edit the "settings.php" file, and database tables
are created automatically.
REQUIREMENTS
------------
Drupal requires a web server, PHP4 (4.3.3 or greater) or PHP5
(http://www.php.net/) and either MySQL (http://www.mysql.com/) or PostgreSQL
(http://www.postgresql.org/). The Apache web server and MySQL database are
recommended; other web server and database combinations such as IIS and
PostgreSQL have been tested to a lesser extent. When using MySQL, version 4.1
or greater is recommended to assure you can safely transfer the database.
For more detailed information about Drupal requirements, see "Requirements"
(http://drupal.org/requirements) in the Drupal Handbook.
Guidelines for setting up a server environment with a variety of operating
systems and in special cases are available in the Drupal handbook
(http://drupal.org/node/260)
OPTIONAL REQUIREMENTS
---------------------
- To use XML-based services such as the Blogger API, Jabber, and RSS
syndication, you will need PHP's XML extension. This extension is enabled by
default.
- If you want support for clean URLs, you'll need mod_rewrite and the ability
to use local .htaccess files.
INSTALLATION
------------
1. DOWNLOAD DRUPAL
You can obtain the latest Drupal release from http://drupal.org/. The files
are in .tar.gz format and can be extracted using most compression tools. On a
typical Unix command line, use:
wget http://drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-x.x.tar.gz
tar -zxvf drupal-x.x.tar.gz
This will create a new directory drupal-x.x/ containing all Drupal files
and directories. Move the contents of that directory into a directory within
your web server's document root or your public HTML directory:
mv drupal-x.x/* drupal-x.x/.htaccess /var/www/html
2. CREATE THE DRUPAL DATABASE
Drupal requires access to a database in order to be installed. Your database
user will need sufficient privileges to run Drupal. Additional information
about privileges, and instructions to create a database using the command
line are available in INSTALL.mysql.txt (for MySQL) or INSTALL.pgsql.txt
(for PostgreSQL).
To create a database using PHPMyAdmin or a web-based control panel consult
the documentation or ask your webhost service provider.
Take note of the username, password, database name and hostname as you
create the database. You will enter these items in the install script.
3. RUN THE INSTALL SCRIPT
The install script will set the base URL, connect Drupal to the database, and
create tables in the database.
To run the install script point your browser to the base url of your website
(i.e. http://www.example.com). You will be presented with the "Database
Configuration" page.
The install script will attempt to write-protect the settings.php after
updating it with the information you provide in the installation routine.
If you make manual changes to that file later, be sure to protect it again
after making your modifications. Failure to remove write permissions to
that file is a security risk. The default location for the settings.php
file is at sites/default/settings.php, but it may be in another location
if you use the multi-site setup, as explained below.
4. CONFIGURE DRUPAL
When the install script succeeds, you will be directed to the "Welcome" page.
In "step one" click "create the first account" which will become the main
administrator account with total control. Login as the administrator and
complete the initial configuration steps on the "Welcome" page.
If the default Drupal theme is not diplaying properly and links on the page
result in "Page Not Found" errors, try manually setting the $base_url variable
in the settings.php file if not already set. It's currently known that servers
running FastCGI can run into problems if the $base_url variable is left
commented out (see http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=19656).
Consider creating a "files" subdirectory in your Drupal installation
directory. This subdirectory stores files such as custom logos, user avatars,
and other media associated with your new site. The sub-directory requires
"read and write" permission by the Drupal server process. You can change
the name of this subdirectory at "administer > site configuration > file
system".
5. CRON TASKS
Many Drupal modules (such as the search functionality) have periodic tasks
that must be triggered by a cron job. To activate these tasks, call the cron
page by visiting http://www.example.com/cron.php --this will pass control to
the modules and the modules will decide if and what they must do.
Most systems support the crontab utility for scheduling tasks like this. The
following example crontab line will activate the cron tasks automatically on
the hour:
0 * * * * wget -O - -q -t 1 http://www.example.com/cron.php
More information about the cron scripts are available in the admin help pages
and in the Drupal handbook at drupal.org. Example scripts can be found in the
scripts/ directory.
DRUPAL ADMINISTRATION
---------------------
A new installation of Drupal defaults to a very basic configuration with only a
few active modules and minimal user access rights.
Use your administration panel to enable and configure services. For example:
General Settings Administer > Site configuration > Site information
Enable Modules Administer > Site building > Modules
Set User Permissions Administer > User management > Access control
Configure Themes Administer > Site building > Themes
For more information on configuration options, read the instructions which
accompany the different configuration settings and consult the various help
pages available in the administration panel.
Community-contributed modules and themes are available at http://drupal.org/.
CUSTOMIZING YOUR THEME(S)
-------------------------
Now that your installation is running, you will want to customize the look of
your site. Several sample themes are included and more can be downloaded from
drupal.org.
Simple customization of your theme can be done using only CSS. Further changes
require understanding the phptemplate engine that is now part of Drupal. See
http://drupal.org/handbook/customization to find out more.
MULTISITE CONFIGURATION
-----------------------
A single Drupal installation can host several Drupal-powered sites, each with
its own individual configuration.
Additional site configurations are created in subdirectories within the 'sites'
directory. Each subdirectory must have a 'settings.php' file which specifies the
configuration settings. The easiest way to create additional sites is to copy
the 'default' directory and modify the 'settings.php' file as appropriate. The
new directory name is constructed from the site's URL. The configuration for
www.example.com could be in 'sites/example.com/settings.php' (note that 'www.'
should be omitted if users can access your site at http://example.com/).
Sites do not have to have a different domain. You can also use subdomains and
subdirectories for Drupal sites. For example, example.com, sub.example.com,
and sub.example.com/site3 can all be defined as independent Drupal sites. The
setup for a configuration such as this would look like the following:
sites/default/settings.php
sites/example.com/settings.php
sites/sub.example.com/settings.php
sites/sub.example.com.site3/settings.php
When searching for a site configuration (for example www.sub.example.com/site3),
Drupal will search for configuration files in the following order, using the
first configuration it finds:
sites/www.sub.example.com.site3/settings.php
sites/sub.example.com.site3/settings.php
sites/example.com.site3/settings.php
sites/www.sub.example.com/settings.php
sites/sub.example.com/settings.php
sites/example.com/settings.php
sites/default/settings.php
If you are installing on a non-standard port, the port number is treated as the
deepest subdomain. For example: http://www.example.com:8080/ could be loaded
from sites/8080.www.example.com/. The port number will be removed according to
the pattern above if no port-specific configuration is found, just like a real
subdomain.
Each site configuration can have its own site-specific modules and themes in
addition to those installed in the standard 'modules'and 'themes' directories.
To use site-specific modules or themes, simply create a 'modules' or 'themes'
directory within the site configuration directory. For example, if
sub.example.com has a custom theme and a custom module that should not be
accessible to other sites, the setup would look like this:
sites/sub.example.com/:
settings.php
themes/custom_theme
modules/custom_module
NOTE: for more information about multiple virtual hosts or the configuration
settings, consult the Drupal handbook at drupal.org.
MORE INFORMATION
----------------
For platform specific configuration issues and other installation and
administration assistance, please consult the Drupal handbook at
http://drupal.org/handbook. You can view the wide range of other support options
available at http://drupal.org/support.