// $Id: INSTALL.txt,v 1.61.2.4 2008/07/09 19:15:59 goba Exp $

CONTENTS OF THIS FILE

---------------------

 * Requirements

 * Optional requirements

 * Installation

 * Drupal administration

 * Customizing your theme(s)

 * Multisite Configuration

 * More Information

REQUIREMENTS

------------

Drupal requires a web server, PHP 4 (4.3.5 or greater) or PHP 5

(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 4.1.1

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.

For detailed information on how to configure a test server environment using

a variety of operating systems and web servers, see "Local server setup"

(http://drupal.org/node/157602) in the Drupal handbook.

OPTIONAL TASKS

--------------

- To use XML-based services such as the Blogger API and RSS syndication,

  you will need PHP's XML extension. This extension is enabled by default.

- To use Drupal's "Clean URLs" feature on an Apache web server, you will need

  the mod_rewrite module and the ability to use local .htaccess files. For

  Clean URLs support on IIS, see "Using Clean URLs with IIS"

  (http://drupal.org/node/3854) in the Drupal handbook.

- Various Drupal features require that the web server process (for

  example, httpd) be able to initiate outbound connections. This is usually

  possible, but some hosting providers or server configurations forbid such

  connections. The features that depend on this functionality include the

  integrated "Update status" module (which downloads information about

  available updates of Drupal core and any installed contributed modules and

  themes), the ability to log in via OpenID, fetching aggregator feeds, or

  other network-dependent services.

INSTALLATION

------------

1. DOWNLOAD DRUPAL AND OPTIONALLY A TRANSLATION

   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

   If you would like to have the default English interface translated to a

   different language, we have good news. You can install and use Drupal in

   other languages from the start. Check whether a released package of the

   language desired is available for this Drupal version at

   http://drupal.org/project/translations and download the package. Extract

   the contents to the same directory where you extracted Drupal into.

2. CREATE THE CONFIGURATION FILE AND GRANT WRITE PERMISSIONS

   Drupal comes with a default.settings.php file in the sites/default

   directory. The installer uses this file as a template to create your

   settings file using the details you provide through the install process.

   To avoid problems when upgrading, Drupal is not packaged with an actual

   settings file. You must create a file named settings.php. You may do so

   by making a copy of default.settings.php (or create an empty file with

   this name in the same directory). For example, (from the installation

   directory) make a copy of the default.settings.php file with the command:

     cp sites/default/default.settings.php sites/default/settings.php

   Next, give the web server write privileges to the sites/default/settings.php

   file with the command (from the installation directory):

     chmod o+w sites/default/settings.php

  So that the files directory can be created automatically, give the web server

  write privileges to the sites/default directory with the command (from the

  installation directory):

     chmod o+w sites/default

3. 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.

4. RUN THE INSTALL SCRIPT

   To run the install script point your browser to the base URL of your website

   (e.g., http://www.example.com).

   You will be guided through several screens to set up the database,

   create tables, add the first user account and provide basic web

   site settings.

   The install script will attempt to create a files storage directory

   in the default location at sites/default/files (the location of the

   files directory may be changed after Drupal is installed). In some

   cases, you may need to create the directory and modify its permissions

   manually. Use the following commands (from the installation directory)

   to create the files directory and grant the web server write privileges to it:

     mkdir sites/default/files

     chmod o+w sites/default/files

   The install script will attempt to write-protect the settings.php file and

   the sites/default directory after saving your configuration. However, you

   may need to manually write-protect them using the commands (from the

   installation directory):

     chmod a-w sites/default/settings.php

     chmod a-w sites/default

   If you make manual changes to the file later, be sure to protect it again

   after making your modifications. Failure to remove write permissions to that

   file is a security risk. Although the default location for the settings.php

   file is at sites/default/settings.php, it may be in another location

   if you use the multi-site setup, as explained below.

5. CONFIGURE DRUPAL

   When the install script succeeds, you will be directed to the "Welcome"

   page, and you will be logged in as the administrator already. Proceed with

   the initial configuration steps suggested on the "Welcome" page.

   If the default Drupal theme is not displaying 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).

6. REVIEW FILE SYSTEM STORAGE SETTINGS AND FILE PERMISSIONS

   The files directory created in step 4 is the default file system path used

   to store all uploaded files, as well as some temporary files created by Drupal.

   After installation, the settings for the file system path may be modified

   to store uploaded files in a different location.

   It is not necessary to modify this path, but you may wish to change it if:

     * your site runs multiple Drupal installations from a single codebase

       (modify the file system path of each installation to a different

       directory so that uploads do not overlap between installations); or,

     * your site runs a number of web server front-ends behind a load

       balancer or reverse proxy (modify the file system path on each

       server to point to a shared file repository).

   To modify the file system path:

     * Ensure that the new location for the path exists or create it if

       necessary. To create a new directory named uploads, for example,

       use the following command from a shell or system prompt (while in

       the installation directory):

           mkdir uploads

     * Ensure that the new location for the path is writable by the web

       server process. To grant write permissions for a directory named

       uploads, you may need to use the following command from a shell

       or system prompt (while in the installation directory):

           chmod o+w uploads

     * Access the file system path settings in Drupal by selecting these

       menu items from the Navigation menu:

           Administer > Site configuration > File system

       Enter the path to the new location (e.g.: uploads) at the File

       System Path prompt.

   Changing the file system path after files have been uploaded may cause

   unexpected problems on an existing site. If you modify the file system path

   on an existing site, remember to copy all files from the original location

   to the new location.

   Some administrators suggest making the documentation files, especially

   CHANGELOG.txt, non-readable so that the exact version of Drupal you are

   running is slightly more difficult to determine. If you wish to implement

   this optional security measure, use the following command from a shell or

   system prompt (while in the installation directory):

          chmod a-r CHANGELOG.txt

   Note that the example only affects CHANGELOG.txt. To completely hide

   all documentation files from public view, repeat this command for each of

   the Drupal documentation files in the installation directory, substituting the

   name of each file for CHANGELOG.txt in the example.

   For more information on setting file permissions, see "Modifying Linux, Unix,

   and Mac file permissions" (http://drupal.org/node/202483) or "Modifying

   Windows file permissions" (http://drupal.org/node/202491) in the online

   handbook.

7. CRON MAINTENANCE TASKS

   Many Drupal modules have periodic tasks that must be triggered by a cron

   maintenance task, including search module (to build and update the index

   used for keyword searching), aggregator module (to retrieve feeds from other

   sites), ping module (to notify other sites about new or updated content), and

   system module (to perform routine maintenance and pruning on system tables).

   To activate these tasks, call the cron page by visiting

   http://www.example.com/cron.php, which, in turn, executes tasks on behalf

   of installed modules.

   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 cron maintenance tasks are available in the help pages

   and in Drupal's online handbook at http://drupal.org/cron. 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

Configure Themes       Administer > Site building > Themes

Set User Permissions   Administer > User management > Permissions

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 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.

For more information on configuring Drupal's file system path in a multi-site

configuration, see step 6 above.

MORE INFORMATION

----------------

- For additional documentation, see the online Drupal handbook at

  http://drupal.org/handbook.

- For a list of security announcements, see the "Security announcements" page

  at http://drupal.org/security (available as an RSS feed). This page also

  describes how to subscribe to these announcements via e-mail.

- For information about the Drupal security process, or to find out how to report

  a potential security issue to the Drupal security team, see the "Security team"

  page at http://drupal.org/security-team.

- For information about the wide range of available support options, see the

  "Support" page at http://drupal.org/support.