chapeau/docs/installation.md

Installing kepi

kepi is still pre-alpha software, so installation is still a little fiddly at present.

If anything here doesn't work, please raise an issue about it.

Set up a virtual environment

Start out by setting up a virtual environment-- in other words, a sandbox so that you don't affect everything else on the machine.

python3 -m venv kepienv

If your system tells you that python3 isn't available, try plain python. Python 2 is going away soon, but the command names might take a while to catch up.

Now you have your virtual environment set up, you can activate it by typing

source kepienv/bin/activate

Your prompt should now have (kepienv) at the start.

Grab kepi from gitlab

Now you're going to get hold of the kepi source code:

git clone https://gitlab.com/marnanel/kepi.git

When git has finished downloading the source, you will have a new directory named kepi. So, go into it.

cd kepi

Get the dependencies

Python's package manager pip should make this fairly straightforward. All you have to do is type:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Test kepi before you start using it

Now, before you start using kepi for real, make sure it works!

python manage.py test

This will run all the tests, which might take a few moments. If everything passes, we can go on. If not, as before, please raise an issue.

Set up the database

Set up an empty database by typing

python manage.py migrate

This will create a SQLite database called kepi.sqlite3 in the kepi directory. (You can use other database systems as well, but this is the default.)

python manage.py kepi-users --create me

Now you have a user called @me.

python manage.py kepi-post --actor me "Hello world."

And now you've posted your first status.

Unfortunately, nobody can see it, because you haven't yet set up the webserver. So, let's go on to that.

Set up the webserver

kepi interfaces with the webserver using a system called gunicorn (which is short for "green unicorn"). You've already installed gunicorn along with the other dependencies. So we can start it up:

gunicorn kepi.wsgi

gunicorn is now listening on port 8000 of your computer, which is the default.

Check it works

Now you can point a browser at http://localhost:8000/users/me and you should see the JSON form of the user @me you created earlier.

Going on from here

gunicorn itself isn't suitable for facing the public internet. You'll need to put something like nginx in front of it. This document should explain that, and it will at some point.

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