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bittyblog

A tiny blogging platform with the following features:

  • compiles to 2 executables and a single sqlite3 database for easy backups
  • write blog posts in Markdown or html
  • permalinks using URL rewrites
  • fastCGI or classic CGI modes
  • customize pages with mustache HTML templates
  • simple cache for fast responses
  • serve gzipped HTML if supported by browser

Installation

Quick Setup

  1. Open bittyblog/config.h and fill in the appropriate information
    • COPYRIGHT_OWNER: appears in the page footer next to a copywrite message
    • NAVBAR_TITLE: is the text that appears in the brand of the navbar
    • HTML_TITLE: is the text that appears in the browser tab
    • POSTS_PER_PAGE: this is how many post preview will be shown during pagination
  2. run setup.sh
    • supply a username and password
    • bittyblog is compiled and all necessary files are moved to a newly created www/ folder in the current directory
  3. configure you webserver to point to the created www directory and give it read/write access
    • Also give read/write access to template and database directory
  4. customize layout with the template and css files

Step-by-step Guide for lighttpd+fastCGI+caching

  1. Ensure all pre-requisites are installed on your system:

    • sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev zlib1g-dev libfastcgi lighttpd

  2. Clone bittyblog

    • git clone https://github.com/cluoma/bittyblog
    • cd bittyblog/bittyblog

  3. Configure config.h

    • nano config.h

    • Basic Stuff

      • COPYRIGHT_OWNER this is intended to be the full name of your orginization, to be displayed on the footer next to copyright information
      • NAVBAR_TITLE will be displayed as the title of your blog in the navbar
      • HTML_TITLE this is the head title of your page, will be shown as title in the browser

    • Important directories

      • Leave this alone for default settings. Only change these if you want to store the sqlite3 database, templates, or images in a different location
      • DB_PATH file path of sqlite3 database
      • IMAGE_PATH file path of directory for storing uploaded images
      • TEMPLATE_PATH file path of page mustache page templates

    • Site Behaviour

      • POSTS_PER_PAGE how many posts will be shown per page with pagination

    • Cache Settings

      • bittyblog has the option to enable an in-memory cache. Please pay attention to your machines available memory when setting the cache size.
      • USE_CACHE set to 0 to disable, anything else will enable the cache
      • CACHE_INIT_BUCKETS the initial size of the cache. The cache will be expanded if needed, set to a low value.
      • MAX_CACHE_BYTES the maximum number of bytes of stored payload. Note that this does not count the memory needed for data structures. Actual memory usage will be 1.2-1.5 times higher than the number set here when the cache is full.
      • CACHE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS cache entries older than this will be removed if the cache starts to run out available space.

  4. Enable fastCGI

    • cd .. && nano Makefile
    • set FCGI to y for fastCGI, anything else will compile without fastCGI support

  5. Run Setup script

    • ./setup.sh
    • Creates bittyblog.db with the given username and password in the current directory
    • Compiles bb.cgi and bbadmin.cgi
    • Moves everything into a new www/ directory inside the current directory

  6. Give www-data access to bittyblog

    • cd .. && sudo sudo chown :www-data -R bittyblog/

  7. Configure lighttpd

    # Set document root to you bittyblog path
server.document-root = "/path/to/bittyblog/www"

    # Add this if you want permalinks
url.rewrite-if-not-file = (
    "^([^?]*)\??(.*)?$" => "/cgi-bin/bb.cgi?rewrite=$1&$2"
)

    # Add this if you are using fastCGI
fastcgi.server = (
    "bb.cgi" =>
    ((
    "bin-path" => "/path/to/www/cgi-bin/bb.cgi",
        "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/bb.cgi.socket",
        "kill-signal" => 10,
        "max-procs" => 2
    )),
    "bbadmin.cgi" =>
    ((
        "bin-path" => "/path/to/www/cgi-bin/bbadmin.cgi",
        "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/bbadmin.cgi.socket",
        "kill-signal" => 10,
        "max-procs" => 1
    ))
)

Websites using bittyblog

Credits

Code and inspiration from the following projects: