How to Install Bludit CMS on Debian 9

Bludit is a simple, fast and flexible blogging CMS written in PHP. Bludit uses files in JSON format to store content, so you don’t need to install or configure a database. Bludit source code is hosted on Github. This guide will show you how to install Bludit CMS on a fresh Debian 9 Vultr instance.

Requirements

• PHP version 5.3 or greater with the following extensions:
  • mbstring
  • gd
  • dom
  • json
• Web server with PHP support like Nginx, Apache, Lighttpd, H2O. This guide will use Nginx.

Before you begin

Check the Debian version.

lsb_release -ds
# Debian GNU/Linux 9.5 (stretch)

Ensure that your system is up to date.

apt update && apt upgrade -y

Install needed packages.

apt install -y sudo zip unzip

Create a new non-root user account with sudo access and switch to it.

adduser johndoe --gecos "John Doe"
usermod -aG sudo johndoe
su - johndoe

NOTE: Replace johndoe with your username.

Set up the timezone.

sudo dpkg-reconfigure tzdata

Install PHP

Install PHP and required PHP extensions.

sudo apt install -y php7.0 php7.0-cli php7.0-fpm php7.0-common php7.0-mbstring php7.0-gd php7.0-xml php7.0-json

Check the version.

php --version

# PHP 7.0.30-0+deb9u1 (cli) (built: Jun 14 2018 13:50:25) ( NTS )
# Copyright (c) 1997-2017 The PHP Group
# Zend Engine v3.0.0, Copyright (c) 1998-2017 Zend Technologies
#     with Zend OPcache v7.0.30-0+deb9u1, Copyright (c) 1999-2017, by Zend Technologies

Install Nginx

Bludit can work with many web servers with PHP support. In this guide we will use Nginx.

Install Nginx.

sudo apt install -y nginx

Check the version.

sudo nginx -v
# nginx version: nginx/1.10.3

Run sudo vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/bludit.conf and configure Nginx for Bludit.

server {

  listen 80;

  server_name example.com;
  root /var/www/bludit;

  index index.php;

  location ~ /.php$ {
    fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
    fastcgi_index index.php;
    include fastcgi.conf;
  }

  location / {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php?$args;
  }

  location ^~ /bl-content/tmp/ { deny all; } 
  location ^~ /bl-content/pages/ { deny all; } 
  location ^~ /bl-content/databases/ { deny all; } 
}

Save the file and exit.

Activate the new bludit.conf configuration by linking the file to the sites-enabled directory.

sudo ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/bludit.conf /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

Test the Nginx configuration.

sudo nginx -t

Reload Nginx.

sudo systemctl reload nginx.service

Install Bludit

Create a document root directory.

sudo mkdir -p /var/www/bludit

Change ownership of the /var/www/bludit directory to johndoe.

sudo chown -R johndoe:johndoe /var/www/bludit

Download the latest version from the official page and extract the zip file.

cd /var/www/bludit
wget https://df6m0u2ovo2fu.cloudfront.net/builds/bludit-2-3-4.zip
unzip bludit-2-3-4.zip
rm bludit-2-3-4.zip
mv bludit-2-3-4/* . && mv bludit-2-3-4/.* .
rmdir bludit-2-3-4

NOTE: Update the download URL if there is a newer release.

Change ownership of the /var/www/bludit directory to www-data.

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data /var/www/bludit

Open your site in a web browser. The Bludit installer page will appear.

Follow the Bludit installer to configure your website. To access the admin area, append /admin to your site URL.