How to Install Tiny Tiny IRC on Arch Linux

Tiny Tiny IRC is an open source web-based chat client that can be self-hosted. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to install Tiny Tiny IRC on Arch Linux.

Prerequisites

  1. Arch Linux distribution installed on your machine.
  2. Internet connectivity.

Step 1: Update Your System

It is always a recommended practice to update your system before installing new packages. To do so, open up the terminal and run the following command.

sudo pacman -Syu

Step 2: Install Apache

Tiny Tiny IRC needs a web server to run, and Apache is a popular choice. You can install it using the following command.

sudo pacman -S apache

Once the installation is finished, start the Apache server using the command below.

sudo systemctl start httpd

And enable it to start automatically at system boot.

sudo systemctl enable httpd

Step 3: Install PHP

Tiny Tiny IRC is written in PHP, so you need to install it on your system using the following command.

sudo pacman -S php php-apache

Once the installation is finished, restart the Apache service using the command below.

sudo systemctl restart httpd

Step 4: Install Tiny Tiny IRC

You can download the latest version of Tiny Tiny IRC using the following command.

wget https://git.tt-rss.org/fox/tt-irc/-/archive/master/tt-irc-master.tar.gz

Extract the downloaded archive using the following command.

tar -zxvf tt-irc-master.tar.gz

Copy the extracted directory to the web server's document root.

sudo cp -R tt-irc-master /srv/http/

Change the ownership of the directory to the web server user.

sudo chown -R http:http /srv/http/tt-irc-master

Step 5: Configure Tiny Tiny IRC

Tiny Tiny IRC comes with a default configuration file that you need to edit to fit your requirements. Open the configuration file using your favorite text editor.

sudo nano /srv/http/tt-irc-master/config.php

Setup the following variables:

define('TTIRC_DB_TYPE', 'mysql');
define('TTIRC_DB_HOST', 'localhost');
define('TTIRC_DB_USER', 'root');
define('TTIRC_DB_NAME', 'ttirc');
define('TTIRC_DB_PASS', 'password');

#uncomment if you want the instance to be private
# define('TTIRC_SECRET', 'secret-string');

Replace the TTIRC_DB_USER, TTIRC_DB_NAME, and TTIRC_DB_PASS with your own database credentials. You have to create the database, the user and grant privileges to the created user. 

mysql
CREATE DATABASE ttirc;
CREATE USER 'root'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ttirc.* TO 'root'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Step 6: Test Your Setup

Once everything is set up correctly, visit your server's domain or IP address using a web browser. You should now see the Tiny Tiny IRC login page.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed and configured Tiny Tiny IRC on Arch Linux.

Conclusion

In conclusion, Tiny Tiny IRC is an excellent web-based chat client that you can install on your Arch Linux machine. The procedure outlined above is pretty simple, and you can customize it to your liking. As always, if you encounter any issues, don't hesitate to ask for help.