How to Install Wallabag on Debian Latest

Wallabag is an open-source self-hostable application that allows users to save web pages and read them later offline. It's an alternative to Pocket and Instapaper. In this tutorial, you will learn how to install Wallabag on Debian.

Prerequisites

Before you start, ensure that you have the following:

  • A Debian latest instance
  • A user account with sudo privileges
  • A terminal/console window to run commands

Step 1: Update the System

Before installing Wallabag, update the system to the latest version:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Step 2: Install Dependencies

Wallabag requires some dependencies to work. Install them with the following command:

sudo apt install -y apache2 php php-cli php-curl php-dom php-gd php-json php-mbstring php-mysql php-xml php-zip wget unzip certbot python3-certbot-apache

Step 3: Download and Install Wallabag

Download Wallabag from the official website using the wget command as follows:

sudo wget https://wllbg.org/latest -O wallabag.zip

Extract Wallabag using the unzip command:

sudo unzip wallabag.zip -d /var/www/html/

Change the ownership of the html directory to the www-data user:

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

Step 4: Configure Apache2 Web Server for Wallabag

Create a virtual host file for Wallabag with the following command:

sudo nano /etc/apache2/sites-available/wallabag.conf

Add the following content to the file:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin [email protected]
    ServerName wallabag.example.com

    DocumentRoot /var/www/html/web
    <Directory /var/www/html/web>
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

    ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/wallabag_error.log
    CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/wallabag_access.log combined

RewriteEngine on
RewriteCond %{SERVER_NAME} =wallabag.example.com
RewriteRule ^ https://%{SERVER_NAME}%{REQUEST_URI} [END,NE,R=permanent]
</VirtualHost>

Save and close the file.

sudo a2dissite 000-default.conf
sudo a2ensite wallabag.conf

Restart the Apache2 service.

sudo systemctl restart apache2

Step 5: Configure SSL with Let's Encrypt SSL Certificate

Install Let's Encrypt Client (Certbot) by running the following command:

sudo apt install -y certbot python3-certbot-apache

Next, run the Certbot command to obtain an SSL certificate:

sudo certbot --apache -d wallabag.example.com

Follow the prompts to complete the SSL configuration process.

Step 6: Access Wallabag

You can now access your Wallabag instance by navigating to the following URL in your browser:

https://wallabag.example.com

The first time you access the site, you will be prompted to create an administrator account. Afterward, you can start adding web pages for later reading.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, you have learned how to install Wallabag on Debian. Now that your Wallabag installation is complete, you can enjoy the convenience of saving web pages and reading them later offline.