How to Install Tiny Tiny RSS on FreeBSD Latest

Tiny Tiny RSS (TT-RSS) is an open-source, web-based news feed (RSS/Atom) reader and aggregator that allows you to consume news and articles from different sources in one place. In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Tiny Tiny RSS on FreeBSD Latest.

Prerequisites

  • A FreeBSD Latest server with root privileges
  • Apache web server installed and running
  • PHP version 7.2 or later installed and enabled
  • MySQL or MariaDB database server installed and running
  • Basic knowledge of the terminal/command line

Step 1: Installing Required Packages

Before proceeding, ensure that your FreeBSD server is up to date.

# pkg update && pkg upgrade

Install the required packages for TT-RSS by running the following command:

# pkg install git php72-xmlwriter php72-simplexml php72-iconv php72-mbstring php72-dom php72-gd mod_php72 mysql57-client

The packages above are required to run TT-RSS, including PHP extensions, webserver, and database client.

Step 2: Fetch Tiny Tiny RSS

TT-RSS is developed on GitHub, and the source code can be accessed through Git. Run the following command to clone the official repository:

# git clone https://git.tt-rss.org/git/tt-rss.git /usr/local/www/tt-rss

Step 3: Setting Permissions and Ownership

Once the repository is cloned, set the file permissions for TT-RSS:

# chown -R www:www /usr/local/www/tt-rss

This will change the owner and group of the file to the Apache user, which is www.

Step 4: Configure Apache

Next, we need to configure Apache to serve the TT-RSS files. Open the Apache configuration file, httpd.conf using your favorite text editor:

# vi /usr/local/etc/apache24/httpd.conf

Add the following configuration inside the <Directory "/usr/local/www/apache24/data"> tags, at the end of the file:

Alias /tt-rss "/usr/local/www/tt-rss"
<Directory "/usr/local/www/tt-rss">
    Options FollowSymLinks
    AllowOverride All
    Require all granted
</Directory>

Ensure that the AllowOverride directive is set to All. This will enable the use of .htaccess files, which is necessary for TT-RSS.

Step 5: Create the TT-RSS Database

Create a new database for TT-RSS. You can use either MySQL or MariaDB.

Log in to your MySQL/MariaDB server with the following command:

# mysql -u root -p

Create a new database for TT-RSS:

> CREATE DATABASE ttrssdb;

Create a new user and grant all permissions to the TT-RSS database:

> GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON ttrssdb.* TO 'ttrssuser'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY 'password';

Replace ttrssuser and password with your desired username and password.

Reload the privileges with the following command:

> FLUSH PRIVILEGES;
> exit;

Step 6: Configure TT-RSS

Next, create a new configuration file for TT-RSS:

# cp /usr/local/www/tt-rss/config.php-dist /usr/local/www/tt-rss/config.php

Open the config.php file using a text editor:

# vi /usr/local/www/tt-rss/config.php

Find the following section:

// database name (mandatory)
define('DB_NAME', 'tt-rss');

// database user (mandatory)
define('DB_USER', 'username');

// database password (mandatory)
define('DB_PASS', 'password');

Replace tt-rss, username, and password with your database name, username, and password.

Step 7: Accessing Tiny Tiny RSS

Once the configuration is updated, you can access TT-RSS by visiting http://<server-ip-address>/tt-rss/ in your web browser. Follow the on-screen instructions to create an administrator account and set up your feeds.

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Tiny Tiny RSS on FreeBSD Latest.