How to Install GoatCounter on NetBSD

GoatCounter is a simple web analytics platform that doesn't rely on tracking cookies or invade the privacy of website visitors. In this tutorial, we'll be installing GoatCounter on a NetBSD server.

Prerequisites

Before we start, make sure you have the following:

  • A NetBSD server with root access
  • A domain name or IP address that points to your server

Step 1: Install Git

The first step is to install Git, which is used to clone the GoatCounter source code from GitHub. To install Git on NetBSD, run the following command:

pkgin install git

Step 2: Clone the GoatCounter Repository

Once Git is installed, we can clone the GoatCounter repository from GitHub using the following command:

git clone https://github.com/zgoat/goatcounter.git

This will create a new directory called goatcounter in the current directory.

Step 3: Install Go

GoatCounter is written in Go, so we need to install it on our NetBSD server. You can install Go by running the following command:

pkgin install go

Step 4: Build GoatCounter

Next, we need to build GoatCounter using the Go compiler. To do this, cd into the goatcounter directory and run the following command:

go build

This will create an executable called goatcounter in the same directory.

Step 5: Configure GoatCounter

Before we can run GoatCounter, we need to configure it. The configuration file is located in the goatcounter directory and is called goatcounter.conf. You can edit this file using your favorite text editor. Here's an example configuration file:

listen = ":8080"
domain = "example.com"
email = "[email protected]"
url = "https://example.com/goatcounter"

Make sure to replace example.com with your own domain name or IP address. The email field is used for notifications (e.g., if there's a new visitor from a previously unknown country), and the url field is the URL where GoatCounter is accessible.

Step 6: Run GoatCounter

To run GoatCounter, simply execute the goatcounter executable:

./goatcounter

You can also specify a different configuration file by using the -c option:

./goatcounter -c /path/to/your/goatcounter.conf

Step 7: Access GoatCounter

Assuming everything went well, you should now be able to access GoatCounter by visiting the URL you specified in the configuration file (e.g., https://example.com/goatcounter). You should see a dashboard with some basic traffic information. Congratulations, you've successfully installed GoatCounter on NetBSD!