This article is outdated and may not work correctly for current operating systems or software.
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.
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.
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 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
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
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.