bittyblog

A tiny blogging platform with the following features:

• compiles to 2 executables and a single sqlite3 database for easy backups
• write blog posts in Markdown or html
• permalinks using URL rewrites
• fastCGI or classic CGI modes
• customize pages with mustache HTML templates
• simple cache for fast responses
• serve gzipped HTML if supported by browser

Installation

Quick Setup

1. Open bittyblog/config.h and fill in the appropriate information
   • COPYRIGHT_OWNER: appears in the page footer next to a copywrite message
   • NAVBAR_TITLE: is the text that appears in the brand of the navbar
   • HTML_TITLE: is the text that appears in the browser tab
   • POSTS_PER_PAGE: this is how many post preview will be shown during pagination
2. run setup.sh
   • supply a username and password
   • bittyblog is compiled and all necessary files are moved to a newly created www/ folder in the current directory
3. configure you webserver to point to the created www directory and give it read/write access
   • Also give read/write access to template and database directory
4. customize layout with the template and css files

Step-by-step Guide for lighttpd+fastCGI+caching

1. Ensure all pre-requisites are installed on your system:

   • sqlite3 libsqlite3-dev zlib1g-dev libfastcgi lighttpd

2. Clone bittyblog

   • git clone https://github.com/cluoma/bittyblog
   • cd bittyblog/bittyblog

3. Configure config.h

   • nano config.h

   • Basic Stuff

     • COPYRIGHT_OWNER this is intended to be the full name of your orginization, to be displayed on the footer next to copyright information
     • NAVBAR_TITLE will be displayed as the title of your blog in the navbar
     • HTML_TITLE this is the head title of your page, will be shown as title in the browser

   • Important directories

     • Leave this alone for default settings. Only change these if you want to store the sqlite3 database, templates, or images in a different location
     • DB_PATH file path of sqlite3 database
     • IMAGE_PATH file path of directory for storing uploaded images
     • TEMPLATE_PATH file path of page mustache page templates

   • Site Behaviour

     • POSTS_PER_PAGE how many posts will be shown per page with pagination

   • Cache Settings

     • bittyblog has the option to enable an in-memory cache. Please pay attention to your machines available memory when setting the cache size.
     • USE_CACHE set to 0 to disable, anything else will enable the cache
     • CACHE_INIT_BUCKETS the initial size of the cache. The cache will be expanded if needed, set to a low value.
     • MAX_CACHE_BYTES the maximum number of bytes of stored payload. Note that this does not count the memory needed for data structures. Actual memory usage will be 1.2-1.5 times higher than the number set here when the cache is full.
     • CACHE_TIMEOUT_SECONDS cache entries older than this will be removed if the cache starts to run out available space.

4. Enable fastCGI

   • cd .. && nano Makefile
   • set FCGI to y for fastCGI, anything else will compile without fastCGI support

5. Run Setup script

   • ./setup.sh
   • Creates bittyblog.db with the given username and password in the current directory
   • Compiles bb.cgi and bbadmin.cgi
   • Moves everything into a new www/ directory inside the current directory

6. Give www-data access to bittyblog

   • cd .. && sudo sudo chown :www-data -R bittyblog/

7. Configure lighttpd

   # Set document root to you bittyblog path
   server.document-root = "/path/to/bittyblog/www"
   

   # Add this if you want permalinks
   url.rewrite-if-not-file = (
       "^([^?]*)\??(.*)?$" => "/cgi-bin/bb.cgi?rewrite=$1&$2"
   )
   

   # Add this if you are using fastCGI
   fastcgi.server = (
       "bb.cgi" =>
       ((
       "bin-path" => "/path/to/www/cgi-bin/bb.cgi",
           "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/bb.cgi.socket",
           "kill-signal" => 10,
           "max-procs" => 2
       )),
       "bbadmin.cgi" =>
       ((
           "bin-path" => "/path/to/www/cgi-bin/bbadmin.cgi",
           "socket" => "/var/run/lighttpd/bbadmin.cgi.socket",
           "kill-signal" => 10,
           "max-procs" => 1
       ))
   )
   

Websites using bittyblog

• cluoma.com - personal blog
• LinuxGameNetwork - Linux gaming news blog

Credits

Code and inspiration from the following projects:

• parson -- MIT License
• magnum -- MIT License
• MD4C -- MIT License
• qdecoder -- qDecoder License
• tinydir -- tinydir License