GoToSocial

GoToSocial is an ActivityPub social network server, written in Golang and currently in alpha. It provides a lightweight, customizable, and safety-focused entryway into the Fediverse.

Note

For this guide you should be familiar with the basic concepts of

Prerequisites

Your URL needs to be setup:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web domain list
isabell.uber.space
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Installation

Create a directory structure in your home path and cd into the root of it.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mkdir -p ~/gotosocial/storage
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cd ~/gotosocial
[isabell@stardust gotosocial]$

Download the latest pre-comppiled binary from the releases page.

[isabell@stardust gotosocial]$ wget https://github.com/superseriousbusiness/gotosocial/releases/download/v0.8.1/gotosocial_0.8.1_linux_amd64.tar.gz

Extract the archive in place to populate the directory with the binary and static and example files.

[isabell@stardust gotosocial]$ tar xzf gotosocial_0.8.1_linux_amd64.tar.gz
[isabell@stardust gotosocial]$

Configuration

Configure GoToSocial

Copy the example configuration file via cp ./example/config.yaml . and edit it using your favorite text editor. Change the following values.

host: "isabell.uber.space"
protocol: "https"
port: 8080
db-type: "sqlite"
db-address: "sqlite.db"
storage-local-base-path: "/home/isabell/gotosocial/storage"

We’ll be using SQlite, but you can also use PostgreSQL by following the configuration guide for database.

Warning

If you consider using a subdomain, you need to configure this as described in advanced installation before running ./gotosocial for the first time!

Point the uberspace web backend on / to the listener on port 8080.

To make the application accessible from the outside, configure a web backend:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ uberspace web backend set / --http --port <port>
Set backend for / to port <port>; please make sure something is listening!
You can always check the status of your backend using "uberspace web backend list".
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Test your installation by running ./gotosocial --config-path ./config.yaml server start and opening https://isabell.uber.space in your web browser to access the splash screen.

If the splash screen loads successfully, hit Ctrl+C to abort GoToSocial and procede with the rest of the configuration.

Setup daemon

Create ~/etc/services.d/gotosocial.ini with the following content:

[program:gotosocial]
directory=%(ENV_HOME)s/gotosocial
command=%(ENV_HOME)s/gotosocial/gotosocial --config-path ./config.yaml server start
autostart=yes
autorestart=yes

After creating the configuration, tell supervisord to refresh its configuration and start the service:

[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl reread
SERVICE: available
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl update
SERVICE: added process group
[isabell@stardust ~]$ supervisorctl status
SERVICE                            RUNNING   pid 26020, uptime 0:03:14
[isabell@stardust ~]$

Administration

Create a user

Create your user account and make it the instance admin. Replace the values for --username, email and --password with your desired information.

[isabell@stardust gotosocial]$ ./gotosocial --config-path ./config.yaml admin account create --username isabell --email isabell@uber.space --password '5up3r_s3cur3_p4ssw0rD'

To promote the new user as instance admin use the following command:

[isabell@stardust gotosocial]$ ./gotosocial --config-path ./config.yaml admin account promote --username isabell

Customization

To provide some information on your instance, you might want set basic instance settings, such as contact user and email. Browse to https://isabell.uber.space/settings/admin/settings and configure the details.

Additionally, there is some documentation on custom CSS, if you’d like to adjust the appearance of your instance.

Best Practices

On a single-user instance you might want to disable further account registration and redirect the landing page to your user profile. For this, edit the configuration in ~/gotosocial/config.yaml and adjust the following settings:

landing-page-user: "isabell"
accounts-registration-open: false

Updates

Note

Check the update feed regularly to stay informed about the newest version.

Stop the service using supervisorctl stop gotosocial and rename your current installation to keep a backup.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ mv ~/gotosocial ~/gotosocial-backup

Repeat the installation step and copy your config.yaml and storage directory back into the new installation.

[isabell@stardust ~]$ cp ~/gotosocial-backup/config.yaml ~/gotosocial/config.yaml
[isabell@stardust ~]$ cp -r ~/gotosocial-backup/storage ~/gotosocial/storage

Sart GoToSocial using the supervisorctl start gotosocial command. If it’s not starting, investigate errors in the supervisord logfile located in ~/tmp. Otherwise have fun using the latest version and consider removing your backup after some days.

Tested with GoToSocial 0.8.1, Uberspace 7.15.1

Written by: this.ven <https://this.ven.uber.space>