mastodon/SETUP.md

Setting up a dev environment

Prerequisites

Mastodon development requires the following:

• Ruby 3.0
• Ruby gems:
  • bundler
  • irb
  • foreman
• NodeJS v18 (LTS)
• NPM packages:
  • yarn
• Postgres
• Redis

macOS

First, make sure you have Homebrew installed. Follow the instructions at brew.sh.

Run the following to install all necessary packages:

brew install ruby@3.0 foreman node yarn postgresql redis

Ruby 3.0 is keg-only by default. Follow the instructions in the Caveat to add it to your path.

Linux

We will assume that you know how to locate the correct packages for your distro. That said, some distros package bundler and irb separately. Make sure that you also install these.

On Arch, you will need:

• ruby
• ruby-bundler
• ruby-irb
• ruby-foreman (AUR)
• redis
• postgresql
• yarn
• gmp # for nio4r
• libidn # for extconf
• base-devel # catch all, TODO install specific packages

Windows

Unfortunately, none of the authors use Windows. Contributions welcome!

Database

In the root of this repository, go through the following script:

# Create a folder for local data
mkdir -p data

# Set up a local database
pg_ctl -D data/postgres initdb -o '-U mastodon --auth-host=trust'

# Use the data/postgres folder for the DB connection unix socket
#
# If you don't know what that means, it's just a way for Mastodon to communicate
# with a database on the same machine efficiently.
#
# See: https://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/jammy/man7/unix.7.html
echo 'unix_socket_directories = .' >> data/postgres/postgresql.conf

# Start the database
pg_ctl -D data/postgres start --silent

Redis

In the root of this repository, run the following:

# Create a folder for redis data
mkdir -p data/redis

# Start Redis
redis-server ./redis-dev.conf

# [Optional] Stop Redis
# kill "$(cat ./data/redis/redis-dev.pid)"

Ruby

export RAILS_ENV=development

# Bundle installs all Ruby gems globally by default, which might cause problems.
bundle config set --local path 'vendor/bundle'

# [Apple Silicon] If using macOS on Apple Silicon, run the following:
# bundle config build.idn-ruby -- --with-idn-dir="$(brew --prefix libidn)"

# Install dependencies using bundle (Ruby) and yarn (JS)
bundle install
yarn install

# Setup the database using the pre-defined Rake task
#
# Rake is a command runner for Ruby projects. The `bundle exec` ensures that
# we use the version of Rake that this project requires.
bundle exec rake db:setup

# [Optional] If that fails, run the following and try again:
# bundle exec rake db:reset

Running Mastodon

1. Run export RAILS_ENV=development NODE_ENV=development. a. Put these in your shell's .rc, or a script you can source if you want to skip this step in the future.
2. Run bundle exec rake assets:precompile. a. If this explodes, complaining about Hash, you'll need to export NODE_OPTIONS=--openssl-legacy-provider. b. After doing this, you will need to run bundle exec rake assets:clobber and then re-run bundle exec rake assets:precompile.
3. Run foreman start

Updates/Troubleshooting

RubyVM/DebugInspector Issues

Still unable to fix. Circumvent by removing better_errors and binding_of_caller from Gemfile. Happy to troubleshoot with someone better with Ruby than us >_<'/.

Webpack Issues

If Webpack compalins about being unable to find some assets or locales: Try:

1. rm -rf node_modules
2. yarn install

If this doesn't help, try:

1. yarn add webpack
2. git restore package.json yarn.lock
3. yarn install

Then re-run foreman. No. We have no idea why this worked.

If the above instructions don't work, please contact @Rin here, or @tammy@social.treehouse.systems.