Ghost is a free open source blogging platform built with Node.js. It started as a Kickstarter project and turned into a great blogging platform that is still under active development.
It can be self hosted or you can choose a hosted built at Ghost.org.
It uses Sqlite by default as it’s Database, you use MySQL to.
Its easy to setup and maintain Ghost compared to other blogging platforms and CMS, self hosting gives you the freedom to choose your own server.
If you don’t already have a server or planning to host it on a Ubuntu VPS, I would personally recommend Digital Ocean, Ghost.org is also hosted on it.
Getting started
Installing dependencies required for running Ghost into production.
Installing Node.js
Adding the Node.js repository to get the latest stable version of Node.js (requires: cURL).
“`
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup | sudo bash –
“`
Installing Node.js
“`
sudo apt-get install nodejs # NPM comes with it.
“`
Adding [NGINX](http://nginx.org) stable repository to get latest version of NGINX.
“`
sudo apt add-repository ppa:nginx/stable
“`
Installing NGINX.
“`
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install nginx-full
“`
Installing Sqlite.
“`
sudo apt-get install sqlite3
“`
Installing Supervisor, for handling Ghost at startup and crash or restart.
“`
sudo apt-get install supervisor
“`
Downloading [Ghost stable](https://ghost.org/zip/ghost-latest.zip) zip.
“`
wget https://ghost.org/zip/ghost-latest.zip
“`
cURL users can get it to.
“`
curl -# -L -O http://ghost.org/zip/ghost-latest.zip
“`
Unzipping Ghost zip file that we downloaded.
“`
unzip ghost-latest.zip -d Ghost
“`
Turn `Ghost` directory into current directory.
```
cd Ghost/
```
Installing production dependencies for Ghost using NPM.
```
npm install --production
```
Test run to see, to see if everything is running fine:
```
npm start --production
```
If you don’t get any errors, you are good to go ahead.
Adding Ghost service configuration to Supervisor, by creating a new <code class="highlighter-rouge">ghost.conf file.
```
sudo nano /etc/supervisor/conf.d/ghost.conf
```
Add the lines below, edited it to match you system settings, you can it under a separate user for Ghost, **don’t run it under the root user**.
```
[program:ghost]
command = npm start --production
directory = /path/to/ghost # Change to the place you have stored Ghost
user = ghost # Change the username Ghost will be running under
autostart = true
autorestart = true
stdout_logfile = /var/log/supervisor/ghost.log
stderr_logfile = /var/log/supervisor/ghost_err.log
environment = NODE_ENV="production"
```
Save file CTRL + X + Y and hit ENTER.
Ghost stores all it’s configuration in a <code class="highlighter-rouge">config.js file, which need to be created by coping the <code class="highlighter-rouge">config.example.js file to <code class="highlighter-rouge">config.js.
```
cp config.example.js config.js
```
Edit the file to your preference, don’t forget to edit the `url:` string to your domain.
Starting Ghost as a Supervisor service.
```
sudo supervisorctl start ghost
```
Now Ghost will be running on port 2368.
Reverse proxying it using NGINX to run it on port 80.
Edit the <code class="highlighter-rouge">default nginx configuration.
```
sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/default
```
Add the following to the `default` file.
```
server {
listen 80;
server_name yourdomain.com; # Change this to your domain
location / {
proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:2368;
proxy_set_header Host $host;
proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
}
}
</div>Restart NGINX.
<div class="highlighter-rouge">```
sudo service nginx restart
Visit your domain, you will now be greeted by Ghost setup page, fill the required information, now you have Ghost setup.
Happy Blogging.
Thanks for reading, have a question? leave a comment below.
