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Manual Installation

Requirements on your server

  • Node.js 16 or later We recommend to run HedgeDoc with the latest LTS release of Node.js.
  • Database (PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB, SQLite)
    The database must use charset utf8. This is typically the default in PostgreSQL and SQLite.
    In MySQL and MariaDB UTF-8 might need to be set with alter database <DBNAME> character set utf8 collate utf8_bin;
    Be aware of older MySQL and MariaDB versions which sometimes use shorter representations of UTF-8 than 4 bytes. This can break if symbols with more bytes are used. You can use alter database <DBNAME> character set utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_unicode_ci to be on the safe side.
  • NPM (and its dependencies, node-gyp)
  • Yarn 3: Running corepack enable once should be sufficient, Node.js will then automatically use the correct version of Yarn. If corepack is not available, try npm i -g corepack first. See the official docs for more information and other options.
  • Bash (for the setup script)
  • For building the HedgeDoc frontend you need a machine with at least 2 GB RAM.
    • Starting with release 1.7 the release tarball includes the prebuilt frontend, so building it yourself is not necessary.
  1. Check if you meet the requirements at the top of this document.
  2. Download the latest release and extract it.
    Alternatively, you can use Git to clone the repository and checkout a release, e.g. with git clone -b 1.9.9 https://github.com/hedgedoc/hedgedoc.git.
  3. Enter the directory and execute bin/setup, which will install the dependencies and create example configs.
  4. Configure HedgeDoc: To get started, you can use this minimal config.json: 
    {
  "production": {
    "db": {
      "dialect": "sqlite",
      "storage": "./db.hedgedoc.sqlite"
   },
    "urlAddPort": true,
    "domain": "localhost"
  }
}
    It's also possible to use environment variables. For details, have a look at the configuration documentation.
  5. If you use the release tarball for 1.7.0 or newer, this step can be skipped.
    Build the frontend bundle by running yarn install --immutable and then yarn build. The extra yarn install --immutable is necessary as bin/setup does not install the build dependencies.
  6. It is recommended to start your server manually once:
    NODE_ENV=production yarn start
    This way it's easier to see warnings or errors that might occur.
    You can leave out NODE_ENV=production for development.
  7. If you use the example config, HedgeDoc should now be available at http://localhost:3000.
  8. Run the server as you like (node, forever, pm2, systemd, Init-Scripts).
    See below for an example using systemd.

Upgrading

Warning

Before you upgrade, always read the release notes.
You can find them on our releases page.

If you want to upgrade HedgeDoc from an older version, follow these steps:

  1. Check if you still meet the requirements at the top of this document.
  2. Ensure you read the release notes of all versions between your current version and the latest release.
  3. Fully stop your old HedgeDoc server.
  4. Download the new release and extract it over the old directory.
    If you use Git, you can check out the new tag with e.g. git fetch origin && git checkout 1.9.9
  5. Run bin/setup. This will take care of installing dependencies. It is safe to run on an existing installation.
  6. If you used the release tarball for 1.7.0 or newer, this step can be skipped.
    Build the frontend bundle by running yarn install --immutable and yarn build. The extra yarn install --immutable is necessary as bin/setup does not install the build dependencies.
  7. It is recommended to start your server manually once: 
    NODE_ENV=production yarn start
    This way it's easier to see warnings or errors that might occur.
  8. You can now restart the HedgeDoc server!

Systemd Unit Example

Using the unit file below, you can run HedgeDoc as a systemd service.

Warning

  • In this example, you must configure HedgeDoc using the config.json file and the production key.
  • Make sure the user and group hedgedoc exists and has appropriate permissions in the directory you installed HedgeDoc in or change the User and Group settings in the unit file.
  • Make sure WorkingDirectory points to the directory you installed HedgeDoc in.
  • Make sure ReadWritePaths contains all directories HedgeDoc might write to. This may include the public/uploads folder if you configured local storage. If you use SQLite, you must also include the directory where the database file is saved. Do not save the SQLite file in the root directory of the HedgeDoc installation, but create a subfolder like db!
  • If you use an external database like PostgreSQL or MariaDB, make sure to add a corresponding After statement.
[Unit]
Description=HedgeDoc - The best platform to write and share markdown.
Documentation=https://docs.hedgedoc.org/
After=network.target
# Uncomment if you use MariaDB/MySQL
# After=mysql.service
# Uncomment if you use PostgreSQL
# After=postgresql.service

[Service]
Type=exec
Environment=NODE_ENV=production
Restart=always
RestartSec=2s
ExecStart=/usr/bin/yarn start
CapabilityBoundingSet=
NoNewPrivileges=true
PrivateDevices=true
RemoveIPC=true
LockPersonality=true
ProtectControlGroups=true
ProtectKernelTunables=true
ProtectKernelModules=true
ProtectKernelLogs=true
ProtectClock=true
ProtectHostname=true
ProtectProc=noaccess
RestrictRealtime=true
RestrictSUIDSGID=true
RestrictNamespaces=true
RestrictAddressFamilies=AF_UNIX AF_INET AF_INET6
ProtectSystem=strict
ProtectHome=true
PrivateTmp=true
SystemCallArchitectures=native
SystemCallFilter=@system-service

# You may have to adjust these settings
User=hedgedoc
Group=hedgedoc
WorkingDirectory=/opt/hedgedoc

# Example: local storage for uploads and SQLite
# ReadWritePaths=/opt/hedgedoc/public/uploads /opt/hedgedoc/db

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target