# Server Requirements

# PHP

🦄 Chevereto V4 users

Check the updated documentation at 🐘 PHP (opens new window).

PHP support

Chevereto V3.20 works only with PHP 7.4. Upgrade to Chevereto V4 (opens new window) for PHP 8 support.

Version	PHP
3.20	7.4

Chevereto is PHP (opens new window) software, it has been designed using:

PHP packages (opens new window) from Ondřej Surý.
PHP extensions (opens new window) provided by PECL (opens new window).

Packages and PECL provides the same convenience, but as packages are made for debian-based systems you should prefer PECL if you don't have a compatible system.

Packages vs PECL

Packages not only contain the software, it could trigger other effects in the system.

# PHP configuration

The following ini values are recommended for Chevereto installations.

upload_max_filesize = 50M;
post_max_size = 50M;
max_execution_time = 30;
memory_limit = 512M;

Property	Description	Example
upload_max_filesize	Maximum upload size	`50M` for 50 MB
post_max_size	Maximum post size	Same as above
max_execution_time	Maximum time to execute the software, in seconds	`30` for 30 seconds
memory_limit	Maximum memory to allocate	`512M` for 512 MB

You can toggle this limits to reflect your hardware and server load. Check this article for more info: PHP common pitfalls (opens new window).

# PHP Extensions

The following PHP extensions are required for Chevereto.

BCMath
curl
exif
fileinfo
gd
hash
imagick
json
mbstring
pdo
pdo-mysql
session
xml
zip

# PHP Features

Chevereto requires unrestricted access to all PHP functions. If any PHP function is removed it could cause Chevereto to fail or to not work at all. Note that the following functions must not be restricted:

set_time_limit (opens new window)

# Image library

The image library (GD, Imagick) should be provided with support for PNG GIF JPG BMP WEBP. By default, Chevereto uses Imagick and fallback to GD.

If you need to explicit use GD you can add this key to Settings file:

$settings['image_library'] = 'gd';

Workaround missing formats

If the server doesn't provide support for all the image formats handled by Chevereto you must use the following Settings file workaround.

In the following example Chevereto is configured with explicit support only for PNG, GIF, BMP and JPG (removes WEBP):

$settings['image_formats_available'] = ['PNG', 'GIF', 'BMP', 'JPG'];

# Configuring image library

Check for CHEVERETO_IMAGE_LIBRARY for changing the default image library used by Chevereto.

# ImageMagick

Additional recommended ImageMagick configuration at /etc/ImageMagick-6/policy.xml file:

<policymap>
    <!-- policies -->
    <policy domain="resource" name="width" value="16KP"/>
    <policy domain="resource" name="height" value="16KP"/>
</policymap>

# Filesystem

User running php must be in the owner group of your installation directory. This is required to allow Chevereto to modify the filesystem for uploading, one-click update and many other features.

Chevereto user will require read/write access in the following paths:

/tmp
app/content/
app/content/languages/
app/content/languages/cache/
app/content/system/
content/
images/

# Database

🦄 Chevereto V4 users

Check the updated documentation at 🐬 MySQL Server (opens new window).

Version	MySQL	MariaDB
3.20	5.7, 8	10

Database user must have ALL PRIVILEGES over the target database
InnoDB table storage engine

Upgrading from old installation

Old versions using MyISAM table storage engine will require to convert the old tables to InnoDB. Read Convert MyISAM tables to InnoDB (opens new window)

# Web server configuration

🦄 Chevereto V4 users

Check the updated documentation at 🪶 Web Server (opens new window).

# Apache HTTP server

Make sure that mod_rewrite (opens new window) is enabled and that your virtual host settings allows to perform URL rewriting:

    <Directory /var/www/html>
        Options -Indexes +FollowSymLinks +MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Require all granted
    </Directory>

Apache configuration .htaccess files are already included in the software.

# Restrict direct access to PHP files

Edit the Virtual Host (opens new window) entry by adding the following directive for your upload directory. This will disable PHP interpreter on folders containing public upload content:

Must edit /var/www/html/images to reflect your actual upload directory.

<Directory /var/www/html/images>
    AllowOverride None
    <FilesMatch "\.(?:[Pp][Hh][Pp][345]?|[Pp][Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll])|(po|sql|html?)$">
        <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
            Order Allow,Deny
            Deny from all
        </IfModule>
        <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
            Require all denied
        </IfModule>
    </FilesMatch>
    <IfModule mod_php7.c>
        php_flag engine off
    </IfModule>
    <FilesMatch ".+\.*$">
        SetHandler !
    </FilesMatch>
    <IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
        RewriteRule ^.*\.php$ - [F,L]
    </IfModule>
</Directory>

If you don't have access to editing Apache Virtual Host you can use a .htaccess file in the alleged paths:

<FilesMatch "\.(?:[Pp][Hh][Pp][345]?|[Pp][Hh][Tt][Mm][Ll])|(po|sql|html?)$">
    <IfModule !mod_authz_core.c>
        Order Allow,Deny
        Deny from all
    </IfModule>
    <IfModule mod_authz_core.c>
        Require all denied
    </IfModule>
</FilesMatch>
<IfModule mod_php7.c>
    php_flag engine off
</IfModule>
<FilesMatch ".+\.*$">
    SetHandler !
</FilesMatch>
<IfModule mod_rewrite.c>
    RewriteRule ^.*\.php$ - [F,L]
</IfModule>

# NGINX

nginx.conf for server {} block:

    # Disable access to sensitive application files
    location ~* (app|content|lib)/.*\.(po|php|lock|sql)$ {
        return 404;
    }
    location ~* composer\.json|composer\.lock|.gitignore$ {
        return 404;
    }
    location ~* /\.ht {
        return 404;
    }

    # Image not found replacement
    location ~* \.(jpe?g|png|gif|webp)$ {
        log_not_found off;
        error_page 404 /content/images/system/default/404.gif;
    }

    # CORS header (avoids font rendering issues)
    location ~* \.(ttf|ttc|otf|eot|woff|woff2|font.css|css|js)$ {
        add_header Access-Control-Allow-Origin "*";
    }

    # PHP front controller
    location / {
        index index.php;
        try_files $uri $uri/ /index.php$is_args$query_string;
    }

    # Single PHP-entrypoint (disables direct access to .php files)
    location ~* \.php$  {
        internal;
        include snippets/fastcgi-php.conf;
        fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock;
    }

# Real connecting IP

For setups under any kind of proxy (including CloudFlare (opens new window)) is required that the web server sets the appropriate value for the client connecting IP.

DANGER

If real connecting IP is not configured Chevereto won't be able to detect the real visitors IPs, failing to deliver IP based restrictions and flood control.

NGINX: ngx_http_realip_module
Apache HTTP Server: mod_remoteip

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