How to Reinstall Hubzilla and Neuhub

Sometimes it is necessary or desireable to reinstall Hubzilla.

Step 1: Backup Website

Do not skip this step. You will need some of these files to fully restore your website.

If you are using a server with cPanel, your website will be located in public_html. It may be at another location if you are not using cPanel.

1. Backup the entire website by downloading the files.
2. Make sure you have backups of the /store/ directory and .htconfig.php because you will need these to restore your website.
3. If you are using a theme other than Redbasic, you will need copies of the theme files.
4. If you have uploaded images or custom files, you will need those as well.

Since you have to restore these files by uploading individual files, be sure to download them instead of using cPanel's backup feature.

You can still use cPanel's backup feature if you want to restore the old version of your website using cPanel's restore feature, but it is harder to extract individual files if your computer cannot read cPanel's backup file format. You will need copies of the individual files in step 4.

Step 2: Check Requirements

Make sure that you have PHP 8.0 or higher installed. You can skip this step if you already know you have PHP 8.0 or higher installed.

On cPanel servers, you can check by going to MultiPHP Manager in cPanel.

If necessary, change the version to PHP 8.0 or higher.

Step 3: Reinstall Hubzilla

If you are have a server with cPanel, follow these directions. If you do not have cPanel, you may need to perform additional steps. See the full installation instructions for details.

Note: These instructions assume you are using cPanel and the root folder for your website is called public_html. If you are not using cPanel or you installed Hubzilla in a different folder, then substitute the correct folder everywhere it says public_html.

1. Delete the current Hubzilla files.
   • If you are on a cPanel powered server, the files will be in the public_html folder.
   • Do NOT delete the public_html folder. Only delete the contents of the public_html folder.
   • Make sure you delete any hidden files as well.
   • You backed up your files first, right?
2. Open the Command Line
   • In cPanel, open the Terminal (or access the command line through SSH).
   • If you are using cPanel and accessed the Terminal via your cPanel, you are already in the correct folder.
   • If you are not using cPanel or are logged in as root, navigate to the parent folder of the folder where you want to install Hubzilla (e.g. the parent folder of public_html).
3. Clone Hubzilla using the following commands:

   • git clone https://framagit.org/hubzilla/core.git public_html 
     cd public_html 
     mkdir -p "store/[data]/smarty3" 
     chmod -R 755 store  

4. Optionally, clone the Hubzilla addons, widgets, and themes repositories using the following commands:

   • util/add_addon_repo https://framagit.org/hubzilla/addons.git hzaddons 
     util/add_widget_repo https://framagit.org/hubzilla/widgets.git hzwidgets 
     util/add_theme_repo https://framagit.org/hubzilla/themes.git hzthemes 

5. Clone Neuhub using the following commands:

   • git clone https://github.com/WisTex/Neuhub.git  
     cd Neuhub  
     cp -R * .. 

Step 4: Restore Backed Up Files

Next we will need to restore all of the files that made your Hubzilla installation yours.

1. Copy your backup of the /store/ directory and its contents back to your website.
2. Copy your backup of the .htconfig.php file back to your website.
3. If you are using a theme other than Redbasic, upload the theme files.
4. Copy any backed up images and custom files back to your website.

Because you are using the existing database, you should not need to reenter the database information or repeat the installation process.

Since you are reinstalling everything anyway, it might be the perfect time to update your themes to the latest versions as well.

Step 5. Visit Website

Your website should be full restored now.