Bare

A single file directory-to-blog

Bare has no usernames, passwords, editors, file uploaders, or other mechanisms that get in the way of writing your thoughts. Simply put your posts in year/month/day/slug.md format, and Bare will publish it.

The first line in each post is the title. The URL slug is the filename. Posts can be tagged by adding the last line in the following format:
tags: cabin, diy

You can also schedule posts to be published at a future date as bare will only show posts from the current date and into the past. Bare will create an archive of all posts and create a syndication feed of the most recent ones.

An about page can be created by editing posts/about/main.md. Additional about pages can be added to the same directory and again the URL is the filename. About sub directories can also be added. The location of the "about" folder may be renamed to anything else URL friendly, and under 255 characters in length, in the "aboutview" URL route in index.php.

A static homepage can be shown instead of the lastest posts by creating a posts/home.md page. Bare will show this similar to an about page.

Posts are cached in a SQLite database created dynamically, which enables fast browsing and searching for posts by tags, title, or post body. The cache.db can be deleted at any time and Bare will rebuild it on the first visit to your blog.

An extensive hook system allows customizing posts, indexes, and other template elements. Hooks also enable completely overriding the default behavior of most rendering functions and some core functions via plugins.

Bare's simple installation and minimal set of features make it ideal for hosting blogs on Hidden Services on the Tor anonymity network.

The author's personal blog is using Bare, also mirrored on Tor. Use Tor Browser to visit the Tor mirror.

Table of contents

• Requirements
• Installation
  • Multiple blogs or shared content
• Formatting
• Custom errors (optional)
• Installing on other web servers
  • Nginx
  • OpenBSD's httpd(8) web server
• Running a TLS-enabled Bare blog on OpenBSD
• Troubleshooting

Requirements

• Webserver capable of handling URL rewrites (Apache, Nginx etc...)
• PHP Version 8+ (8.2+ recommended)

The following PHP extensions may need to be installed or enabled in php.ini:

• pdo_sqlite (required)
• sqlite3 (required)
• mbstring
• fileinfo (required)
• intl
• tidy

Note: Various Windows and Unix-like platforms have differing locations for php.ini. Check your installation or contact your administrator to gain access to this file.

Remember to backup php.ini before making changes to it.

The GD extension is suggested as plugins may use it, however it is not required for core functionality. If some plugins also need encryption, the Sodium extension is recommended.

If you prefer to use Composer to handle your environment (optional), use the following example composer.json:

{
	"require": {
		"php": ">=8.2",
		"lib-iconv": "*",
		"ext-pdo": "*",
		"ext-pdo_sqlite": "*",
		"ext-mbstring": "*",
		"ext-fileinfo": "*",
		"ext-intl" : "*",
		"ext-tidy" : "*"
	},
	"suggest": {
		"ext-gd": "*",
		"ext-sodium": "*"
	},
	"prefer-stable": true
}

Installation

Note: These instructions are for the releases. Only use released Bare versions.

Upload the following to your web root:

• .htaccess - Required only if using the Apache web server
• index.php - Your homepage
• /posts folder - Contains your posts (use your favorite editor) and content such as CSS, media, or robots.txt
• /cache folder - Formatted cache (needs write access)
• /errors - Custom error pages (optional)

The /posts, /cache, and /errors folder locations can be adjusted in index.php. You may keep them in the same directory or outside the web root as long as PHP still has access to them. The /errors folder can be excluded entirely if you don't intend to use any custom error pages.

An optional config.json file can be created in the /cache folder to override all but a few configuration defaults. The config.json uses typical JSON formating and will make it easier to upgrade Bare while preserving your settings. Creating a config.json is recommended for ease of upgrading to future releases of Bare.

Bare will try to create a startup.log file in the /cache folder if there are any missing requirements or missing optional libraries during the first visit to your blog. The startup.log should be deleted or renamed after installing or enabling the missing requirements before trying again.

The following changes are to the settings in index.php, which also has the default theme so there are no other files to edit.

Add your site's domain name, E.G. example.com, to SITES_ENABLED in index.php (currently, the author's Tor blog is in this place) or to the 'sites_enabled' setting in the config.json file.

In index.php, the SITES_ENABLED setting may be as follows:

{ 
	"example.com" : []
}

Or a bare minimum config.json in the /cache folder:

{
	"page_title" : "Your Blog Title", 
	"page_sub" : "Tagline of Your Blog",
	"sites_enabled": { 
		"example.com" : []
	}
}

And if testing for both example.com and locally on localhost, in index.php SITES_ENABLED:

{
	"example.com" : [],
	"localhost" : []
}

Or the config.json in the /cache folder can be modified to the following:

{
	"page_title" : "Your Blog Title", 
	"page_sub" : "Tagline of Your Blog",
	"sites_enabled": {
		"example.com" : [],
		"localhost" : []
	}
}

Multiple blogs or shared content

Add your domains to SITES_ENABLED in index.php or to 'sites_enabled' in config.json as above:

{
	"example.com": [],
	"example.net": []
}

Add your posts for example.com in /posts/example.com/ and posts for example.net in /posts/example.net/ and so on, following the year/month/day/title-slug.md format.

Hosting a blog in a subfolder instead of the main domain:

{
	"example.com" : [ 
		{
			"basepath" : "\/myblog"
		} 
	]
}

Or multiple blogs on the same domain:

{
	"example.com" : [ 
		{
			"basepath" : "\/",
			"page_title" : "Example Main Blog",
			"page_sub" : "A Tagline for The Main Blog"
		}, 
		{
			"basepath" : "\/secondblog",
			"page_title" : "Sub Example Blog",
			"page_sub" : "Sub Tagline for The Second Blog"
		}
	]
}

To put a blog into maintenance mode:

{
	"example.com" : [ 
		{
			"basepath" : "\/",
			"is_maintenance": 1
		} 
	]
}

Make a blog inactive:

{
	"example.com" : [ 
		{
			"basepath" : "\/",
			"is_active": 0
		} 
	]
}

As above, remember to escape forward slashes.

Bare supports caching of formatted posts. Simply enable write permissions to the cache directory. On *nix systems:

chmod -R 755 /your-web-root/cache

And then, follow the conventions in the example post:

/posts/2018/09/22/a-new-post.md

Content formatting

Bare understands a few HTML tags, which can be extended, and a small subset of Markdown.

To bold or italicize text:

**bold text** *italic text*

To create a link:

[link text](https://example.com)

To embed a previously uploaded image file:

![alt text](https://example.com/filename.jpg)
or 
![alt text](/path/to/filename.jpg)

To create a footnote:

This post has a footnote[^1] and another[^2]

Footnotes are fully written at the end of the post body

[^1]: First footnote
[^2]: Second footnote with a [link](https://example.com)

Bare also supports text-based footnote references:

This post has a footnote[^One] and another[^Two]

Footnotes are fully written at the end of the post body

[^One]: First footnote
[^Two]: Second footnote with a [link](https://example.com)

HTML is filtered of potentially harmful tags, however embedding videos to YouTube, Vimeo, PeerTube, Archive.org, LBRY/Odysee, or Playeur/Utreon is supported via shortcodes.

E.G. For uploaded audio files:

[audio /path/to/file.mp3]

For uploaded video media:

Plain video:
[video /path/to/media.mp4]

Video with preview thumbnail:
[video (/path/to/preview.jpg) /path/to/media.mp4]

For media with subtitles or captions in WebVTT format

Simple captions:
[video [/path/to/captions.vtt] /path/to/media.mp4]

Captions and media preview:
[video [/path/to/captions.vtt] (/path/to/preview.jpg) /path/to/media.mp4]

Subtitles:
[video [lang=en&label=English&src=/path/to/en.vtt] /path/to/media.mp4]

Subtitles in multiple languages:
[video [lang=de&label=Deutsche&src=/path/to/de.vtt][lang=jp&label=日本語&src=/path/to/jp.vtt] /path/to/media.mp4]

Multiple languages with single default set:
[video [lang=en&label=English&default=yes&src=/path/to/en.vtt][lang=de&label=Deutsche&src=/path/to/de.vtt][lang=jp&label=日本語&src=/path/to/jp.vtt] /path/to/media.mp4]

For YouTube:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJ0ULhVKwEI]
or
[youtube https://youtu.be/RJ0ULhVKwEI]
or
[youtube RJ0ULhVKwEI]

For Vimeo:

[vimeo https://vimeo.com/113315619]
or
[vimeo 113315619]

For Archive.org:

[archive https://archive.org/details/A-Few-Days-In-Winter]
or
[archive A-Few-Days-In-Winter]

For PeerTube (any instance):

[peertube https://peertube.mastodon.host/videos/watch/56047136-00eb-4296-afc3-dd213fd6bab0]

Note: Remember to add the PeerTube instance URL to the list of URLs in FRAME_WHITELIST (one per line) in your index.php or 'frame_whitelist' in config.json (JSON array format)

For Odysee or LBRY video (use the "Download" link in the share options):

[odysee https://odysee.com/$/download/eevblog-1367-5-types-of-oscilloscope/2d70c817aa4e1f7ce6b66473b0c3b66fd09d9281]
or 
[lbry https://lbry.tv/$/download/eevblog-1367-5-types-of-oscilloscope/2d70c817aa4e1f7ce6b66473b0c3b66fd09d9281]

For Playeur (Utreon rebranded):

[playeur https://playeur.com/v/gP3WmpEiTz2]

Older embedded Utreon videos already in posts will still work as-is, as long as the original videos still exist on the platform.

Custom errors (optional)

A separate /errors folder can be used to create custom error pages for each HTTP status code. The location of the /errors folder is configurable via the ERROR_ROOT setting.

E.G. Create an /errors/404.html file and put your custom Not Found content. The following status codes are supported for custom errors:
400, 401, 403, 404, 405, 429, 500, 501, 503

Installing on other web servers

Nginx

The Nginx web server supports URL rewriting and file filtering. The following is a simple configuration for a site named example.com.
Note: The pound sign(#) denotes comments.

The following is an example server block tested on Manjaro Linux (Arch based). The location of nginx.config will depend on your platform.

server {
	server_name example.com;
	
	# Change this to your web root, if it's different
	root /usr/share/nginx/example.com/html;
	
	# Prevent access to special files
	location ~\.(hta|htp|md|conf|db|sql|json|sh)\$ {
		deny all;
	}
	
	# Prevent access to cache folder
	location /cache {
		deny all;
	}
	
        # Remember to put static files (I.E. .css, .js etc...)
        # in the same directory you set in FILE_PATH
	
	# Send all requests (that aren't static files) to index.php
	location / {
		try_files $uri @barehandler;
		index index.php;
	}
	
	location @barehandler {
                rewrite ^(.*)$ /index.php;
        }
	
	# Handle php
	location ~ \.php$ {
		fastcgi_pass	unix:/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
		fastcgi_index	index.php;
		include		fastcgi.conf;
        }
}

The index.php file should be in the subfolder you're hosting the blog from, if you haven't added any custom rewriting rules to your webserver configuration, and also remember to change the static file and cache directory. This is especially important when hosting a blog from a subfolder instead of the main web root.

OpenBSD's httpd(8) web server

The OpenBSD operating system comes with its own web server in the base installation. Previously, this was the Apache web server and then Nginx.

OpenBSD does not come with PHP and needs to be installed separately. Select the highest version after each command:

doas pkg_add php
doas pkg_add php-pdo_sqlite
doas pkg_add php-tidy
doas pkg_add php-intl

If you're already logged in as root, skip the "doas" before each command.

Edit /etc/php-8.x.ini (or the version of PHP you're running) and make sure the following extensions are enabled.

extension=fileinfo
extension=intl
extension=mbstring
extension=pdo_sqlite
extension=sqlite3
extension=tidy

Now enable and start PHP.
This is assuming 8.1, but other versions follow the same convention:

doas rcctl enable php82_fpm
doas rcctl start php82_fpm

Note: Although it shares the same comment style, httpd(8) configuration directives do not end in a semicolon(;) unlike Nginx settings.

The following configuration can be used if Bare is installed as the "example.com" website (tested on OpenBSD 7.1).

Edit /etc/httpd.conf to add a custom server setting file:

include "/etc/httpd.conf.local"

Create /etc/httpd.conf.local and add the following:

# A site called "example.com" 
server "www.example.com" {
	alias "example.com"
  
	# listening on external addresses
	listen on egress port 80
	
	# Uncomment the following, if you're only hosting on Tor
	#listen on lo port 80
	
	# Default directory
	directory index "index.html"
  
	# Change this to your web root, if it's different
	root "/htdocs"
  
	# Prevent access to special files
	location "/*.hta*"		{ block }
	location "/*.htp*"              { block }
	location "/*.md*"		{ block }
	location "/*.conf*"		{ block }
	location "/*.db*"		{ block }
	location "/*.sql*"		{ block }
	location "/*.json*"		{ block }
	location "/*.sh*"		{ block }
	
	# Prevent access to data folder
	location "/cache/*"		{ block }
	
	# Remember to put static files (I.E. .css, .js etc...)
	# In the same directory you set in FILE_PATH
	
	# Let index.php handle all other requests
	location "/*" {
		directory index "index.php"
		
		# Change this to your web root, if it's different
		root { "/htdocs/index.php" }
		
		# Enable FastCGI handling of PHP
		fastcgi socket "/run/php-fpm.sock"
	}
}

Check your configuration by running:

httpd -n

If there are no errors, run the following to load the changes:

doas rcctl reload httpd

Your new Bare blog is ready to be served.

To ensure the server and PHP will run each time you (re)start your OpenBSD system, remember to add the following to rc.conf.local:

httpd_flags=
pkg_scripts=php82_fpm

Or if you're hosting your blog over Tor, make sure that's added as well:

httpd_flags=
pkg_scripts=tor php82_fpm

If you have already enabled firewall access to your site, you may skip this part.

The OpenBSD firewall is pf, which requires its own set of directives to enable serving websites. There is an example pf configuration which will let external web traffic through. Study the manual for a more detailed explanation what each of these directives do.

Make a backup of /etc/pf.conf first and include these directives:

# This may be adjusted for an e-commerce site, with shopping carts etc.., but this is fine for a Blog
set limit { states 500000, frags 2000 }

# A table to store flooding clients
table <flooders> persist counters

# You can also create permanent tables and add IP addresses to them
# E.G. A blocklist called "blocked" in a folder called "pftables"
# table <blocklist> persist file "/etc/pftables/blocked"

# Web traffic serving with maximum connection rate and throttling
websrv="(max 500, source-track rule, max-src-states 50, max-src-conn-rate 500/5, \
	max-src-conn 50, overload <flooders> flush global)"

# If you're also receiving email on the same server, uncomment the following
#mailsrv="(max 500, source-track rule, max-src-states 5, max-src-conn-rate 5/10, \
#	max-src-conn 3, overload <flooders> flush global)"

# Note the slash at the end of the first line indicates the directive wraps
# DO NOT add a space after that slash

# Block policy is to just drop the connection by default
set block-policy drop

# Ignore loopback (localhost)
set skip on lo

# Accommodate slow clients (E.G. when hosting over Tor)
set optimization high-latency
set ruleset-optimization profile
set timeout { frag 30 }

# Set syn cookies
set syncookies adaptive (start 25%, end 12%)

# Safety scrub
match in all scrub (no-df random-id max-mss 1440)
match out all scrub (no-df random-id reassemble tcp max-mss 1440)

# This *mostly* works, but a dedicated blocklist, like Spamhaus, is strongly recommended
antispoof quick for { egress lo0 }
block quick from { <flooders> }

# You can add more comma delimited tables to that list
# E.G. <flooders>, <abuse>, <spamhaus> etc...

# Deny access in both directions by default
block all
block return

# Spoof protection
block in quick from urpf-failed to any
block in quick from no-route to any

# Allow access to web ports (email is similar, but outside the scope of this)
pass in on egress inet proto tcp from any to (egress) port { 80 443 } keep state $websrv

# Uncomment this line if you're also handling email on this server
#pass in on egress inet proto tcp from any to (egress) port { 25 } keep state $mailsrv

# Pass TCP, UDP, ICMP
pass out on egress proto { tcp, udp, icmp } all modulate state

# The pf.conf that comes with OpenBSD has some other settings, which should be left as-is
# Only add/modify what's needed to get your site up and running, but learn more about what these do

Running a TLS-enabled Bare blog on OpenBSD

Note: Remember to point your DNS servers to your web server's public IP address first.

This assumes you're already logged in as root and skips "doas". PHP installation is the same as above.

The server configuration is similar at first to the above steps.
Edit /etc/httpd.conf to include your custom server settings:

include "/etc/httpd.conf.local"

Create or edit /etc/httpd.conf.local same as above, but add this instead:

# A site called "example.com" 
server "www.example.com" {
	alias "example.com"
	
	# listening on external addresses on port 80
	listen on egress port 80
	
	# Default directory
	directory index "index.html"
	
	# Change this to your web root, if it's different
	root "/htdocs"
	
	# acme-client needs this
	location "/.well-known/acme-challenge/*" {
		root "/acme"
		request strip 2
	}
}

OpenBSD comes with acme-client and this creates a basic website to use it.

Create or edit /etc/acme-client.conf to make sure it contains this:

authority letsencrypt {
	api url "https://acme-v02.api.letsencrypt.org/directory"
	account key "/etc/ssl/private/letsencrypt.pem"
}

# Substitute example.com for your own domain
domain example.com {
	alternative names { www.example.com }
	domain key "/etc/ssl/private/example.com.key"
	domain certificate "/etc/ssl/example.com.crt"
	domain full chain certificate "/etc/ssl/example.com.pem"
	sign with letsencrypt
}

# And so on for your other domains...

Create these folders with appropriate permissions:

mkdir -p -m 700 /etc/ssl/private
mkdir -p -m 755 /var/www/acme

Check your configurations:

httpd -n
acme-client -n

If there are no errors, reload httpd(8) so it can recognize changes:

rcctl reload httpd

Then, run acme client to get your new certificate:

acme-client example.com

Your new certificate should be created and ready to be used.

Now, go back to /etc/httpd.conf.local to add the new settings. This is an example of a TLS enabled site with full logging:

# A site called "example.com" 

# Redirect all non-TLS requests to TLS enabled site
server "www.example.com" {
	alias "example.com"
	
	# listening on external addresses on port 80
	listen on egress port 80
	block return 301 "https://example.com$REQUEST_URI"
}

server "www.example.com" {
	alias "example.com"
  
	# listening on external addresses on TLS port
	listen on egress tls port 443
	
	# Default directory
	directory index "index.html"
	
	# Logging for access and errors 
	# Note: this is for request errors, which are different from blog errors
	log access "/example.com/access.log"
	log error "/example.com/error.log"
  
	# Change this to your web root, if it's different
	root "/htdocs"
	
	# Create your certificates first
	hsts max-age 31536000
	hsts subdomains
	tls {
		certificate "/etc/ssl/example.com.pem"
		key "/etc/ssl/private/example.com.key"
	}
	
	# This is specific to acme-client
	location "/.well-known/acme-challenge/*" {
		root "/acme"
		request strip 2
	}
	
	# Rest is the same as before 
	
	# Prevent access to special files
	location "/*.hta*"		{ block }
	location "/*.htp*"              { block }
	location "/*.md*"		{ block }
	location "/*.conf*"		{ block }
	location "/*.db*"		{ block }
	location "/*.sql*"		{ block }
	location "/*.json*"		{ block }
	location "/*.sh*"		{ block }
	
	# Prevent access to data folder, if it's also in the web root
	location "/cache/*"		{ block }
	
	# Remember to put static files (I.E. .css, .js etc...)
	# In the same directory you set in FILE_PATH
	
	# Let index.php handle all other requests
	location "/*" {
		directory index "index.php"
		
		# Change this to your web root, if it's different
		root { "/htdocs/index.php" }
		
		# Enable FastCGI handling of PHP
		fastcgi socket "/run/php-fpm.sock"
	}
}

It's a good idea to create a subfolder for each domain for logging

mkdir -p -m 755 /var/www/logs/example.com

The TLS settings have been made. Check the configuration again:

httpd -n

If there are no errors, reload httpd(8) to launch the site:

rcctl reload httpd

To make sure your certificate renews automatically, create or edit
/etc/weekly.local with:

acme-client example.com

Now, every week, your domain's certificates are renewed when it's getting close to expiration.

Your Bare blog will now be served over a secure connection.

Troubleshooting

Always remember to backup index.php before making modifications to it and also config.json if one was created in the /cache folder. Remember that some plugins may cause errors. Disabling any newly added plugins (by taking them off the "plugins_enabled" list in config.json or removing them from the PLUGINS_ENABLED setting in index.php) may fix a problem.

These are possible problems you may encounter and potential solutions to them. If Bare was able to run at least once, check the error.log file in the CACHE folder to see if something was written there. Most of the time, if Bare was succssfully installed, this will give you some useful information.

• Problem: I don't see anything

  • Check if you have set all the required definitions in index.php such as PATH, CACHE, and POSTS. If you only have the demo post and no plugins installed yet, Bare should run with just the default settings for the rest.

  • Check if you have uploaded the posts folder with at least one post and cache folder along with index.php. For the Apache webserver, the .htaccess file is also required.

  • Check if you have any JSON errors in config.json if you're using a custom configuration like this. Bare doesn't need a config.json, but having one is recommended as it makes upgrading easier.

  • Check if your webserver is configured to host your site, have set permissions (chmod -R 0755 on *nix systems) on the CACHE folder, and PHP has permission to run following the installation instructions.

  • At a minimum, check if you have PHP enabled and, as a test, create a plain index.php file with just <?php echo 1; in it and see if it prints "1". If you still don't see anything, then PHP is not installed or not configured correctly for your webserver.

• Problem: I see a 404 error on the homepage, or 400 error or "Invalid request" error

  • Check if your domain name is added to the host whitelist. This is SITES_ENABLED in index.php or 'sites_enabled' in config.json. Bare should also work with your server's IP address if you don't yet have a domain name.

  • If you're hosting multiple blogs or your Bare blog is on a subfolder or different domain, follow the multiple blog instructions.

  • If Bare was running before and you made any recent changes, check if Bare runs with the restored index.php. Add the same changes one-by-one until you can narrow down which change caused the problem.

  • If you're running Bare behind HAProxy, relayd, or another load balancer or gateway, update to the latest version of Bare and make sure the load balancer or gateway is correctly forwarding the host name and IP address from the client request to the web server.

• Problem: I see my blog, but no posts

  • Check if the POSTS definition in index.php is set to the same location where you keep your blog posts.

  • If you uploaded the demo post as-is, check if PHP has read permissions to this folder. You may also need to set ownership permissions for the webserver user (E.G. chown -R www posts on some platforms).

• Problem: I see my post doesn't look the way I want it to look

  • Bare understands a limited subset of Markdown formatting, but this may not be enough to express what you're trying to show. Bare will accept plain HTML tags as well, provided they're within the whitelist of allowed tags (either in the base installation or expanded via plugins). Try simple HTML, if Markdown formatting didn't work the way you expect.

  • If you're using any custom templates added to index.php or by using the templates plugin, see if the post looks correctly without these changes.

  • If you're using custom CSS classes by adding them to "default_classes" in config.json or by adding them to DEFAULT_CLASSES in index.php, try changing or removing these to see if it makes a difference.

• Problem: I see a message in startup.log in the CACHE folder

  • Bare has certain requirements to function properly and will print this list in the file. See if they are enabled and try to run Bare again. You may delete or rename the startup.log file and Bare will create it again only if there's an issue.

  • Optional, but recommended, items may also be present. These can be ignored if you don't intend to use plugins or can manage without some of Bare's features.

• Problem: I see a message in errors.log in the CACHE folder

  • Error retrieving posts from...

    • This is usually caused by the POSTS definition in index.php being set to a different location than your blog posts or the folder is inaccessible to PHP. If you are uploading your posts to a different folder, remember to change this setting and also remember to set ownership permissions for the webserver user (E.G. chown -R www posts on some platforms).

  • Method not implemented

    • One or more custom routes have a method other than "get", "head", or "post" that Bare doesn't yet support. If you made any recent changes to index.php to add a custom route or added a new plugin, revert the changes to see if the error returns.

  • Database or SQLite errors

    • "Error connecting to database": Bare requires SQLite be enabled for caching and searching posts. Make sure this is done in php.ini in the installation instructions above. Bare also needs PDO to be enabled.

    • "Error writing to session ID to database": See if your CACHE folder has the correct write permissions. Try moving session.db to session.db.bkp so a new Session database can be created. If permissions are set and the problem is intermittent, this may be caused by too many connections at the same time and PHP not closing the database correctly.

    • "Error starting DB transaction in refreshPost()" or "Error starting DB transaction in loadIndex()": Something happened to the cache.db file in the CACHE folder between the site caching the post and trying to save any changes made to the post since. Try to move cache.db to cache.db.bkp and see if the problem persists when you refresh the page. A new cache.db should be created by Bare.

    • "Error inserting post...": This may be caused by cache.db being modified by a plugin. Bare depends on a specific database schema to cache posts and tags and if the posts, tags, and post_tags tables have been changed, caching won't work correctly. Disable any recently added plugins and as above, move the file to cache.db.bkp and see if the problem persists.

    • Other PDO error: If you're using any custom SQL queries, check if they have any syntax errors. These kinds of problems are likely caused by a plugin. Disable any new plugins and see if the error goes away.

  • Formatting

    • "Bare requires the libxml extension be enabled.": The libxml extension is usually enabled by default on PHP installations unless it was compiled with --disable-libxml set. Make sure your PHP installation comes with this extension and you're not using a custom compiled variant of PHP without it.

    • "Error loading DOMDocument" or another libxml error: This is usually caused by an unusual string sent to the html() function. Bare will filter out most harmful texts sent to it, but not everything is foolproof. If you're not using a plugin for commenting or other user input, check if your post text contains any invalid Unicode strings. Bare should handle virtually every Unicode string that PHP is also able to handle.

  • Plugin errors

    • "Error loading plugins(s)...": The PLUGINS directory must be correctly set in index.php (this cannot be set in config.json and PHP needs access to it).

    • "Out of order call. Check hooks.": A plugin tried to run before the "loadPlugins" function under the "begin" event. This is caused by a misbehaving plugin. Disable your most recently added plugin and see if the error persists.

    • "Invalid file path search" or "Attempt to write to unloaded plugin directory": A plugin tried to write to another plugin's folder without that other plugin being loaded. Make sure your plugins have all their dependencies added first to "plugins_enabled" in config.json or PLUGINS_ENABLED in index.php

    • "Unknown status code...": An attempt to send a page to a visitor or redirect a visitor using an HTTP status code that Bare doesn't support. Check for any redirects or send() function calls in any recently added plugins. Bare can respond with the following HTTP status codes:
      200, 201, 202, 204, 205, 206, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 400, 401, 403, 404, 405, 406, 407, 409, 410, 411, 412, 413, 414, 415, 416, 422, 425, 429, 431, 500, 501, 503

    • "Invalid URL...": A redirect attempt was made to a different host, domain name, or IP address other than the one currently serving the visitor. Bare only supports redirecting to URLs on the same host using the built-in redirect() function.

    • "Headers already sent with code...": Some content (or just whitespace) was sent to the visitor before redirecting. Check for "echo" or send() function calls before the redirect() function call in the plugin.

    • "No route defined": Bare requires at least one path, even if it's "" (I.E. empty path) to be defined to function. The addBlogRoutes() function adds the default Bare routes, but a plugin may overwrite these without adding any of its own, leading to this error.

  • Email

    • "mail() Has been disabled. Check the disable_function list in php.ini.": The administrator of your website or server has disabled access to the mail() function. This may have been done to prevent spam or other abuse. Make sure "mail" is not part of the disable_function list in php.ini. The location of php.ini depends on the way PHP was originally installed and, in some cases, the operating system. You may need to contact your administrator to enable this.

    • "Message cannot be empty.": A plugin or custom core function attempted to send an email without a message body. Check to make sure the code using the mailMessage() function has recepients, subject, and message body fields filled.

    • "Sender address is invalid. Check mail_from config setting.": Add a sender email (one which has permissions to send email on your server) to the MAIL_FROM setting in index.php or add to the "mail_from" setting in config.json. This is different from an email address entered into a contact form, for example.

    • "No valid recipients found. Check whitelist.": The whitelist of recipient addresses is still empty. Add one or more email addresses to MAIL_WHITELIST in index.php or add one or more emails to "mail_whitelist" in config.json which are meant to receive emails from Bare.

    • "No matching recipients in whitelist.": The recipient(s) was not in the mail_whitelist. Bare only supports sending email to one or more addresses in this whitelist. Make sure the intended recipient email address is added to the whitelist in "mail_whitelist" in config.json or MAIL_WHITELIST in index.php.

    • "Error sending message": An unkown error that Bare was not able to retrieve via the error_get_last() function which comes with PHP. This is usually caused by the PHP mail() function failing either due to a configuration error or a permission error. The php_errors.log file or other general PHP error file location on your web server (not part of Bare) may have more information regarding any errors Bare was not able get.

• Problem: Bare isn't in my language / I want to change the language text seen by visitors

  • To override the text of Bare messages or other language used by plugins, language files can be created in the CACHE folder location following the JSON format of the 'DEFAULT_LANGUAGE' in index.php. E.G. Since the current default language is U.S. English, this would be en-US.json. Other language files follow the same format: For Brazilian Portuguese pt-BR.json, for Indian and Sri Lankan Tamil ta-IN.json and ta-SL.json respectively, and so on.

  • If you already have a new language file and messages are still in U.S. English, check if the LANGUAGE setting in index.php or 'language' in config.json is set to your language and region and not still set to 'en-US'. Make sure your language file exists is in the CACHE folder location.