At start of installation

[DavidS111]

The first instruction for installation seems to be "First, download the latest MyBB package." But this raises questions for me:

• Where do I place the unzipped files on my Linux server? Does it go in /usr/bin/MyBB ? Does it go into the public_html Apache directory structure somewhere?
  
  
• Is there a separation between the executable PHP files and the forum data files? Or does it use a database program? If the latter, will I later create a database with tables and users?
  
  
• I have two relevant computers: my local development computer, which runs Windows, and my remote (VPS) computer, which runs Linux, mySQL, Apache httpd, etc.  How much of the installation work (if any) should I do on my local development computer?
  

[Wires]

So when you download the zipped MyBB package, you want to upload it directly in the public_html directory. From there, unzip the folder, and head over to domain.com/install/ to begin installation. You won't need to do anything on your local machine.

[DavidS111]

you want to upload it directly in the public_html directory

Seems counter-intuitive. The public_html dir is where the home page and other pages of my website are. I want the new forum to have its own address, like public_html/forum. I'm confused.

[Corey H]

you want to upload it directly in the public_html directory

Seems counter-intuitive. The public_html dir is where the home page and other pages of my website are. I want the new forum to have its own address, like public_html/forum. I'm confused.

In that case, you would make a new folder in your public_html dir called forum. Upload the MyBB installation files in that new folder.

Then you would just go to domain.com/forum/install/ instead of the previous domain.com/install/.

[DavidS111]

Thanks!

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Note for self: no, the best way is to unzip locally, then copy Upload directory to remote server in desired place for the browser to find it and rename as desired.

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One problem with unzipping remotely is that the Owner field won't be set to the owner of the website, so the files will not be accessible! I found I had to do it all over again the right way.

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Note to self: to remove DIR including contents, regardless of owner, use "rm -r -f DIR" in root remote SSH from local.

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In case the above isn't clear, the proper way to set the permissions and owner of each directory and file is to expand the zip file locally, then use an FTP program to upload all the directories and files to the desired destination directory where browsers will find the new forum. (Stuff like this belongs in the installation guide, if you want to save people like me a lot of work.)