WordPress Multi User -------------------- WordPress MU is a multi user version of WordPress. If you're not comfortable editing PHP code, taking care of a complex webserver and database system and being pro-active about following developments of this project then run, don't walk, to http://wordpress.com/ and sign yourself and your friends up to free blogs. It's easier in the long run and you'll save yourself a lot of pain and angst. ;) Install ======= Unarchive into a web directory and call that directory through your browser and web server. Follow the instructions and links and all should work fine. If you're upgrading, skip to the end of this document. Apache ====== Apache must be configured so that mod_rewrite works. Here are instructions for Apache 2. Apache 1.3 is very similar. 1. Make sure a line like the following appears in your httpd.conf LoadModule rewrite_module /usr/lib/apache2/modules/mod_rewrite.so 2. In the directive of your virtual host, look for this line "AllowOverride None" and change it to "AllowOverride FileInfo Options" 3. In the section of the config file for your host there will be a line defining the hostname. You need to add the following if you want virtual hosts to work properly: "ServerAlias *.domain.tld" Replace domain.tld with whatever your one is, and remove the quotes. DNS === If you want to host blogs of the form http://blog.domain.tld/ where domain.tld is the domain name of your machine then you must add a wildcard record to your DNS records. This usually means adding a "*" hostname record pointing at your webserver in your DNS configuration tool. Matt has a more detailed explanation: http://photomatt.net/2003/10/10/wildcard-dns-and-sub-domains/ PHP === For security reasons, it's very important that PHP be configured as follows: 1. Don't display error messages to the browser. This is almost always turned off but sometimes when you're testing you turn this on and forget to reset it. 2. GLOBAL variables must be turned off. This is one of the first things any security aware admin will do. These days the default is for it to be off! 3. If you want to restrict blog signups, set the restrict domain email setting in the admin. The easiest way of configuring it is via the .htaccess file that is created during the install. If you haven't installed WPMU yet then edit the file htaccess.dist in this directory and add these two lines at the top: php_flag register_globals 0 php_flag display_errors 0 This is NOT included in that file by default because it doesn't work on all machines. If it doesn't work on your machine, you'll get a cryptic "500 internal error" after you install WPMU. To remove the offending lines just edit the file ".htaccess" in your install directory and you'll see them at the top. Delete and save the file again. Read here for how to enable this: http://ie.php.net/configuration.changes If you don't want to edit your .htaccess file then you need to change your php.ini. It's beyond the scope of this README to know exactly where it is on your machine, but if you're on a shared hosted server you probably don't have access to it as it requires root or administrator privileges to change. If you do have root access, try "locate php.ini" or check in: /etc/php4/apache2/php.ini /usr/local/lib/php.ini Once you have opened your php.ini, look for the sections related to register_globals and display_errors. Make sure both are Off like so: display_errors = Off register_globals = Off You'll have to restart Apache after you modify your php.ini for the settings to be updated. UPGRADING ========= Please see this page for instructions on upgrading your install: http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/wiki/UpgradingWpmu Support Forum and Bug Reports ============================= Please read http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/wiki/DebuggingWpmu before asking any questions. Without all the information required there we'll just ask for it anyway or worse, your request will be ignored. http://mu.wordpress.org/forums/ Trac is our bug tracking system. Again, please read the above link before submitting a bug report. http://trac.mu.wordpress.org/report/1 You can login to both sites using your wordpress.org username and password. http://mu.wordpress.org/