HOWTO: Install Drupal using cPanel

Yes, this page needs a major rewrite. I'll do it as promised. Thanks for the reminder.

'Major' rewrite completed: http://drupal.org/node/25310. I welcome comments & critique.

I believe the current comments on the page can be deleted as well.

Just changing the title

looks good

Hey, Heine! Thanks a lot for re-writing that page.

There was one comment someone made in this issue over here: http://drupal.org/node/52607#comment-79014 -- I guess the fact that the .tar.gz extracts to a folder is giving CPanel users some trouble when they want to install to just the root directory. Maybe you could put in something like what greggles mentions below to help people in this situation? I would update this myself, but I don't have CPanel to test on and want to make sure the instructions are 100% clear/accurate since this is likely a page that gets a lot of attention from newbies.

Thanks a lot. :)

One way to get the drupal files into public_html using cPanel File Manager is to uncompress the .tar.gz on your PC and rezip it without the "drupal..." prefix on all of the file names. See http://drupal.org/node/52602 and http://drupal.org/node/52607

Note that the cPanel File Manager will also expand .zip files. It might be easier for most PC people to recompress the installation file into a zip rather than a targz.

Note that IMHO it would be easier for someone to just do this once and post this file at drupal.org, rather than trying to explain how to do it.

I just tested if cPanels filemanager supports zip and it does: the instructions for repackaging as zip or tar file have been added. Please review.

-1 on the packing without top directory, but that's another issue.

"...but omit the top folder (drupal-x.x.x) from the archive."

I'm not sure that's going to make much sense to people who are reading this for the first time. I suggest describing the steps, like my comment here: http://drupal.org/node/52602#comment-99230

I'm not sure we can assume people use Winzip on Windows. I'm looking for a better description.

How about:

First unpack the drupal archive on your local computer. Then navigate to the drupal-x.x.x directory, select all of its contents (files and folders) and re-compress them into a zip file or into a new tar file. The result should be that "drupal-x.x.x" no longer appears in front of each file and folder name in this newly created archive. Upload this new archive to the document root on the server and extract its contents. The Drupal files and folders should now be located in the document root.

I've never tested this: what happens if there is already an .htaccess file in the document root? (Many hosts have one preinstalled.) Will cPanel File Manager overwrite it?

RE: "The basic assumptions: you have a domain name (http://www.example.com) and want to install Drupal at the document root, where it is reachable via the URL http://example.com or http://www.example.com."

How about adding this sentence: "In order to accomplish this, the Drupal files such as .htaccess and index.php have to be uploaded into your server's document root, along with the Drupal subdirectories such as includes, modules, themes, etc."

Thanks! We're homing in...
BTW: I've never seen 'drupal-x.x.x' in front of filenames with 7zip, winzip, zipcentral or winrar, only with TAR. Because the page should be OS agnostic as well, how about (-'navigate', -'select):

First unpack the drupal archive on your local computer. Then recompress the files and folders in the resulting drupal-x.x.x directory into a zip file or into a new tar file. The result should be that the top-level directory "drupal-x.x.x" is no longer present in this archive. Upload this new archive to the document root on the server and extract its contents. The Drupal files and folders should now be located in the document root.

In order to accomplish this, the Drupal files such as .htaccess and index.php have to be uploaded into your server's document root, along with the Drupal subdirectories such as includes, modules, themes, etc

We can't say that the files have to be uploaded into the document root, when moments later we tell people to upload an archive and extract it on the server. 'present / located in the document root' would work better.

First unpack the drupal archive on your local computer. Then recompress the files and folders in the resulting drupal-x.x.x directory into a zip file or into a new tar file. The result should be that the top-level directory "drupal-x.x.x" is no longer present in this archive. Upload this new archive to the document root on the server and extract its contents. The Drupal files and folders should now be located in the document root.

Sounds good.

We can't say that the files have to be uploaded into the document root, when moments later we tell people to upload an archive and extract it on the server. 'present / located in the document root' would work better.

Somehow we need to describe for users what they are trying to accomplish, so when they see it they will know they did it right.

How about: "In order to accomplish this, the Drupal files such as .htaccess and index.php have to be placed into your server's document root, along with the Drupal subdirectories such as includes, modules, themes, etc."

"In order to accomplish this, the Drupal files such as .htaccess and index.php have to be placed into your server's document root, along with the Drupal subdirectories such as includes, modules, themes, etc."

I had already updated with a slightly different version, but I like your sentence more.

I've changed the FTP instructions as well and added an advice to uncompress the archive locally anyway. Let me know what you think of it.

me likey

a few minor edits:

...and want to install Drupal at the document root, (usually public_html, htdocs)...

..and want to install Drupal at the document root, (usually public_html or htdocs)...

The Drupal archive drupal-x.x.x.tar.gz can be decompressed by various compression tools such as 7zip, WinZip, WinRAR and tar.

That's sitting a little out of place at the moment. How about:

The first step is to download the drupal distritbution archive "drupal-x.x.x.tar.gz" onto your local computer, and then unpack it using a utility program such as 7zip, WinZip, WinRAR or tar.

The second step is to upload the drupal files to your server. There are three options for uploading the files, two that use cPanel's built-in File Manager, and one that uses an FTP-client. The latter depends on FTP access provided by your host.

* FTP (easiest) - After unpacking the drupal archive on your local computer, upload the files and folders in the resulting drupal-x.x.x directory to the document root of your webspace.
* cPanel's built-in File Manager , option 1 - After unpacking the drupal archive on your local computer, recompress the files and folders in the resulting drupal-x.x.x directory into a zip file or into a new tar file. The result should be that the top-level directory "drupal-x.x.x" is no longer present in this archive. Upload this new archive to the document root on the server and extract its contents. The Drupal files and folders should now be located in the document root.
* cPanel's built-in File Manager, option 2 - Upload the entire drupal distribution archive "drupal-x.x.x.tar.gz" to the document root of the server and extract its contents. Then use File Manager to move all the files and folders in the resulting drupal-x.x.x directory to the the server's document root.

BTW, on all the hosts I've used, the File Manager is an icon in cPanel, not under "tools" and is called "File Manager" (two words).

Thanks! I like those changes so I updated the handbook page. My apologies for the delay.

As to File Manager being two words: you're right, blame my native language; were always glueing words together. In my cPanel (only one host though) File Manager is located in Tools. What's the experience of other people?

I just saw your comment on .htaccess; I'll test that soon and update the page if necessary.

Thank you for your excellent comments!

For me, "File Manager" is right on the main page without any "tools" heading or sub-section.

Removed; Tools » File Manager.

.htaccess is overwritten by cPanels archive extractor, but I've added some instructions (backup, remove potentially interfering files such as .htaccess, index.php).

I've had some problems with extraction of a tar file on cPanel NOT overwriting the .htaccess file. One alternative I've used is to unpack the Drupal tarball on the server, delete "public_html", and then move/rename the Drupal folder to "public_html".

Also, worth mentioning, the GUI FTP client (Cyberduck) I use on Mac OSX cannot find .* files such as .htaccess. This is probably genreally true because it refelcts the OSX file browser. If I upload the unpacked Drupal directory with this GUI FTP client, the site doesn't work. I have to go and use the command line version of FTP to get .htaccess there.

On many hosts, deleting public_html is not a good idea because it has special permissions that cannot be reset without shell access. Deleting the contents of public_html is ok, but deleting the directory itself is not.

I've had some problems with extraction of a tar file on cPanel NOT overwriting the .htaccess file. One alternative I've used is to unpack the Drupal tarball on the server, delete "public_html", and then move/rename the Drupal folder to "public_html".

That's why I added: remove files that may interfere... .htaccess. Deleting public_html is not a good idea as pulsifer already noted. Numerous webhosts have script directories inside public_html.

Also, worth mentioning, the GUI FTP client (Cyberduck) I use on Mac OSX cannot find .* files such as .htaccess. This is probably genreally true because it refelcts the OSX file browser. If I upload the unpacked Drupal directory with this GUI FTP client, the site doesn't work. I have to go and use the command line version of FTP to get .htaccess there.

.htaccess is already mentioned on the page. We can only go so far in the docs.

Thanks for writing a good piece of documentation. I notice, it's only tagged for Drupal 4.6?

The point about public_html is well taken, but I'd still like to see another sentance about .htaccess. I'm still rather new to Drupal, so several times when I was replicating our site for testing or putting up an emty test site I missed .htaccess becuase of the reasons mentioned above and only the home page of the site seemed to work, and/or the site stopped working when I tried to turn on clean URLs.

clean url's is a wholenothercanaworms...

typo in this line:

Set the $base_url to match you websites URL:

Thanks.