Operator · How-to

Install the binary#

Install a release build and run it as a service, started with the computer and restarted if it stops. These steps were tested on Debian with systemd.

1. Download#

Each is the latest release. Unpack it:

mkdir inkhold && tar -xzf inkhold-*.tar.gz -C inkhold

You get the server (inkhold, one static file that runs on any Linux), the browser app (webapp/dist), and config.example.zon.

2. Put the files in place#

sudo install -m 755 inkhold/inkhold /usr/local/bin/inkhold
sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/share/inkhold /etc/inkhold
sudo cp -r inkhold/webapp/dist /usr/local/share/inkhold/web
sudo useradd --system --home-dir /var/lib/inkhold --shell /usr/sbin/nologin inkhold

3. Write the config#

Create /etc/inkhold/config.zon:

.{
    .host = "0.0.0.0",
    .port = 8089,
    .db_path = "/var/lib/inkhold/inkhold.db",
    .cred_key_path = "/var/lib/inkhold/cred.key",
    .data_dir = "/var/lib/inkhold/data",
    .web_dir = "/usr/local/share/inkhold/web",
}

• .host: 0.0.0.0 listens on every network the computer is on. The default, 127.0.0.1, only accepts the computer itself: the tablet and every other browser would fail to connect, and it looks exactly like a firewall problem.
• The paths are absolute so the server and its backups find the same files whatever folder they start in.

Every other setting is in config.zon settings.

4. Start it as a service#

Copy contrib/systemd/inkhold.service to /etc/systemd/system/, then:

sudo systemctl enable --now inkhold
journalctl -u inkhold

The journal shows the first account’s password, once. Open http://<the computer's address>:8089 and sign in as admin@home.lan.

The service runs as the inkhold account and can write only to /var/lib/inkhold, which systemd creates for it: the database, cred.key, your notebooks and the search index all live there.

Back up cred.key somewhere apart from the server. It encrypts stored credentials; without it, everyone has to reset their password after a restore.

Without systemd#

Run it by hand with /usr/local/bin/inkhold --config=/etc/inkhold/config.zon, as the inkhold account.