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Web Development

Overview

Stacks for Web Development

Web Servers

Web development - Programming & Frameworks

How do I run DietPi-Software and install optimised software items?

To install any of the DietPi optimised software items listed below run from the command line:

dietpi-software

Choose Browse Software and select one or more items. Finally select Install.
DietPi will do all the necessary steps to install and start these software items.

DietPi-Software menu screenshot

To see all the DietPi configurations options, review the DietPi Tools section.

Return to the Optimised Software list

Stacks for Web Development

DietPi offers an one-click-installation of the following web development stacks:

Meaning of the acronyms LAMP, LASP, LEMP, LESP, LLMP, LLSP

  • OS: L for Linux / DietPi
  • Webserver: A for Apache, E for Nginx, L for Lighttpd
  • Database: M for MariaDB, S for SQLite
  • Scripting language: P for PHP

All stacks come with PHP caches (APCu and OPcache), being optimized based on a share of the total memory.

Which Web Application Stack is best for you ?

Apache

  • Memory use = High | Multithreaded = Yes

It is feature-rich and popular. It is recommended for beginners and users who are looking to follow Apache based guides.

Nginx

  • Memory use = Medium | Multithreaded = Yes

It is a lightweight alternative to Apache and claims4 faster webserver performance compared to Apache. It is ideal for medium-high traffic situations where Lighttpd will suffer.

Lighttpd

  • Memory use = Low | Multithreaded = Optional - Some drawbacks

It is extremely lightweight and is generally considered to offer the “best” webserver performance on Linux for SBCs (single board computers). It is recommended for users who expect low webserver traffic and/or personal use.

Although the DietPi installation of Lighttpd is set to single threaded, do not be put off by this, in low usage scenarios (<10 users) it will still outperform Nginx and Apache. Activation of multithreading is described in the Lighttpd package description.

For further details see The battle of the web servers Apache vs. Nginx vs. Lighttpd 2 and 4.

MariaDB
It is an open source RDBMS (relational data base management system). It is application compatible to MySQL, i.e. it can be used as a drop in replacement for MySQL. It has more features, fewer bugs, and a better performance compared to MySQL.2

SQLite
It is an RDBMS, also compatible to MySQL. It offers a broader language support (i.e. more bindings to programming languages) compared to MariaDB. SQLite has a very small footprint. As drawbacks, it has no multi user capabilities and a couple of SQL features are missing.3

How to install?

DietPi contains the option to choose the web stack of your favourite. Basically choosing the web stack resp. webserver is done via Browse Software within dietpi-software:

DietPi-Software menu software list

Using this option you select the complete web stack for installation. Just select the web stack you want to install and do the installation via the Install execution within dietpi-software.

YouTube video tutorial: DietPi Web Server Tutorial | Host a website from Home | Raspberry Pi

LAMP Web Stack

LAMP stack is a popular open source web platform commonly used to run dynamic web sites and servers. It is considered by many, as the platform of choice for development and deployment of high performance web applications which require a solid and reliable foundation.

LAMP stack component logos

Access website:

  • URL = http://<your.IP> or http://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

For database, check MariaDB details.

Let’s Encrypt is highly recommended - see here how to install. This will automate the creation and setup of your free SSL cert.

Alternative way: Manually enable HTTP/SSL by installing a self-signed SSL certificate

Recommended only in case Let’s encrypt is not a viable option.

Step 1. Create key

mkdir -p /etc/apache2/ssl
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 1000 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

Step 2. Enable SSL config and restart Apache

chmod 600 /etc/apache2/ssl/*
cat << '_EOF_' > /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default-ssl.conf
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <VirtualHost _default_:443>
            ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
            ServerName example.com:443
            DocumentRoot /var/www

            LogLevel error
            ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
            #CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

            SSLEngine on

            SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt
            SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key

            <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
                            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
            </FilesMatch>
            <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
                            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
            </Directory>
        </VirtualHost>
    </IfModule>
_EOF_
a2ensite ssl
systemctl restart apache2

Access website:

  • URL = https://<your.IP> or https://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

LASP Web Stack

LASP is a variation of the popular open source LAMP web stack, providing SQLite instead of MariaDB.

SQLite is an embedded relational database engine. It is popular and together with Apache and PHP could be a good candidate for single board computer.

Access website:

  • URL = http://<your.IP> or http://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

Let’s Encrypt is highly recommended - see here how to install. This will automate the creation and setup of your free SSL cert.

Alternative way: Manually enable HTTP/SSL by installing a self-signed SSL certificate

Recommended only in case Let’s encrypt is not a viable option.

Step 1. Create key

mkdir -p /etc/apache2/ssl
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 1000 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

Step 2. Enable SSL config and restart Apache

chmod 600 /etc/apache2/ssl/*
cat << '_EOF_' > /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default-ssl.conf
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <VirtualHost _default_:443>
            ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
            ServerName example.com:443
            DocumentRoot /var/www

            LogLevel error
            ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
            #CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

            SSLEngine on

            SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt
            SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key

            <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
                            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
            </FilesMatch>
            <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
                            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
            </Directory>
        </VirtualHost>
    </IfModule>
_EOF_
a2ensite ssl
systemctl restart apache2

Access website:

  • URL = https://<your.IP> or https://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

LEMP Web Stack

LEMP is a variation of the popular open source LAMP web stack, providing Nginx instead of Apache web server.

Nginx is a popular choice, thanks to its lightweight utilization of resources and its flexibility to scale simply even with minimal equipment.

Access website:

  • URL = http://<your.IP> or http://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

For database, check MariaDB details.

Let’s Encrypt is highly recommended - see here how to install. This will automate the creation and setup of your free SSL cert.

Alternative way: Manually enable HTTP/SSL by installing a self-signed SSL certificate

Recommended only in case Let’s encrypt is not a viable option.

Step 1. Create key

mkdir -p /etc/apache2/ssl
openssl req -x509 -nodes -days 1000 -newkey rsa:2048 -keyout /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key -out /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt

Step 2. Enable SSL config and restart Apache

chmod 600 /etc/apache2/ssl/*
cat << '_EOF_' > /etc/apache2/sites-enabled/default-ssl.conf
<IfModule mod_ssl.c>
    <VirtualHost _default_:443>
            ServerAdmin webmaster@localhost
            ServerName example.com:443
            DocumentRoot /var/www

            LogLevel error
            ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log
            #CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

            SSLEngine on

            SSLCertificateFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.crt
            SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/apache2/ssl/apache.key

            <FilesMatch "\.(cgi|shtml|phtml|php)$">
                            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
            </FilesMatch>
            <Directory /usr/lib/cgi-bin>
                            SSLOptions +StdEnvVars
            </Directory>
        </VirtualHost>
    </IfModule>
_EOF_
a2ensite ssl
systemctl restart apache2

Access website:

  • URL = https://<your.IP> or https://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

LESP Web Stack

LESP is a variation of the popular open source LAMP web stack, providing Nginx instead of Apache web server, and SQLite instead of MariaDB.

Nginx is a popular choice, thanks to its lightweight utilization of resources and its flexibility to scale simply even with minimal equipment.

Access website:

  • URL = http://<your.IP> or http://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

Let’s Encrypt is highly recommended - see here how to install. This will automate the creation and setup of your free SSL cert.

Access website:

  • URL = https://<your.IP> or https://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

LLMP Web Stack

LLMP is a variation of the popular open source LAMP web stack, providing Lighttpd instead of Apache web server.

Access website:

  • URL = http://<your.IP> or http://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

For database, check MariaDB details.

Let’s Encrypt is highly recommended - see here how to install. This will automate the creation and setup of your free SSL cert.

Access website:

  • URL = https://<your.IP> or https://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

LLSP web stack

LLSP is a variation of the popular open source LAMP web stack, providing Lighttpd instead of Apache web server and SQLite instead of MariaDB.

Access website:

  • URL = http://<your.IP> or http://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

For database, check MariaDB details.

Let’s Encrypt is highly recommended - see here how to install. This will automate the creation and setup of your free SSL cert.

Access website:

  • URL = https://<your.IP> or https://<your.host.name>
  • Local directory = /var/www

The web development stack could be also individually installed. This option offers more flexibility giving the opportunity to select:

  • Webserver

Depending on your needs, you may choose the web server that fits best your needs. In case Lighttpd is not the right choice, you could continue with Apache Web Server, Nginx or Tomcat webserver.

  • Database

You may choose to install MariaDB or other available databases like InfluxDB, Redis, SQLite.

WebServers

Apache

Apache is open source and it is the most commonly used Web server on Linux systems.

Apache2 logo

Web servers are used to serve Web pages requested by client computers. Clients typically request and view Web pages using Web browser applications such as Firefox, Opera, Chromium, Microsoft Edge, Internet Explorer etc.

Apache is a Apache Software Foundation project. The goal is to provide a secure, efficient and extensible server that provides HTTP services in sync with the current HTTP standards.

Logging is done to journal by default, and you can view the details by executing next command:

journalctl -u apache2

The ServerName directive is updated with the local IP. This helps muting the related startup warnings.

Notes:

  • This may imply access and CORS failures 6 when applications check for the server name. In such case, generally applications provide a way to define a list of permitted hostnames.

  • Without a server name set, usually webserver simply apply the HTTP_HOST header, which bypasses every related check. Apache, according to the logged warning, seems to use 127.0.1.1 then.

Official documentation: https://httpd.apache.org/docs

Nginx

Nginx [engine x] is an HTTP and reverse proxy server, a mail proxy server, and a generic TCP/UDP proxy server. It was released in 2004 to address the problem of increased web traffic. It has earned an excellent reputation and it is used in top million busiest sites - some of the success stories are: Dropbox, Netflix, WordPress.com, FastMail.FM.1

Nginx logo

The innovation of Nginx compared to earlier servers such as Apache was to use an asynchronous, event-driven architecture. Nginx is blazing fast, being extremely efficient when it comes to hardware utilization, allowing servers to get more speed out of their limited CPU and RAM. As a result, it is one of the fastest web server options for serving static content.

Official documentation: https://www.nginx.com

Lighttpd

Lighttpd is a web server for UNIX/Linux and Windows operating systems. It is an alternative to Apache web server. It is also called Lighty.

Lighttpd logo

Source: Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10881730.

It is designed to be secure, fast, standards-compliant, and flexible while being optimized for speed-critical environments. Its low memory footprint compared to other web servers, light CPU load and its speed goals make Lighttpd a perfect candidate for SBCs.

After the installation, check if Lighttpd service is running on http://<your.IP>.

Multithreading is supported by Lighttpd and can be enabled in the configuration file /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf. Change the value of 4 to your total core count:

server.max-worker = 4

Then restart services:

systemctl restart lighttpd

Official documentation: https://www.lighttpd.net

Tomcat

What is Apache Tomcat? Essentially it’s an open-source Java servlet and Java Server Page container that lets developers implement an array of enterprise Java applications. Tomcat also runs a HTTP web server environment in which Java code can run.

Tomcat logo

Source: The Apache Software Foundation, Apache License 2.0.

Starting with DietPi 7.3 Tomcat 8 has been removed from the DietPi Software List. The reason is that Tomcat 8 is available until Debian Stretch only. From Debian Buster and newer versions, it will be supported only Tomcat 9.

To install Tomcat 9, run next command in the console:

apt install tomcat9

The web interface is accessible via port 8080:

  • URL = http://<your.IP>:8080

Official documentation: https://tomcat.apache.org

Web development - Programming & Frameworks

PHP

PHP logo

Source: Colin Viebrock, CC BY-SA 4.0.

First introduced by Rasmus Lerdorf, PHP is an open-source, server-side general scripting language that has now become a de-facto coding standard in the web development industry.

  • There are many tutorials - here is the official Getting started from PHP documentation.

Website: https://www.php.net
Official documentation: https://www.php.net/manual/en/index.php

PHP Composer

Composer logo

Source: WizardCat via Wikimedia tech blog, MIT.

Composer is a tool for dependency management in PHP. It allows you to declare the libraries your project depends on and it will manage (install/update) them for you.

Website: https://getcomposer.org/
Official documentation: https://getcomposer.org/doc/

Flask

Flask is a lightweight web application framework. It is designed to make getting started quick and easy, with the ability to scale up to complex applications and it has become one of the most popular Python web application frameworks.

In order to use Flask it is first required first to install the Python Package Manager - see Python 3. Then run the next command.

pip3 install -U Flask

Website: https://palletsprojects.com/p/flask
Official documentation: https://flask.palletsprojects.com/en/1.1.x
PyPI package page: https://pypi.org/project/Flask

Node.js

Node.js is JavaScript runtime built on Chrome’s V8 JavaScript engine.

Node.js

Source: By nodejs.org, Trademark policy

By using the event-callback/non-blocking approach, Node.js offers a single-threaded event-io model that allows orchestration of tasks running in parallel. It supports multiple connections without a need for a large memory footprint. Amazon, Netflix, eBay, Reddit, LinkedIn, Tumblr, and PayPal use Node.js.5

To update Node.js to the latest version, simply reinstall it:

dietpi-software reinstall 9

Website: https://nodejs.org/
Official documentation: https://nodejs.org/api/

Return to the Optimised Software list

  1. Find out more about the success stories of Nginx on: https://nginx.org/en/ ↩

  2. “Dead database walking: MySQL’s creator on why the future belongs to MariaDB - MariaDB, open source, mysql, Oracle”. Computerworld. Retrieved 22 November 2020. ↩

  3. Most Widely Deployed and Used Database Engine. Retrieved 12 December 2020 ↩

  4. NGINX vs. Apache: Our View of a Decade-Old Question. Retrieved 12 December 2020 ↩↩

  5. https://hostingtribunal.com/blog/node-js-stats/#gref. Retrieved 29 May 2021 ↩

  6. CORS Errors Mozilla. Retrieved 05 December 2021 ↩