Private

A GNU social node can be configured as "private", which means it will not federate with other nodes in the network. It is not a recommended method of using GNU social and we cannot at the current state of development guarantee that there are no leaks (what a public network sees as features, private sites will likely see as bugs).

Private nodes are however an easy way to easily setup collaboration and image sharing within a workgroup or a smaller community where federation is not a desired feature. Also, it is possible to change this setting and instantly gain full federation features.

Access to file attachments can also be restricted to logged-in users only:

  1. Add a directory outside the web root where your file uploads will be stored. Use this command as an initial guideline to create it:

    mkdir /var/www/gnusocial-files

  2. Make the file uploads directory writeable by the web server. An insecure way to do this is (to do it properly, read up on UNIX file permissions and configure your webserver accordingly):

    chmod a+x /var/www/gnusocial-files

  3. Tell GNU social to use this directory for file uploads. Add a line like this to your config.php:

    $config['attachments']['dir'] = '/var/www/gnusocial-files';