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How I set up and host FreshRSS in Termux (Android)

· 5 min read
Velocity
Velocity
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Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) is a real phenomenon whether the minority of the society dictates that it is not and whether you like it or not. We live in a word where if you do not care or are not aware about anything that is happening in your surroundings, then people will just think that you're weird. And no offense. But that's just how the society works. We are all humans who are social species after all.

However, I dislike the idea of drowning yourself in this pool of TikTok videos which are the slot machines of the modern generation. Social media and all these brain rot AI slop content are the most anxiety-inducing drug that the humanity has ever made. I am no anti-digital and anti-media guy. Why am I even talking to you if I am not? That'll be ironic.

I figure that looking at RSS feeds will be much more productive rather than looking at those posts and videos that are fed to the algorithm by these quote unquote "influencers". Because let's be honest, majority of, if not all, of them are competing to get those views by creating the most garbage content that will ever lay on our own eyes. Plus, it's all money and no authenticity anymore. The pinnacle of human degeneracy.

And why Android and on my phone, you might ask? Because hosting it in my phone is easily accessible where ever I go, while I can also access it in my laptop or in a PC. It's just less hassle. At first, I did not even expect that it will run in my phone given my assumptions that Termux is limited. Well, I underestimated Termux, so ehem, apologies.

Alright, I'mma go quit yapping, let's start configuring FreshRSS.

Installation​

First and foremost, we needed to add the necessary dependencies, or else FreshRSS won't run. Let's go and update Termux's package manager if you haven't already. I am more inclined to use apt instead of pkg just because of how familiar the Debian environment is for me. But you do you.

apt update && apt upgrade
apt install git php-apache sqlite  -y

Moving on to the exciting part, we need to clone the GitHub repository of FreshRSS.

git clone https://github.com/FreshRSS/FreshRSS.git
cd FreshRSS

Running the Server!​

I think we're pretty much done...

php -S 0.0.0.0:8080 -t ./p

Just a side note: you can also access this using your laptop's browser just like I mentioned before

Type this in your Termux terminal:

ifconfig

The output will look something just like this:

lo: flags=73<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING>  mtu 65536
        inet 127.0.0.1  netmask 255.0.0.0
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 1000  (UNSPEC)

wlan0: flags=4163<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,MULTICAST>  mtu 1500
        inet 192.168.0.107  netmask 255.255.255.0  broadcast 192.168.0.255
        unspec 00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00  txqueuelen 3000  (UNSPEC)

your local IP Address will be in the wlan0 after inet

In my case, it is 192.168.0.107

Put this in your URL bar:

<your_local_ip_address>:8080
#example: 192.168.0.107:8080

We're pretty much set.... Now, head over to your browser with the instructions I had given above. You'll be shown how to set authentication. Wait, let me show you:

GUI

  • you can configure it from this point...
  • your imagination on how to customize it is the limit
  • for my theme, I used Nord. You can also configure it on the settings

I'll drop the main documentation to help you from now on since I am also new in this program and just like you, I'm still testing its capabilities. FreshRSS documentation

But you get the idea. You read an article or a blog from RSS feeds. You can search for RSS feeds in Google. For example, search GMA News RSS, then it'll show you the RSS of that specific site that you'll copy in the RSS Feeds section from Subscription management.

How to run the server again?​

Suppose by any chance, you closed the server and want to run it again, which I think you will most probably do given that you will be using FreshRSS again and again. Use this command:

find . -type d -name "FreshRSS"

The bash code snippet above will return the directory where you saved FreshRSS, just in case you forgot.

Example output:

#example: ./programming/clones/foreign/FreshRSS

now cd into the directory that was outputted from the previous command.

cd <output_from_find_command>
#example: cd ./programming/clones/foreign/FreshRSS

then run it again

php -S 0.0.0.0:8080 -t ./p

I'm planning on how to automate this so it won't be tedious, so stay updated I guess...?

Yeah, that's all. As easy as it is. I'm very much delighted that you read the blog. I hope you will have a great time reading. Enjoy!

Acknowledgements​