Project directory not empty error

fbk

Hello,

I am trying to install Flarum on my server which is using ubuntu 20.04 and I have created a subdomain that I have secured with Let's encrypt.
In that subdomain in the format of: forum.example.com I want to install flarum, the issue is that I get the project directory not empty error because Let's Encrypt is creating a folder called .well-known that contains the acme-challenge subfolder.

How can I get around this ? I do not want to install the forum in a directory of my subdomain, I want to install in the root of the subdomain.
Command used: composer create-project flarum/flarum .

composer create-project flarum/flarum . Creating a "flarum/flarum" project at "./" [InvalidArgumentException] Project directory "/var/www/vhosts/domain/forum.domain.ro/." is not empty.

Thank you,
Cristian

clarkwinkelmann

fbk most likely Let's Encrypt will re-create that folder automatically, so I would say it shouldn't be an issue to delete it.

Otherwise you can either temporarily move the Let's Encrypt folder and move it back after installing Flarum, or install Flarum in a different folder then move all Flarum files to the final folder.

The empty folder requirement is something Composer does, so we don't really have control over that. It's just there to make sure you're not accidentally overriding an existing app/project with the files it's about to download.

fbk

clarkwinkelmann

Thank you for the information, I will try to install flarum in a different location and then copy all the files to the root folder. Will keep you posted in this thread with the outcome

Kalecgos

I would have here a follow-up question. Is it safe then to create new folders/files in the Flarum folder after it has been installed there? For example, I often store the site logs folder one level above Public. Nothing can be accidentally overwritten without notification during a next update with Composer?

askvortsov

Kalecgos Composer should only clear things in the vendor folder, as well as the composer.json and composer.lock files.

clarkwinkelmann

Kalecgos to add to askvortsov Flarum itself (through normal usage or through command line commands) might override files in the public/assets and storage folders, but it should be pretty evident which files that might be since it's either log/cache files, or CSS/JS/images provided by extensions and their names are generally prefixed or very predictable.

Some extensions might copy additional resources into those folders as well.

Adding additional images, HTML files or other special files for SEO/identification in the public folder is generally safe since it's unlikely an extension will override those specific filenames.

The Sitemap extension could cause an externally generated sitemap.xml file to be overridden for example.

Kalecgos

Thanks, guys, for the informative answers.

fbk

Hi guys, after deleting the .well-known folder I was able to install flarum without any issues.