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php-s3

Hostinger

Deploying on Hostinger

Section titled “Deploying on Hostinger”

Tested on Hostinger shared hosting (hPanel, LiteSpeed, PHP 8.3) — the same flow works on any hPanel plan with a domain and MySQL.

Path cheat-sheet (Hostinger always prefixes with your account username, e.g. u990971317):

/home/uXXXXXXXX/domains/your-domain.com/public_html/   ← docroot (upload files here)
/home/uXXXXXXXX/domains/your-domain.com/config.php     ← written by installer (outside docroot)
/home/uXXXXXXXX/domains/your-domain.com/php-s3-data/   ← data root (outside docroot)

1. Prepare the site in hPanel

Section titled “1. Prepare the site in hPanel”
  1. Websites → + Create/Manage your domain (or Subdomains to add demo.your-domain.com — document root defaults to its own public_html; that’s fine).
  2. Websites → Manage → PHP Configuration → set PHP 8.1 or newer (8.3 recommended).
  3. Security → SSL → install the free Let’s Encrypt certificate for the domain, enable Force HTTPS. (php-s3 signs requests over HTTPS; HTTP is only for the first redirect.)

2. Create the database

Section titled “2. Create the database”

Databases → Management → Create new database:

  • Database name and username are auto-prefixed: uXXXXXXXX_mydb / uXXXXXXXX_mydb
  • Save the generated password

Important: connect the app with 127.0.0.1 as the host. hPanel shows a srvNNNN.hstgr.io host under “Remote MySQL” — that is only for connecting from outside Hostinger (your laptop, a GUI tool). The app runs on the same server, so it must use the local address: mysql:host=127.0.0.1;dbname=uXXXXXXXX_mydb.

3. Upload the files

Section titled “3. Upload the files”

  1. File Manager → open public_html for your domain

  2. On your machine, zip the four items at the archive root:

    Terminal window
    zip php-s3.zip index.php .htaccess src/ cli/ -r
    # (index.php and .htaccess are the two files inside the repo's public/ folder)

  3. Upload php-s3.zip → right-click → Extract into public_html

  4. If you don’t see .htaccess, enable Settings → Show hidden files in File Manager — it must exist or routing/auth headers break (403/404, signature errors)

Result inside public_html: index.php, .htaccess, src/, cli/. Nothing else.

4. Run the installer

Section titled “4. Run the installer”

Open https://your-domain.com/_admin/install and fill the form:

Field Value on Hostinger
Data root /home/uXXXXXXXX/domains/your-domain.com/php-s3-data
Database DSN mysql:host=127.0.0.1;dbname=uXXXXXXXX_mydb
DB username / password as created in step 2
Admin username / password your login (≥ 10 chars password — no default exists)
Region us-east-1 (label only)
Base domain leave empty (path-style)

The installer creates the directory if the parent is writable, writes config.php next to public_html, runs migrations, and locks itself.

5. Log in and grab your keys

Section titled “5. Log in and grab your keys”
  1. https://your-domain.com/_admin/login
  2. Buckets → New bucket, Keys → New key (copy the secret once)
  3. Connect in the nav — endpoint, region, bucket picker, key + secret, each with a copy button. This is the panel you keep open while configuring a client.

6. Second instance (separate domain/subdomain)

Section titled “6. Second instance (separate domain/subdomain)”

php-s3 is one install per document root. To run e.g. a public read-only demo and a private personal bucket on two subdomains:

  1. Subdomains → create demo. and bucket. (each gets its own public_html)
  2. Create two databases (one per instance) and install php-s3 twice — one wizard run per subdomain, each with its own data root and config.php
  3. SSL + PHP version apply per subdomain (repeat step 1)

Two installs never share config, keys, or data — isolating the demo is the point.

Updating

Section titled “Updating”
  1. Upload the new index.php, .htaccess, src/ (overwrite)
  2. Run php cli/php-s3.php migrate if the release notes say so (or just run it — it’s idempotent)
  3. Never delete config.php or the data root during an update

Hostinger-specific notes

Section titled “Hostinger-specific notes”
  • LiteSpeed serves php-s3 natively; .htaccess rules (rewrites, Authorization header passthrough, deny rules for src/ and dotfiles) are Apache-compatible and work as-is.
  • No cron needed for normal operation. If you want automatic storage reclamation, add a panel cron: php /home/uXXXXXXXX/domains/your-domain.com/public_html/cli/php-s3.php gc daily.
  • Caching plugins / LiteSpeed Cache don’t affect the S3 API (index.php is never cached), but keep them off the /_admin routes if you enable page caching globally.
  • Permissions: files upload as your panel user — that’s the PHP user, so no chmod dance is normally required. If the data root isn’t writable, create it in File Manager at the path above.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”
Symptom Fix
403 / 404 immediately after upload index.php not at public_html/ root, or extracted into a subfolder (public_html/php-s3/…) — files must sit directly in the docroot; .htaccess missing or hidden
500 everywhere hPanel → PHP Configuration: wrong version or missing extension; check error log in the same screen
DB “Access denied” DSN host must be 127.0.0.1 (not srvNNNN.hstgr.io, not localhost); DB name/user must include the uXXXXXXXX_ prefix exactly as shown in hPanel
Installer can’t write config.php config.php path is one level above public_html — make sure you own that folder (it exists by default on Hostinger)
Data root not writable Create php-s3-data in File Manager at /home/uXXXXXXXX/domains/your-domain.com/php-s3-data
Signature errors in clients Client using virtual-hosted style — force path-style; ensure HTTPS is on (Force HTTPS)
Login loop after 10 tries Login throttling (10/hour/IP) — wait or fix the password via a new key/DB reset