Changelog

Recent changes and improvements to mbox.blue. Newest first.

2026-07-05

• New: PHP support in your box. It now ships with PHP (CLI + FPM), the common extensions (PDO/MySQL/SQLite, mbstring, gd, curl, intl, …) and composer. Serve your ~/public_html as PHP hands-off with touch ~/.mbox/php (drop .php files in your web root and they run at https://<you>.mbox.blue), or run a PHP app on a port and publish it with ~/.mbox/expose. PHP always runs inside your box, and .php files are never served as raw source. Already have a box? Recreate it once to get the new tools: run ssh -p 2222 <you>@mbox.blue destroy, then log back in.

2026-07-04

• New: serve your box over plain HTTP too. By default we serve your site over HTTPS and redirect any http:// visitor up to it. Run touch ~/.mbox/no-redirect to also serve your app/site over plain HTTP with no forced redirect — handy for a client or webhook that can’t do TLS. This applies to both https://<you>.mbox.blue and your custom domains. Remove the file (rm ~/.mbox/no-redirect) to restore the default HTTPS redirect. Takes effect on your next login or within a few minutes.

2026-06-25

• Fixed: your box now knows your username instead of calling everyone “root”. Your shell prompt, whoami, file listings and IRC clients (irssi, WeeChat, …) all show your name now, so you no longer all look identical on IRC. You still have full root inside your own box. Already logged in? Just log out and back in to pick it up — no need to recreate your box.

2026-06-24

• New: set your box’s timezone. Run tz to see your current timezone and local time, or tz Australia/Sydney to change it (any name under /usr/share/zoneinfo works; tz UTC resets). Your choice is remembered and applied to every future login; to update your current shell right away, run the export TZ=... line tz prints.

• Fixed: the “✍️ Edit Page on Gitea” link in the footer now points at this site’s actual repository instead of an unrelated one, so you can edit and propose page changes.

2026-06-23

• New: your ~/public_html is now also served at https://<you>.mbox.blue (not just https://mbox.blue/~<you>). If you publish an app with ~/.mbox/expose, that takes over your subdomain instead; remove it to go back to serving your static page there.

• New: bring your own domain. List a hostname in ~/.mbox/domains, prove it’s yours with a _mbox.<domain> TXT record (mbox-verify=<you>), and point it at us — your ~/public_html (or your ~/.mbox/expose app) is then served on your own domain with HTTPS handled automatically. See the docs for the exact DNS records.

2026-06-20

• Fixed: we’re very sorry — a deploy mistake wiped the login database, so every member except the owner lost the public key that lets them SSH in. Your box and everything in it is safe and untouched; only your login key was lost, and it can’t be recovered. If you’re affected, please re-submit your public key with the same username and we’ll reconnect you to your existing box.

• New: the Sign up page can now tell you where your request stands. Under “Already applied?”, enter your username to see whether it’s been approved, is still pending review, or was declined — handy since we don’t collect an email address to notify you.

• Fixed: uptime no longer always reports 0s. It now shows how long your box has actually been running since it last started.

• Changed: free now lines up its columns properly and shows a usage percentage, so it’s easier to read your memory use against your limit.

• New: your box now tells you when a newer system image is available. Log in and, if there’s an update, you’ll see a one-line notice with the command to upgrade — ssh -p 2222 <user>@mbox.blue destroy then log back in. Nothing is forced: your box keeps running its current image (and any background processes) until you choose to recreate it. Your home and files are always preserved.

• New: your box now ships with a C/C++ build toolchain (gcc, g++, make, linux-headers) so you can compile your own software, plus a glibc compatibility layer so most prebuilt Linux binaries (Rust, Node and other release downloads) run without fuss. Recreate your box (see below) to pick up the new tools.

• Fixed: your ~/.bashrc is now sourced when you log in. Logins are bash login shells, which previously skipped ~/.bashrc (and could shadow ~/.profile), so shell customisations were ignored. Put your aliases, prompt and settings in ~/.bashrc and they’ll just work.

  Already have a box? Get a fresh one on the latest image with ssh -p 2222 <user>@mbox.blue destroy, then log back in.