Open Nextweb

In this chapter we will download Nextweb, start it for the first time, and take a first look around its shell. By the end we'll have Nextweb running in a folder of its own, with a free license ready to use.

Make a home for Nextweb

Nextweb keeps everything in the folder it runs from, so let's give it a folder of its own. Open a terminal and type:

$ mkdir nextweb-tour
$ cd nextweb-tour

Download Nextweb

One command fetches Nextweb and checks that it arrived in one piece:

$ curl -fsSL https://get.nextwebjs.com | bash

The download is about 120 MB, so give it a few seconds. A progress line counts up while it works, and then you should see:

...
==> Download complete
    Received: 118.1 MB
...
Nextweb is installed.

Start Nextweb:

    ./nextweb

Notice the new file in our folder called nextweb. That one file is the whole program. When a newer build comes out, ./nextweb update replaces it and keeps your sites.

Start Nextweb

$ ./nextweb

The first time Nextweb starts, it looks for a license, doesn't find one, and asks for an email address:

...
[NW] Checking for existing license
[NW] No valid license found, requesting new license
[NW] Email address required for license. Enter your email:

Type your email address and press Enter. Nextweb fetches a free license, downloads its kernel, and opens its shell. This takes about ten seconds:

[NW] Free license obtained (expires: 11/16/2026)
[NW] Production mode: downloading kernel from content server
...
[NW] Kernel loaded successfully: NextWeb Kernel v1.0.0-rc3
...
Connected to NextWeb (/home/you/nextweb-tour/nextweb_server)
Type "help" for available commands, use <TAB> and ? for completion, "exit" or "quit" to exit.

nextweb:/>

Your dates and folder will be different.

That nextweb:/> is the Nextweb shell, waiting for us. Notice the new nextweb_server folder next to the program, too. That's where Nextweb keeps everything it installs.

Look around

The shell has a built-in guide:

nextweb:/> help

NextWeb Interactive Shell v1.0.0-rc3
==============================================

System Commands:
  show status            Display system status and services
  show activation        Display license activation status
...
Service & Package Management:
  service <cmd>          status/start/stop/restart/reload/enable/disable/list/logs
  pkg <cmd>              install/remove/purge/list/info/verify/clean
...
Deployment:
  deploy <site> to <domain> using <template>
...

That's a lot of commands, and we only need a handful of them. We'll meet pkg, service, and deploy one at a time in the next two chapters.

Let's ask which version we're running:

nextweb:/> version

NextWeb Kernel v1.0.0-rc3, revision 16 (program build 168)

The kernel's revision and the program's build may be newer on yours. Now let's check that everything is healthy:

nextweb:/> show status

NextWeb is operational. PID 1932468

[Service List]
- Interactive shell is running
- Configuration module is loaded
- Semantic routing is active
...

NextWeb is operational. Everything is up and listening. The PID is the number of Nextweb's running process, so yours will be different.

Step out and back in

When we're done for now, we leave the shell:

nextweb:/> exit

Goodbye!
NextWeb kernel is running in the background. Use "shutdown" to stop the system.

As it says, leaving the shell doesn't stop Nextweb. It keeps running in the background, and we can check on it from the terminal:

$ ./nextweb status

NextWeb is running.
  instance: /home/you/nextweb-tour
  home:     /home/you/nextweb-tour/nextweb_server
  pid:      3505554

It answers at once: status only asks the Nextweb running in this folder. Whenever we want the shell again, ./nextweb from this folder brings us back to the prompt.

What we have now

Nextweb is installed in its own folder and running in the background. It has a free license and a shell we can open anytime with ./nextweb. Next, we'll give it some software to run.