mykb/docs/calDAV.md

CalDAV Server with Calcurse

Goal

• Set up a own caldav server which allows to sync calcurse with your other devices. If you want to run nextcloud anyways, you can also use its caldav server. This is a more light weight solution, which does not require a full php environment.

Software used

• A current debian install is assumed, using nginx as its sever. Tested on debian 11.
• Baikal
  • Other more light weight setups possible, see Radicale or carldav. Did not work with calcurse directly. Planned for the future, as it does not require a php environment.
• Davx^5 Android

Install

1. Make sure all the dependencies are installed

sudo apt-get install nginx php-fpm php-sqlite3 composer php-xml php-curl -y

2. Go to your sources directory. Here it is assumed to be /opt/src/ and install Baikal. Default port is 9999, so adjust it to your wishes. Assumed to be 9999 throughout this write-up.

cd /opt/src
git clone https://github.com/sabre-io/baikal
cd baikal
composer install

3. Make the baikal directory writable by the websever process. This is strictly necessary for Specfic and config.

chown -R www-data:www-data Specific config

I found an issue, that maybe got solved by owning the whole baikal directory. So in case you find yourself with an error related to write-permission denials, run

sudo chown -R www-data:www-data .

Server Config

1. Create the corresponding nginx config for the page.

cd /etc/nginx/sites-available
touch baikal.site

2. Copy the following config. Adjust the root /opt/src/baikal/html path for your install and make sure that the correct php-version. (See php --version).

server {

    listen 9999 default_server;

    root /opt/src/baikal/html;
    dav_methods PUT DELETE MKCOL COPY MOVE;

    index index.php index.html index.htm index.nginx-debian.html;
    server_name _;

    rewrite ^/.well-known/caldav /dav.php redirect;
    rewrite ^/.well-known/carddav /dav.php redirect;
    charset utf-8;

    location ~ /(\.ht|Core|Specific|config) {
        deny all;
        return 404;
    }
    location ~ ^(.+.php)(.*)$ {
        try_files $fastcgi_script_name =404;
        include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
        fastcgi_split_path_info ^(.+.php)(.*)$;
	    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.4-fpm.sock; #Adjust here for your version
        fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
        fastcgi_param PATH_INFO $fastcgi_path_info;
    }

    location ~ /.ht {
        deny all;
    }

}

3. Link the available site to the enabled ones

ln -s /etc/nginx/sites-available/baikal.site /etc/nginx/sites-enabled/

4. Restart nginx after testing the config files

nginx -t
systemctl restart nginx

5. Check if baikal is running on <hostname/ip>:9999.

Baikal Config

1. Follow the setup guide, setting the time-zone, and enable the basic authentication type. If wanted, it is possible to send invite emails for upcoming events to its participants. If you are interested in this, check the web, as I did not go down that path.

2. Continue and select the SQLite data base and continue. If you have specific reasons to use SQL, you can do this with

mysql -u root -p

and then create a new baikal data-base.

CREATE DATABASE baikal;
CREATE USER 'baikal'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED BY '<YOUR BEST PASSWORD123>';
GRANT ALL PRIVILEGES ON baikal.* TO 'baikal'@'localhost';
FLUSH PRIVILEGES;

Add your selection of host, name and username to the page and continue. We assume a SQLite database.

3. We now log in to baikal using the admin user. Now we can create users. We create a testuser under the mail address test@testing.ts. Now we can adjust the default calender or add more calenders if we like. We can also enable or disable todo-sync or note-syncing.

Calcurse Config

1. Make sure calcurse-caldav is available as a command .
2. Copy the config and adjust

[General]
### Adjust here when you also want to sync todo's and notes! (cal, todo, note)
SyncFilter = cal
DryRun = No
Verbose = Yes

AuthMethod = basic
Hostname = IPADRESS:9999

#Path = /dav.php/calendars/<username>/<calender-name>
Path = /dav.php/calendars/test/default

InsecureSSL = No
# I run this on a local server, which does not have https enabled.
# If you enable https on the baikal page, which is highly recommended when running it open to the web, change this to Yes
HTTPS = No

[Auth]
#Username = <username>
Username = test
#Either use plaintext password (not recommended...) or add your password to your CLI password manager (pass) under baikal/username
#Password = testpassword1234
PasswordCommand = pass baikal/username

3. Save and run calcurse-caldav --init=two-way. Other initialisation options exists and are explained here. This does the initial sync between your baikal instance and calcurse.

4. For future sync, either

   • set up a post-save and/or start hook running calcurse-caldav
   • just run calcurse-caldav everytime you like to have things synced.

Android

Some calendars have build in caldav support. For those follow their procedure. If not, we can use Davx^5. Get it from F-Droid and drop in your URL, username and password. Set up a sync period and select the calendar in your calendar app. In theory it is also possible to sync your address book.

Future:

• Use some other caldav server, which might be more light weight.
• Test the note and todo sync
• Test the address-book sync, maybe with abook