Opened a ticket on StatusNet: http://status.net/trac/ticket/2226

There was a recent need to automate the installation of StatusNet, so I went ahead and modified the install.php to allow for a command line interface to the install process, including a version which can be used to run the install from a script. I’m not a fan of the install.php at all, but it does the job – so rather then a rewrite I expanded it – at least until I have more time.

The modified file can be found here:
http://files.gimmesoda.com/dreamhost/software_patches/statusnet/install.php

The patch file is here:
http://files.gimmesoda.com/dreamhost/software_patches/statusnet/install.php.patch

So to handle the install process automatically:
php install.php dbhost sqltype dbname dbuser dbpass “Site Name Goes Here” siteurl fancyurl

The following might need explaining:
sqltype = mysql (it can also be pgsql)
Site name should be quoted, some characters like ! should be escaped.
siteurl = domain.com (not using http:// and no ending slash)
fancyurl is either true or false and if true the htaccess.sample should be renamed to .htaccess

So for the site I tested on:
php install.php mysql.gimmesoda.com mysql database dbuser dbpass “It’s Just Testing\!” testing.gimmesoda.com true

http://testing.gimmesoda.com/

There is also an interactive command line install which is fun, try it out!

php install.php install