You have two options for installing software on an Ubuntu server manually:

1. Use an Ubuntu repository.
By using an Ubuntu repository to install software, you can use apt to install, update, and upgrade the software packages you install.
This is the recommended way of installing software on your server.

In order to manually install software on your server, make sure to log into your server and use the terminal on your server. Please follow the instructions or docs provided by the authors of the software you are installing.

Note: If you install using an Ubuntu repository, Hatchbox will update these packages during the "Configure" process for you, as well as installing security and bug fix updates automatically. Please use Hatchbox once a month or so to configure your server to stay up to date with any software updates.

For example, if you would like to install Meilisearch, they offer an Ubuntu repository. You can follow their instructions which will add the repository, update the list of available packages and then allows you to install the Meilisearch package.

# Add the Meilisearch repository
echo "deb [trusted=yes] https://apt.fury.io/meilisearch/ /" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/fury.list

# Update APT and install Meilisearch
sudo apt update && sudo apt install meilisearch

OR

2. Download the executables to the server.
For software that doesn't provide an Ubuntu repository, you can download the executable to the server. This will not receive updates unless you download the updated version manually as well.
Some software does not provide repositories, so this is your only option for installing.

Please follow the documentation for manually installed software and take note of any special upgrade requirements.

If you add software that is not supported by Hatchbox, we will do our best to help you out but please note that many software packages are not officially supported by Hatchbox.

Note: If you want filesystem based data to persist between deploys, place that data in the `/shared` directory.
The Current directory is not replaced after each deploy, It is a symlink to the release which will change every deploy.

(Feedback is welcomed, good or bad. Please open a ticket if you see any problems or errors and thanks for reading.)