# Getting Started
Since this release is a developer release, we're going to skip the feel-good intro and skip right to the meat. This guide is meant to get you up and going with Lithium (Li3).
## Requirements
* HTTP Server (Apache + mod_rewrite recommended)
* PHP 5.3.0 or higher
* Git (or archived source from the [versions'](http://rad-dev.org/lithium/versions) list)
* (CouchDb, MongoDb, MySQL 5 or SQLite 3 for applications utilizing a database)
## Getting Lithium
Li3's source is housed in a Git repo. Start by creating a new account at http://rad-dev.org/users/add. Once you've successfully created your new account, add your SSH key at http://rad-dev.org/users/account. If you've never completed that process before, sometimes its as simple as typing in 'ssh-keygen' in a console.
$ ssh-keygen
Generating public/private rsa key pair.
Enter file in which to save the key (/Users/lithium/.ssh/id_rsa):
Enter passphrase (empty for no passphrase):
Enter same passphrase again:
Your identification has been saved in /Users/lithium/.ssh/id_rsa.
Your public key has been saved in /Users/lithium/.ssh/id_rsa.pub.
Once the public key has been created, copy and paste it's contents into the Ssh Keys section of your account settings at rad-dev.org.
Now that your key has been set up, clone yourself a copy of Li3 inside of your webserver's document root:
$ cd /path/to/docroot
$ git clone code@rad-dev.org:lithium.git
Initialize lithium/.git
Initialized empty Git repository in /path/to/docroot/lithium/.git/
Identity added: /Users/lithium/.ssh/id_rsa (/Users/lithium/.ssh/id_rsa)
remote: Counting objects: 1638, done.
remote: Compressing objects: 100% (1154/1154), done.
remote: Total 1638 (delta 863), reused 509 (delta 226)
Receiving objects: 100% (1638/1638), 387.74 KiB, done.
Resolving deltas: 100% (863/863), done.
You'll be asked a password during this operation. Make sure to supply the same one you did when you created your SSH key.
## Pedal to the Metal
For the purposes of this guide, we'll assume you're running Apache. Before starting things up, make sure mod_rewrite is enabled, and the AllowOverride directive is set to 'All' on the necessary directories involved. Be sure to restart the server before checking things.
Another quick thing to check is to make sure that magic quotes have been completely disabled in your PHP installation. If you're seeing an exception error message initially, you might have magic quotes enabled. For more information on disabling this feature, see the [PHP manual](http://www.php.net/manual/en/security.magicquotes.disabling.php).
Finally, pull up Li3 in your browser. For this example, we're running Apache locally. Assuming you have a default configuration, and you cloned Lithium into your document root directory, you can visit [`http://localhost/lithium`](http://localhost/lithium).
At this point, you should be presented with the Li3 default home page. You're up and running!
**Note**: If, instead of the home page, you get an error that looks like this:
{{{Warning: Unexpected character in input: '\' (ASCII=92) state=1 in /path/to/lithium/app/webroot/index.php on line 22}}}
That means you're not running PHP 5.3 or later. Please check your PHP version and update as appropriate.
## Making Connections
By default, as of v0.7, no databases connections are enabled. To add one, edit `/path/to/lithium/app/config/bootstrap.php` and uncomment this line:
{{{
require __DIR__ . '/connections.php';
}}}
The `connections.php` file contains a commented out example for the MySql adapter configuration. See the individual database adapters for which options are available for configuration.
## One More Thing
Lastly, you'll want to set up the li3 command so it's easy to use as you move around your filesystem. The li3 command assists in tasks like code generation, documentation, and testing.
To do so, add the Lithium's console library directory to your shell's path. For our example above, and assuming you're using the bash shell, you'd add something like the following to your `~/.bash_profile` file:
PATH=$PATH:/path/to/docroot/lithium/libraries/lithium/console
Once this has been done, you can execute the li3 command inside the app folder of any Li3 app you have on your filesystem:
USAGE
li3 COMMAND [ARGS]
COMMANDS
create
The `create` command allows you to rapidly develop your models, views, controllers, and tests
by generating the minimum code necessary to test and run your application.
g11n
The `G11n` set of commands deals with the extraction and merging of
message templates.
test
Runs a given set unit tests and outputs the results.
See `li3 help COMMAND` for more information on a specific command.
