This tutorial will walk you through setting up a wiki with ikiwiki.
-[[toc ]]
+[[!toc ]]
-### 1. [[Download]] and [[install]] ikiwiki.
+## Install ikiwiki
-### 2. Decide where your wiki's files will go.
+If you're using Debian or Ubuntu, ikiwiki is an `apt-get install ikiwiki` away.
+If you're not, see the [[download]] and [[install]] pages.
-As a wiki compiler, ikiwiki builds a wiki from files in a source directory,
-and outputs the files to a destination directory. If you keep your wiki in
-a version control system, the source directory will contain a working copy
-checked out from the version control system.
+## Create your wiki
-For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll set shell variables
-for these locations, and use those variables in the commands that follow.
+All it takes to create a fully functional wiki using ikiwiki is running
+one command.
+[[!template id=note text="""
+For more control, advanced users may prefer to set up a wiki
+[[by_hand|byhand]].
+"""]]
- SRCDIR=~/wikiwc
- DESTDIR=~/public_html/wiki/
+ % ikiwiki -setup /etc/ikiwiki/auto.setup
-Note that ikiwiki owns the working copy directory; do not perform your own
-edits in ikiwiki's working copy.
+Or, set up a blog with ikiwiki, run this command instead.
-### 3. Create the beginnings of your wiki.
+ % ikiwiki -setup /etc/ikiwiki/auto-blog.setup
-This will create a simple main page for the wiki.
+Either way, it will ask you a couple of questions.
- mkdir $SRCDIR
- cd $SRCDIR
- $EDITOR index.mdwn
+ What will the wiki be named? foo
+ What revision control system to use? git
+ What wiki user (or openid) will be admin? joey
+ Choose a password:
-In the editor, you could start by entering a simple page like
-[[toggle id=page text="this one"]].
-[[toggleable id=page text="""
- Welcome to your new wiki.
+Then, wait for it to tell you an url for your new site..
- All wikis are supposed to have a \[[SandBox]],
- so this one does too.
+ Successfully set up foo:
+ url: http://example.com/~joey/foo
+ srcdir: ~/foo
+ destdir: ~/public_html/foo
+ repository: ~/foo.git
+ To modify settings, edit ~/foo.setup and then run:
+ ikiwiki -setup ~/foo.setup
- ----
+Done!
- This wiki is powered by [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info).
-"""]]
-
-See [[HelpOnFormatting]] for details about the markup language.
+## Using the web interface
-Note that several [[standard_wiki_pages|basewiki]] will be added to your
-wiki, from files in `/usr/share/ikiwiki/basewiki/`, so your wiki will
-automatically get a [[SandBox]], and some other useful pages.
+Now you can go to the url it told you, and edit pages in your new wiki
+using the web interface.
-### 4. Build your wiki for the first time.
+(If the web interface doesn't seem to allow editing or login, you may
+need to configure [[configure_the_web_server|tips/dot_cgi]].)
- ikiwiki --verbose $SRCDIR $DESTDIR --url=http://example.org/~you/wiki/
+## Checkout and edit wiki source
-Replace the url with the real url to your wiki. You should now
-be able to visit the url and see your wiki.
+Part of the fun of using ikiwiki is not being limited to using the
+web for editing pages, and instead using your favorite text editor and
+[[Revision_Control_System|rcs]].
-### 5. Add content to your wiki.
+To do this, you need to check out a copy of the source to your wiki.
+(You should avoid making changes directly to the `srcdir`, as that
+checkout is reserved for use by ikiwiki itself.)
-Repeat steps 3 and 4 as desired, editing or adding pages and rebuilding the
-wiki.
-
-To quickly get started on a common task like blogging with ikiwiki, you
-can copy in files from the [[examples]]. The examples are located in
-`doc/examples/` in the ikiwiki source package.
+Depending on which [[Revision_Control_System|rcs]] you chose to use,
+you can run one of these commands to check out your own copy of your wiki's
+source. (Remember to replace "foo" with the real directory name.)
-You can experiment with other ikiwiki parameters such as `--wikiname`
-and `--rebuild` too. Get comfortable with its command line (see
-[[usage]]).
+ git clone foo.git foo.src
+ svn checkout file://`pwd`/foo.svn/trunk foo.src
+ bzr clone foo foo.src
+ hg clone foo foo.src
+ # TODO monotone, tla
-### 6. Add a setup file.
+Now to edit pages by hand, go into the directory you checked out (ie,
+"foo.src"), and fire up your text editor to edit `index.mdwn` or whatever
+other page you want to edit. If you chose to set up a blog, there is even a
+sample first post in `posts/first_post.mdwn` that you can edit.
-By now you should be getting tired of typing in all the command line
-options each time you change something in your wiki's setup. Time to
-introduce setup files.
-
-A sample setup file is [[ikiwiki.setup]]. Download it (or copy it from
-`doc/ikiwiki.setup` in the ikiwiki sources), and edit it. Note that this
-file should *not* be put in your wiki's directory with the rest of the
-files. A good place to put it is in a ~/.ikiwiki/ subdirectory.
-
-Most of the options, like `wikiname` in the setup file are the same as
-ikiwiki's command line options (documented in [[usage]]. `srcdir` and
-`destdir` are the two directories you specify when running ikiwiki by
-hand. Make sure that these are pointing to the right directories, and
-read through and configure the rest of the file to your liking.
+Once you've edited a page, use your revision control system to commit
+the changes. For distributed revision control systems, don't forget to push
+your commit.
-When you're satisfied, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`, and it
-will set everything up.
+Once the commit reaches the repository, ikiwiki will notice it, and
+automatically update the wiki with your changes.
-### 7. Turn on additional features.
+## Customizing the wiki
-Now you have a basic wiki with a configuration file. Time to experiment
-with ikiwiki's many features.
-
-Let's first enable a key wiki feature and set up [[CGI]] to allow
-editing the wiki from the web. Just edit ikiwiki.setup, uncomment the
-block for the cgi wrapper, make sure the filename for the cgi wrapper
-is ok, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`, and you're done!
-
-There are lots of other configuration options in ikiwiki.setup that you
-can uncomment, configure, and enable by re-running
-`ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`. Be sure to browse through all the
-[[plugins]]..
-
-### 8. Put your wiki in revision control.
-
-At this point you might want to check your wiki in to a revision control
-system so you can keep track of changes and revert edits. Depending
-on the revision control system you choose, the way this is done varies.
-
-There's little that's ikiwiki specific about these instructions; this is
-just how you put a directory under revision control using the various
-systems that ikiwiki supports. Note that the .ikiwiki subdirectory is
-where ikiwiki keeps its state, and should be preserved, but not checked
-into revision control.
-
-[[toggle id=subversion text="Subversion"]]
-[[toggleable id=subversion text="""
- REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
- svnadmin create $REPOSITORY
- svn mkdir file://$REPOSITORY/trunk -m "create trunk"
- cd $SRCDIR
- svn co file://$REPOSITORY/trunk .
- svn add *
- svn commit -m "initial import"
-"""]]
+There are lots of things you can configure to customize your wiki.
+These range from changing the wiki's name, to enabling [[plugins]],
+to banning users and locking pages.
-[[toggle id=git text="Git"]]
-[[toggleable id=git text="""
-When using Git, you probably want to set up two repositories, of which
-one should be bare (meaning that it does not have a working tree
-checked out). We call the bare repository the "repository" and the
-other will be the "srcdir" (which `ikiwiki` uses to compile the wiki).
-There are [other
-ways](http://blog.madduck.net/vcs/2007.07.11_publishing-git-repositories)
-to do the following, but this might be easiest:
-
- REPOSITORY=~/wiki.git
- GIT_DIR=$REPOSITORY git --bare init --shared
- cd $SRCDIR
- git init
- echo /.ikiwiki > .gitignore
- git add .
- git commit -m "initial commit"
- git remote add origin $REPOSITORY
- git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master
- git push --all
-
-It is **paramount** that you **never** push to the Git repository in
-`$SRCDIR` ([this FAQ entry explains
-why](http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq#head-b6a3d85f677763313159eb39f7dbf4579d4ee28b)).
-Instead, if you want to work on the wiki from a remote machine, clone
-`$REPOSITORY`, using either the `git` transport (if available), or
-`ssh`.
-
-If at any point you commit changes in `$SRCDIR`, make sure to `git
-push` them to the `$REPOSITORY`. ikiwiki will do this automatically
-for any changes made via the web.
-
-Finally, see [[Git_pitfalls]] if you experience problems.
-"""]]
+If you log in as the admin user you configured earlier, and go to
+your Preferences page, you can click on "Wiki Setup" to customize many
+wiki settings and plugins.
-[[toggle id=tla text="TLA"]]
-[[toggleable id=tla text="""
- REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
- tla make-archive me@localhost--wiki $REPOSITORY
- tla my-id "<me@localhost>"
- cd $SRCDIR
- tla archive-setup me@localhost--wiki/wiki--0
- tla init-tree me@localhost--wiki/wiki--0
- # Edit {arch}/=tagging-method and change the precious
- # line to add the .ikiwiki directory to the regexp.
- tla add *
- tla import
-"""]]
+Some settings cannot be configured on the web, for security reasons or
+because misconfiguring them could break the wiki. To change these settings,
+you can manually edit the setup file, which is named something like
+"foo.setup". The file lists all available configuration settings
+and gives a brief description of each.
-[[toggle id=mercurial text="Mercurial"]]
-[[toggleable id=mercurial text="""
- REPOSITORY=$SRCDIR
- hg init $REPOSITORY
- cd $REPOSITORY
- hg add *
- hg commit -m "initial import"
-"""]]
+After making changes to this file, you need to tell ikiwiki to use it:
-[[toggle id=monotone text="Monotone"]]
-[[toggleable id=monotone text="""
- # These instructions are standard instructions to import a directory into monotone
- # and set it up so that you don't need any passwords to use it
- REPOSITORY=~/.ikiwiki/mtn.db
- BRANCH=com.company.wikiname
- # remember the password you use in the next step and
- # substitute it for 'wikiKeyPass' in the get_passphrase() hook below
- # note the you should never generate two monotone keys with the same name
- mtn genkey web@machine.company.com
- mtn db init --db=$REPOSITORY
- mv $SRCDIR $SRCDIR-old
- cd $SRCDIR-old
- echo ".ikiwiki" > $SRCDIR-old/.mtn-ignore
- mtn --db=$REPOSITORY --branch=$BRANCH import . -m "initial import"
- cd ..
- mtn --db=$REPOSITORY --branch=$BRANCH checkout $SRCDIR
- mv $SRCDIR-old/.ikiwiki $SRCDIR
- cat << EOF > $SRCDIR/_MTN/monotonerc
- function get_passphrase (branchname)
- return "wikiKeyPass"
- end
- EOF
- rm -r $SRCDIR-old
-"""]]
+ % ikiwiki -setup foo.setup
-### 9. Configure ikiwiki to use revision control.
+## Customizing file locations
+
+As a wiki compiler, ikiwiki builds a wiki from files in a source directory,
+and outputs the files to a destination directory. The source directory is
+a working copy checked out from the version control system repository.
-Once your wiki is checked in to the revision control system,
-you should configure ikiwiki to use revision control. Edit your
-ikiwiki.setup, and uncomment the lines for the revision control system
-you chose to use. Be sure to set `svnrepo` to $REPOSITORY, if using
-subversion. Uncomment the block for the wrapper for your revision
-control system, and configure the wrapper path in that block
-appropriately (for Git, it should be `$REPOSITORY/hooks/post-update`).
+When you used `auto.setup`, ikiwiki put the source directory, destination
+directory, and repository in your home directory, and told you the location
+of each. Those locations were chosen to work without customization, but you
+might want to move them to different directories.
+
+First, move the destination directory and repository around.
+
+ % mv public_html/foo /srv/web/foo.com
+ % mv foo.git /srv/git/foo.git
+
+If you moved the repository to a new location, checkouts pointing at the
+old location won't work, and the easiest way to deal with this is to delete
+them and re-checkout from the new repository location.
+
+ % rm -rf foo
+ % git clone /src/git/foo.git
-Once it's all set up, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup` once more.
-Now you should be able to edit files in $SRCDIR, and use your revision
-control system to commit them, and the wiki will automatically update.
-And in the web interface, RecentChanges should work, and files changed
-by web users will also be committed using revision control.
+Finally, edit the setup file. Modify the settings for `srcdir`, `destdir`,
+`url`, `cgiurl`, `cgi_wrapper`, `git_wrapper`, etc to reflect where
+you moved things. Remember to run `ikiwiki -setup` after editing the
+setup file.
-### 10. Enjoy your new wiki!
+## Enjoy your new wiki!
Add yourself to [[IkiWikiUsers]]. And check out
the [[tips]] to find out how to get more out of ikiwiki.