-Using ikiwiki with the [[git]] backend, some interesting things can be done
+[[!toc]]
+
+Using ikiwiki with the [[rcs/git]] backend, some interesting things can be done
with creating mirrors (or, really, branches) of a wiki. In this tip, I'll
assume your wiki is located on a server, and you want to take a copy with
you on your laptop.
wiki using a local web server. When you're ready, you can manually push the
changes to the main wiki on the server.
+## simple clone approach
+
First, set up the wiki on the server, if it isn't already. Nothing special
needs to be done here, just follow the regular instructions in [[setup]]
for setting up ikiwiki with git.
-Next, git clone the source from the server to the laptop.
-
-Now, set up a web server on your laptop, if it doesn't already have one.
+Next, `git clone` the source (`$REPOSITORY`, not `$SRCDIR`)
+from the server to the laptop.
Now you need to write a setup file for ikiwiki on the laptop. Mostly this
is standard, but a few special settings are needed:
* Configure a cgi wrapper as usual, but configure the git wrapper to
- be written to the `post-commit` hook of the git clone.
+ be written to the `post-commit` hook of the git clone, rather than the
+ usual `post-update` hook.
+
+ git_wrapper: /home/user/foo-wiki/.git/hooks/post-commit
* By default, ikiwiki pulls and pushes from `origin`. This shouldn't be
done on the laptop, because the origin may not be accessible (when the
Make sure you have ikiwiki 2.11 or better installed, and set:
- gitorigin_branch => "",
+ gitorigin_branch:
* You can optionally enable to the [[plugins/mirrorlist]] plugin,
and configure it so that each page links to the corresponding page on the
Now just run `ikiwiki -setup wiki.setup -getctime` and you should be
good to go. (You only need the slow `-getctime` option the first time you
-run setup.)
+run setup.) If you have taken your `wiki.setup` file from an existing
+wiki, you may need to change certain parameters to adapt to the paths
+on your laptop, a few examples:
+
+ srcdir: /home/user/foo-wiki
+ destdir: /home/user/public_html
+ # optional
+ url: http://foo-wiki.localhost
+ libdir: /home/user/foo-wiki/.ikiwiki
+ ENV:
+ TMPDIR: /home/user/tmp
+ cookiejar:
+ file:
+
+Now, set up a [[web_server|dot_cgi]] on your laptop, if it doesn't
+already have one. You can also skip that step if you want only to
+render the wiki and not allow edition, in which case you'll want the
+following:
+
+ # disable CGI, unless you want to get really funky
+ cgiurl:
+ cgi_wrapper:
+
+You can also direct people to the main server for web edition there.
Use standard git commands to handle pulling from and pushing to the server.
-Note: Currently, after pulling changes, you will need to manually update
-the wiki, with a command such as `ikiwiki -setup wiki.setup -refresh`. This
-is because git 1.5.4 doesn't have a hook that is run locally after pulling
-changes. Newer versions of git will have a `post-merge` hook that should
-work for this purpose.
+Note that if changes are pulled from the server, you will need to manually
+update the wiki, with a command such as `ikiwiki -setup wiki.setup -refresh`.
+If you'd like it to automatically update when changes are merged in, you
+can simply make a symlink `post-merge` hook pointing at the `post-update`
+hook ikiwiki created.
+
+## bare mirror approach
+
+As above, set up a normal ikiwiki on the server, with the usual bare repository.
+
+Next, `git clone --mirror server:/path/to/bare/repository`
+
+This will be used as the $REPOSITORY on the laptop. Then you can follow
+the instructions in [[setup by hand|/setup/byhand]] as per a normal ikiwiki
+installation. This means that you can clone from the local bare repository
+as many times as you want (thus being able to have a repository which is
+used by the ikiwiki CGI, and another which you can use for updating via
+git).
+
+Use standard git commands, run in the laptop's bare git repository
+to handle pulling from and pushing to the server.