This tutorial will walk you through setting up a wiki with ikiwiki.
-1. [[Install]] ikiwiki. See [[download]] for where to get it.
+[[!toc ]]
-2. Decide where your wiki's files will go.
+## Install ikiwiki
- As a wiki compiler, ikiwiki builds a wiki from files in a source
- directory, and outputs the files to a destination directory.
+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.
- For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll set shell variables
- for these locations, and use those variables in the commands that follow.
+## Create your wiki
- SRCDIR=~/wikiwc
- DESTDIR=~/public_html/wiki/
+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]].
+"""]]
-3. Create the beginnings of your wiki.
+ % ikiwiki -setup /etc/ikiwiki/auto.setup
- This will create a simple main page for the wiki.
+Or, set up a blog with ikiwiki, run this command instead.
- mkdir $SRCDIR
- cd $SRCDIR
- $EDITOR index.mdwn
+ % ikiwiki -setup /etc/ikiwiki/auto-blog.setup
- In the editor, you could start by entering a simple page like this one:
+Either way, it will ask you a couple of questions.
- Welcome to your new wiki.
- All wikis are supposed to have a [[SandBox]], so this one does too.
- ----
- This wiki is powered by [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.kitenet.net).
+ 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:
- See [[HelpOnFormatting]] for details about the markup language.
+Then, wait for it to tell you an url for your new site..
- Note that several standard wiki pages 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.
+ 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
-4. Build your wiki for the first time.
+Done!
- ikiwiki --verbose $SRCDIR $DESTDIR --url=http://host/~you/wiki/
+## Using the web interface
- Replace the url with the real url to your wiki. You should now
- be able to visit the url and see your wiki.
+Now you can go to the url it told you, and edit pages in your new wiki
+using the web interface.
-5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as desired, editing or adding pages and rebuilding
- the wiki. You can play around with other ikiwiki parameters such as
- `--wikiname` and `--rebuild` too. Get comfortable with its command line
- (see [[usage]]).
+(If the web interface doesn't seem to allow editing or login, you may
+need to configure [[configure_the_web_server|tips/dot_cgi]].)
-6. 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.
-
- 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.
+## Checkout and edit wiki source
- When you're satisfied, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`, and it
- will set everything up.
+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]].
-7. Turn on additional features.
+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.)
- 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!
+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.)
- 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]]..
+ 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
-8. Put your wiki in revision control.
+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.
- At this point you might want to check your wiki in to a revision control
- system you can get history of past 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 ikiwiki supports:
+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.
+
+Once the commit reaches the repository, ikiwiki will notice it, and
+automatically update the wiki with your changes.
+
+## Customizing the wiki
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+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.
+
+After making changes to this file, you need to tell ikiwiki to use it:
+
+ % ikiwiki -setup foo.setup
+
+## 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.
+
+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.
- # Subversion
- REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
- svnadmin create $REPOSITORY
- svn import $SRCDIR file://$REPOSITORY/trunk -m "initial import"
- rm -rf $SRCDIR
- svn co file://$REPOSITORY/trunk $SRCDIR
-
- # Git
- REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
- mkdir $REPOSITORY
- cd $REPOSITORY
- git init-db
- cp -a $SRCDIR/* .
- git add .
- git commit -m "initial import" -a
- rm -rf $SRCDIR
- git clone -l -s $REPOSITORY $SRCDIR
-
- # TLA
- REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
- tla make-archive me@localhost--wiki $REPOSITORY
- tla my-id "<me@localhost>"
- cd $SRCDIR
- tla archive-setup me@localhost--wiki/wiki--0
- tla init-tree me@localhost--wiki/wiki--0
- # Edit {arch}/=tagging-method and change the precious
- # line to add the .ikiwiki directory to the regexp.
- tla add *
- tla import
-
- # Mercurial
- REPOSITORY=$SRCDIR
- hg init $REPOSITORY
-
-9. Configure ikiwiki to use revision control.
-
- 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.
+ % 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.
- 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.
+ % rm -rf foo
+ % git clone /src/git/foo.git
+
+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.
+
+## Enjoy your new wiki!
-10. Enjoy your new wiki! Add yourself to [[IkiWikiUsers]].
+Add yourself to [[IkiWikiUsers]]. And check out
+the [[tips]] to find out how to get more out of ikiwiki.