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[ikiwiki] / doc / setup.mdwn

This tutorial will walk you through setting up a wiki with ikiwiki.

1. [[Install]] ikiwiki. See [[download]] for where to get it.

2. Decide where your wiki's files will go.

   As a wiki compiler, ikiwiki builds a wiki from files in a source
   directory, and outputs the files to a destination directory.

   For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll set shell variables
   for these locations, and use those variables in the commands that follow.

                SRCDIR=~/wikiwc
                DESTDIR=~/public_html/wiki/

3. Create the beginnings of your wiki.

   This will create a simple main page for the wiki.

                mkdir $SRCDIR
                cd $SRCDIR
                $EDITOR index.mdwn

   In the editor, you could start by entering a simple page like this one:

                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).

   See [[HelpOnFormatting]] for details about the markup language.

   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.

4. Build your wiki for the first time.

                ikiwiki --verbose $SRCDIR $DESTDIR --url=http://host/~you/wiki/

   Replace the url with the real url to your wiki. You should now
   be able to visit the url and see your wiki.

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]]).

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.

   When you're satisfied, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`, and it
   will set everything up.

7. Turn on additional features.

   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 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:
   
                # 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. 
   
   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.

10. Enjoy your new wiki! Add yourself to [[IkiWikiUsers]].