1 This tutorial will walk you through setting up a wiki with ikiwiki.
3 1. [[Download]] and [[install]] ikiwiki.
5 2. Decide where your wiki's files will go.
7 As a wiki compiler, ikiwiki builds a wiki from files in a source directory,
8 and outputs the files to a destination directory. If you keep your wiki in
9 a version control system, the source directory will contain a working copy
10 checked out from the version control system.
12 For the purposes of this tutorial, we'll set shell variables
13 for these locations, and use those variables in the commands that follow.
16 DESTDIR=~/public_html/wiki/
18 Note that ikiwiki owns the working copy directory; do not perform your own
19 edits in ikiwiki's working copy.
21 3. Create the beginnings of your wiki.
23 This will create a simple main page for the wiki.
29 In the editor, you could start by entering a simple page like
30 [[toggle id=page text="this one"]].
32 [[toggleable id=page text="""
33 Welcome to your new wiki.
34 All wikis are supposed to have a [[SandBox]],
39 This wiki is powered by [ikiwiki](http://ikiwiki.info).
42 See [[HelpOnFormatting]] for details about the markup language.
44 Note that several [[standard_wiki_pages|basewiki]] will be added to your
45 wiki, from files in `/usr/share/ikiwiki/basewiki/`, so your wiki will
46 automatically get a [[SandBox]], and some other useful pages.
48 4. Build your wiki for the first time.
50 ikiwiki --verbose $SRCDIR $DESTDIR --url=http://example.org/~you/wiki/
52 Replace the url with the real url to your wiki. You should now
53 be able to visit the url and see your wiki.
55 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 as desired, editing or adding pages and rebuilding
58 To quickly get started on a common task like blogging with ikiwiki, you
59 can copy in files from the [[examples]]. The examples are located in
60 `doc/examples/` in the ikiwiki source package.
62 You can play around with other ikiwiki parameters such as `--wikiname`
63 and `--rebuild` too. Get comfortable with its command line (see
66 6. By now you should be getting tired of typing in all the command line
67 options each time you change something in your wiki's setup. Time to
68 introduce setup files.
70 A sample setup file is [[ikiwiki.setup]]. Download it (or copy it from
71 `doc/ikiwiki.setup` in the ikiwiki sources), and edit it. Note that this
72 file should *not* be put in your wiki's directory with the rest of the
73 files. A good place to put it is in a ~/.ikiwiki/ subdirectory.
75 Most of the options, like `wikiname` in the setup file are the same as
76 ikiwiki's command line options (documented in [[usage]]. `srcdir` and
77 `destdir` are the two directories you specify when running ikiwiki by
78 hand. Make sure that these are pointing to the right directories, and
79 read through and configure the rest of the file to your liking.
81 When you're satisfied, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`, and it
82 will set everything up.
84 7. Turn on additional features.
86 Now you have a basic wiki with a configuration file. Time to experiment
87 with ikiwiki's many features.
89 Let's first enable a key wiki feature and set up [[CGI]] to allow
90 editing the wiki from the web. Just edit ikiwiki.setup, uncomment the
91 block for the cgi wrapper, make sure the filename for the cgi wrapper
92 is ok, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`, and you're done!
94 There are lots of other configuration options in ikiwiki.setup that you
95 can uncomment, configure, and enable by re-running
96 `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup`. Be sure to browse through all the
99 8. Put your wiki in revision control.
101 At this point you might want to check your wiki in to a revision control
102 system you can get history of past changes and revert edits. Depending
103 on the revision control system you choose, the way this is done varies.
105 There's little that's ikiwiki specific about these instructions; this is
106 just how you put a directory under revision control using the various
107 systems that ikiwiki supports. Note that the .ikiwiki subdirectory is
108 where ikiwiki keeps its state, and should be preserved, but not checked
109 into revision control.
111 [[toggle id=subversion text="Subversion"]]
112 [[toggleable id=subversion text="""
113 REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
114 svnadmin create $REPOSITORY
115 svn mkdir file://$REPOSITORY/trunk -m "create trunk"
117 svn co file://$REPOSITORY/trunk .
119 svn commit -m "initial import"
122 [[toggle id=git text="Git"]]
123 [[toggleable id=git text="""
124 When using Git, you probably want to set up two repositories, of which
125 one should be bare (meaning that it does not have a working tree
126 checked out). We call the bare repository the "repository" and the
127 other will be the "srcdir" (which `ikiwiki` uses to compile the wiki).
129 ways](http://blog.madduck.net/vcs/2007.07.11_publishing-git-repositories)
130 to do the following, but this might be easiest:
132 REPOSITORY=~/wiki.git
133 GIT_DIR=$REPOSITORY git --bare init --shared
136 echo /.ikiwiki > .gitignore
138 git commit -m "initial commit"
139 git remote add origin $REPOSITORY
140 git config branch.master.merge refs/heads/master
143 It is **paramount** that you **never** push to the Git repository in
144 `$SRCDIR` ([this FAQ entry explains
145 why](http://git.or.cz/gitwiki/GitFaq#head-b6a3d85f677763313159eb39f7dbf4579d4ee28b)).
146 Instead, if you want to work on the wiki from a remote machine, clone
147 `$REPOSITORY`, using either the `git` transport (if available), or
150 If at any point you commit changes in `$SRCDIR`, make sure to `git
151 push` them to the `$REPOSITORY`. ikiwiki will do this automatically
152 for any changes made via the web.
154 Finally, see [[Git_pitfalls]] if you experience problems.
157 [[toggle id=tla text="TLA"]]
158 [[toggleable id=tla text="""
159 REPOSITORY=~/wikirepo
160 tla make-archive me@localhost--wiki $REPOSITORY
161 tla my-id "<me@localhost>"
163 tla archive-setup me@localhost--wiki/wiki--0
164 tla init-tree me@localhost--wiki/wiki--0
165 # Edit {arch}/=tagging-method and change the precious
166 # line to add the .ikiwiki directory to the regexp.
171 [[toggle id=mercurial text="Mercurial"]]
172 [[toggleable id=mercurial text="""
177 hg commit -m "initial import"
180 [[toggle id=monotone text="Monotone"]]
181 [[toggleable id=monotone text="""
182 # These instructions are standard instructions to import a directory into monotone
183 # and set it up so that you don't need any passwords to use it
184 REPOSITORY=~/.ikiwiki/mtn.db
185 BRANCH=com.company.wikiname
186 # remember the password you use in the next step and
187 # substitute it for 'wikiKeyPass' in the get_passphrase() hook below
188 # note the you should never generate two monotone keys with the same name
189 mtn genkey web@machine.company.com
190 mtn db init --db=$REPOSITORY
191 mv $SRCDIR $SRCDIR-old
193 echo ".ikiwiki" > $SRCDIR-old/.mtn-ignore
194 mtn --db=$REPOSITORY --branch=$BRANCH import . -m "initial import"
196 mtn --db=$REPOSITORY --branch=$BRANCH checkout $SRCDIR
197 mv $SRCDIR-old/.ikiwiki $SRCDIR
198 cat << EOF > $SRCDIR/_MTN/monotonerc
199 function get_passphrase (branchname)
206 9. Configure ikiwiki to use revision control.
208 Once your wiki is checked in to the revision control system,
209 you should configure ikiwiki to use revision control. Edit your
210 ikiwiki.setup, and uncomment the lines for the revision control system
211 you chose to use. Be sure to set `svnrepo` to $REPOSITORY, if using
212 subversion. Uncomment the block for the wrapper for your revision
213 control system, and configure the wrapper path in that block
214 appropriately (for Git, it should be `$REPOSITORY/hooks/post-update`).
216 Once it's all set up, run `ikiwiki --setup ikiwiki.setup` once more.
217 Now you should be able to edit files in $SRCDIR, and use your revision
218 control system to commit them, and the wiki will automatically update.
219 And in the web interface, RecentChanges should work, and files changed
220 by web users will also be committed using revision control.
222 10. Enjoy your new wiki! Add yourself to [[IkiWikiUsers]]. And check out
223 [[tips]] to find out how to get more out of ikiwiki.