This article describes mine (the author's, also known as Gustav)
attempts to configure an Ikiwiki lab environment on my laptop
computer. The purpose of the experiment is to learn how Ikiwiki
functions and how to effectively work with Ikiwiki and offline editing
with git.

The components needed are

* Ikiwiki
* Apache2 or Nginx web server
* Git

**Table of Contents**
[!toc]

What I have in mind is to access my lab wiki through
_http://localhost/~<name>/lab-wiki_ for web editing and
_~/lab-wiki/wiki-slave_ for local offline editing.

It should be noted that what is described here probably is a perfectly
_unsafe_ usage of a web server. Make sure that the computer does not
except requests from Internet.

# Install and configure Git

I can not recall how this was done. Refer to
[[Git's official website|http://git-scm.com/]]

# Install and configure Ikiwiki

Refer to [[ikiwiki setup|http://ikiwiki.info/setup/]] at
[[ikiwiki's officiatl website|http://ikiwiki.info]] for initial
install and configuration and
[[an article on Git|http://ikiwiki.info/rcs/git/]] for more details on
setting up Ikiwiki together with Git.

I did my best to answer the questions provided in the initial
installation and default configuration with the target of ending up
with something like this:

    url:         http://localhost/~<name>/lab-wiki
    srcdir:      ~/lab-wiki/wiki
    destdir:     ~/public_html/lab-wiki
    repository:  ~/lab-wiki/wiki.git
    settings:    ~/lab-wiki/wiki.setup

However, not all of the above was configurable in the form, for
example the configuration file location. I needed to move directories
and files around and change the remaining configurations in
_~/lab-wiki/wiki.setup_ and run

    $ ikiwiki --setup ~/lab-wiki/wiki.setup

I also created the extra Git repository _wiki-slave_ for local edits:

    $ cd ~/lab-wiki; git clone wiki.git wiki-slave

The connectivity chart is now as follows

    .         Bare Git Repository
    .         ~/lab-wiki/wiki.git
    .             /         \
    .            /           \
    .           /             \
    . The Ikiwiki Repository  |
    .   ~/lab-wiki/wiki       |
    .           |             |
    .           |    Repository for Local Edits
    .           |     ~/lab-wiki/wiki-slave
    .           |             |
    .  The Ikiwiki Web Part   |
    . ~/public_html/lab-wiki  |
    .                         |
    .            The Preview Ikiwiki Web Part
    .           ~/public_html/lab-wiki-preview

# Install and configure Apache 2

For installation, follow the instructions in
[[Apache's official documentation|http://httpd.apache.org/docs]]. I
got Apache 2.4.6 installed.

I needed to activate the userdir module. Refer to
[[Per-user web directories|http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/public_html.html]]
in Apache's documentation. For Debian do the following

    $ cd /etc/apache2/mods-enabled
    $ ln -s ln -s ../mods-available/userdir.load
    $ ln -s ln -s ../mods-available/userdir.conf

Also CGI execution need to be activated. See
[[Dynamic Content with CGI|http://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/cgi.html]]
in Apache's documentation. My
_/etc/apache2/mods-available/userdir.conf_ now looks as follows

    <IfModule mod_userdir.c>
            UserDir public_html
            UserDir /home/*/public_html
            UserDir disabled root
    
            <Directory /home/*/public_html>
                    AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit Indexes
                    Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec
                    <Limit GET POST OPTIONS>
                            Require all granted
                    </Limit>
                    <LimitExcept GET POST OPTIONS>
                            Require all denied
                    </LimitExcept>
            </Directory>
    
            <Directory /home/*/public_html>
                    Options +ExecCGI
                    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
            </Directory>
            <Directory /home/*/public_html/*>
                    Options +ExecCGI
                    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
            </Directory>
    </IfModule>

# Get preview of local modifications

Now every thing works as work as expected. I can fetch the latest
updated to _wiki-slave_, perform my updates, and whenever those are
pushed to _origin/master_, the post-update hook makes sure that the
web version is updated.

But what if I want to inspect and verify my local changes before
pushing them to _origin/master_?

The subject is covered in
[[the article on Git|http://ikiwiki.info/rcs/git/]]. I did what
follows. Copy _wiki.setup_ to _wiki-preview.setup_ and edit those
fields:

    wikiname: lab-wiki-preview
    srcdir: ~/lab-wiki/wiki-slave
    destdir: ~/public_html/lab-wiki-preview
    url: http://skolem/~<name>/lab-wiki-preview
    cgiurl: http://skolem/~<name>/lab-wiki-preview/ikiwiki.cgi
    cgi_wrapper: ~/public_html/lab-wiki-preview/ikiwiki.cgi
    git_wrapper: ~/lab-wiki/wiki-slave/.git/hooks/post-commit
    gitorigin_branch: ''
    gitmaster_branch: master

The idea is that the preview wiki works against wiki-slave, which is
my simulated environment for local repository. What always works now
is to, at any point, recompile/refresh the wiki:

    ikiwiki -setup ~/lab-wiki/wiki-preview.setup -refresh

Also, committing on the local _master_ branch _should_ automatically
update the lab-wiki-preview wiki.