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/~/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](https://git-scm.com/) Install and configure Ikiwiki ============================= Refer to [ikiwiki setup](https://ikiwiki.info/setup/) at [ikiwiki's official website](https://ikiwiki.info) for initial install and configuration and [an article on Git](https://ikiwiki.info/rcs/git/) for more details on setting up Ikiwiki together with Git. Install packages referred to in the ansible configuration: sudo aptitude install \ ikiwiki \ libauthen-passphrase-perl \ highlight-common libhighlight-perl libimage-magick-perl \ libmail-sendmail-perl libnet-dns-sec-perl \ fcgiwrap spawn-fcgi \ pandoc 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/~/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](https://httpd.apache.org/docs). I got Apache 2.4.6 installed. I needed to activate the userdir module. Refer to [Per-user web directories](https://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](https://httpd.apache.org/docs/2.4/howto/cgi.html) in Apache's documentation. My `/etc/apache2/mods-available/userdir.conf` now looks as follows UserDir public_html UserDir /home/*/public_html UserDir disabled root AllowOverride FileInfo AuthConfig Limit Indexes Options MultiViews Indexes SymLinksIfOwnerMatch IncludesNoExec Require all granted Require all denied Options +ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script .cgi Options +ExecCGI AddHandler cgi-script .cgi Install and conifgure Nginx =========================== A valid web server alternative is [Nginx](http://nginx.org/en/docs/). For installation and configuration follow [Ikiwiki on Dot CGI](https://ikiwiki.info/tips/dot_cgi/). `sudo aptitude install nginx`. Note the alexjj comment that on Debian the package *fcgiwrap* automatically spwans the FastCGI program. 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](https://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/~/lab-wiki-preview cgiurl: http://skolem/~/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.