Re: [Savannah-hackers-public] ikiwiki on savannah

[Bob Proulx]

Karl Berry wrote:
> Bob, Michael, John, Ineiev, anyone -

Hi Karl!

> So, about getting ikiwiki installed, so the savannah documentation wiki
> can be updated again and we can move forward.

Yes.  This task has been hanging out for a while now.  I was out of
commission for a while.  But then afterward hadn't gotten back into
working through the todo list.  Sorry about that.  Things are looking
pretty good again for me though so I am ready to be involved again.

> Presumably it has to be installed on frontend, just as zope is now.

Yes.  It would install on frontend.

> Is there a Debian package for ikiwiki under Debian 6[.0]?  (Which is
> what frontend is running.)  Or is installing it from the original
> source the way to go?

Yes.  There is a Debian package for ikiwiki.  I haven't yet gone
through a complete installation and use of ikiwiki anywhere yet
though.  Therefore I am still missing some knowledge myself about how
ikiwiki works.  Since ikiwiki is a wiki compiler it isn't quite as
simple as doing an apt-get install ikiwki and having that be enough.
I think if I had installed it elsewhere already then I would know the
details well enough to proceed.  I think that for someone
knowledgeable in it that it really is as simple as installing the
package and then pointing Apache to it. 

> I imagine we will need subversion installed on frontend too -- at least
> I can't imagine any viable way to use the svn on the download vhost, nor
> does it even seem particularly desirable to me.  Having installed svn
> from original source for many years, I'm pretty sure that using the
> Debian svn package will be the path of least resistance there :).

I know you are not a fan of git but the path of least resistance would
be to use git for the ikiwiki backend.  And probably in either case it
would be to vcs.savannah for the source repository.

This seems to me to be one of the best features of ikiwiki.  It uses a
vcs as a backend.  Therefore in addition to making changes using the
web interface it is also possible for people with commit access to
make changes using the vcs backend directly.  That is you can check
out the source files of the wiki and make changes and commit them and
the changes appears on the wiki.  Plus it means that it avoids the
black box backend of most of the other wikis.  Backup and restore is
the same as backup and restore of any other source repository.  Which
would save us from the problems Savannah had with the previous wiki.

> I don't have much Debian experience.  Help?

I don't see ikiwiki setup being Debian specific.  I just haven't
installed and configured ikiwiki myself.  For me I need to install it
someplace in a scratch area and try it before doing it on the
production Savannah.

Has anyone on the list set up ikiwiki before?  Can I get a tutorial?
I have test servers available to play with so that we can work through
the issues.  Otherwise I will plan on setting up a victim test
installation where folks here can play with it and then we will all
"learn through it" together.

Bob