Basic Installation

Before you can integrate MoinMoin into your web environment, you have to do the basic installation using the standard Python distutils mechanism. We'll explain the usual steps you need to take to do this. For more details on the distutils installation process, consult the Installing Python Modules document of your Python manual.

• NOTE: You will need the Python Development package installed on UNIX systems for distutils to work correctly.

The first step is to unpack the distribution archive, which you have done already when you loaded this instructions from your disk. If you read this on the web, the distribution comes in a versioned ZIP or TAR archive, which you can unpack in the usual ways, into a temporary directory (/tmp on UNIX, C:\TEMP on Windows). The distribution archive will always unpack into a directory named moin-<version>, for example moin-0.11.

After unpacking, to install into a specific directory (C:\moin in our example), call setup.py after changing your current directory to the distribution directory. The following commands can be used to complete theses steps:

•     unzip moin-0.11.zip
      cd moin-0.11
      python setup.py --quiet install --prefix=C:\moin
  

This creates the following directories in "C:\moin" (note that on a UNIX system, the directory layout will be slightly different):

•     MoinMoin
      MoinMoin/action
      MoinMoin/formatter
      MoinMoin/i18n
      MoinMoin/macro
      MoinMoin/parser
      MoinMoin/py15
      MoinMoin/scripts
      MoinMoin/support
      MoinMoin/twisted
      MoinMoin/webapi
      Scripts
      share
      share/moin
      share/moin/cgi-bin
      share/moin/data
      share/moin/data/backup
      share/moin/data/cache
      share/moin/data/pages
      share/moin/data/plugin
      share/moin/data/plugin/action
      share/moin/data/plugin/macro
      share/moin/data/text
      share/moin/data/user
      share/moin/htdocs
      share/moin/htdocs/css
      share/moin/htdocs/img
  

You will likely see the following warning:

• warning: install: modules installed to 'C:\moin\', which is not in Python's module search path (sys.path) -- you'll have to change the search path yourself

This means exactly what it says, you need to add your install directory to the search path of Python. There are several ways to do this:

Environment variable

Change PYTHONPATH in a way that is persistent (/etc/profile.d on UNIX, AUTOEXEC.BAT on W9x, the Properties item in the context menu of My Computer on NT4 and W2K)

Apache "httpd.conf"

Use the SetEnv directive to set PYTHONPATH to a suitable value, for example:

    SetEnv PYTHONPATH "C:\moin"

"moin.cgi"

Directly add your installation directory to

the CGI driver script, like this:

    import sys
    sys.path.append('C:/moin')

If you use the following default installation command, MoinMoin will be installed to the Python directory:

•     python setup.py --quiet install
  

You won't need to change your PYTHONPATH then, but depending on your system environment you might not be able to use that command, especially when you are not the root user on a UNIX system. If you don't know where your Python directory is, this command will tell you:

•     python -c "import sys; print sys.prefix"
  

The directory structure we showed above will then be created in that directory. If you're interested in the exact list of files that are installed, use the --record option of distutils.

Siehe HelpOnInstalling/TroubleShooting

Index

Installation when you are root or the webmaster

When you are root or the webmaster on the host you want to install MoinMoin on, you can place the software in a "standard" location, and also better integrate MoinMoin into your webserver. Especially, you can use a "nice" base URL that does not include "cgi-bin" or "moin.cgi" at all.

Most GNU/Linux distributions come with Apache pre-installed. In the following description, we assume the file system layout of a SuSE 7.0 system, that is:

• /etc/httpd/httpd.conf - the main httpd configuration file

• /var/log/httpd/error_log - log containing error messages

Installing MoinMoin

Before creating a wiki instance, you have to download and install the basic MoinMoin software. We assume you already have downloaded the distribution archive to "/tmp" ¹.

Open a shell and enter the following commands:

cd /tmp
tar xfz moin-0.11.tgz
cd moin-0.11
python setup.py install --record=install.log

This will install all necessary files into the sys.prefix directory of your Python interpreter (usually either "/usr" or "/usr/local"), and create a "install.log" file listing all the files that are created there. The command "python -c 'import sys; print sys.prefix'" will tell you where your Python interpreter is installed, we assume "/usr/local" here.

Creating a wiki instance

You could run your wiki directly using the sample wiki created in "/usr/local/share/moin", but this is not recommended for two reasons:

1. updating your wiki is more complicated and more dangerous.
2. creating a second wiki instance, even if you currently don't plan for one, is much easier.

We need to know what user and group your Apache server runs on, so issue this command:

• [email protected]:~ > egrep "^User|^Group" /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
  User wwwrun
  Group nogroup
  

This shows a typical result "wwwrun.nogroup", which we will use later on.

To create an instance named "mywiki", enter these commands on a root shell prompt:

cd /usr/local/share/moin
mkdir mywiki
cp -r data mywiki
cp cgi-bin/* mywiki
chown -R wwwrun.nogroup mywiki
chmod a+rx mywiki/*.cgi

"mywiki" is the name of your wiki instance, you might want to chose a different name best fitting the intended use of this instance; just don't name it simply "wiki", because that would result in problems later on.

Then, append these lines to "/etc/httpd/httpd.conf":

Alias /wiki/ "/usr/local/share/moin/htdocs/"
ScriptAlias /mywiki "/usr/local/share/moin/mywiki/moin.cgi"

The first line you only need once; the second line is needed once for each wiki instance (of course, each one with another wiki name and path).

That is all, restart your Apache server ("/etc/rc.d/apache restart" on SuSE) and try to access your new-born wiki with the URL "http://127.0.0.1/mywiki/". You should see the FrontPage, try to edit and save it, and if that works, see if your edit is reflected on the RecentChanges page.

Finally, edit "moin_config.py" and at least change "sitename" and "logo_url" to some personal values:

sitename = 'My Wiki'
logo_url = '/images/mywiki-logo.gif'

For a personal or intranet installation, you'll normally also add the line

allowed_actions = ['DeletePage', 'AttachFile']

Troubleshooting

The first thing to do when your wiki does not work as expected is to issue the command "tail /var/log/httpd/error_log" to display the most recent errors. Usually, you will get a hint on what went wrong, like missing file system permissions.

The most common problem you might encounter is when you have Python 1.5.2 installed into "/usr", and a newer Python distribution into "/usr/local"; this is typical for GNU/Linux distributions that still come bundled with version 1.5.2 of Python.

In that case, if you enter "python" on you prompt, you will usually get the more recent Python interpreter, because "/usr/local/bin" is in your PATH. The situation is different in your webserver environment, and thus you might have to change the bang path of "moin.cgi", like this:

#! /usr/local/bin/python

"""
    MoinMoin - CGI Driver Script
...
"""

If you have problems with the distutils install step, note that you need to have the Python development package installed on some Unix distributions. On Mandrake, you need to "rpm -i python-devel-2.1.1-3mdk.i586.rpm".

Installation into your home directory

Installation into your shell account's home directory is typically used on a host shared by many users and where you are not the root user. This usually implies that you cannot change the httpd.conf file, and also you cannot copy files into the machine's cgi-bin and htdocs directories. For this situation, Apache includes the UserDir directive, which maps all URLs that start with "/~username" to a directory in your home directory, where you have write permissions and thus can install MoinMoin.

Making sure /~username URLs work

This kind of setup can only work if your webmaster has configured the host's Apache server so that the UserDir mechanism works. Here's how to check for this:

• [email protected]:~ > ls -ld public_html
  drwxr-xr-x   2 jh       users          35 Jan 31 00:29 public_html
  

If this does not show a listing like above, then you might need to create the public_htmldirectory. Note that this directory must be readable (r-x) by the web server.

• [email protected]:~ > lynx -error_file=/dev/stderr -dump http://localhost/~jh/ >/dev/null
     URL=http://localhost/~jh/ (GET)
  STATUS=HTTP/1.1 200 OK
  

You see here that we get a "200 OK" status response, which means that you can access your public_html area. If it does not work, you will probably get a "403 Forbidden" or a "404 Not Found" response. The first one normally indicates that you need to fix the permissions of your home directory (~) or your ~/public_html. But we also need to be able to execute CGI scripts, so we test that, too.

• [email protected]:~ > cat >~/public_html/test.cgi
  #!/bin/sh
  echo Content-Type: text/plain
  echo
  echo IT WORKS
  <CTRL-D>
  [email protected]:~ > chmod a+rx ~/public_html/test.cgi
  [email protected]:~ > lynx -dump http://localhost/~jh/test.cgi
  IT WORKS
  

If you see anything else than "IT WORKS", then you are not allowed to execute CGI scripts. How you get that to work is not in the scope of this description, ask your webmaster!

A working Python installation, and a working diff command is also assumed.

• [email protected]:~ > python -V
  Python 2.1
  [email protected]:~ > diff --version
  diff - GNU diffutils version 2.7
  

The command line examples show your input in bold typewriter, and the sample output in plain typewriter. The examples use "jh" as the user's name, which means you have to replace your own one whereever "jh" appears. The same is true for version numbers (0.11) and download URLs.

Getting the distribution archive and doing the basic installation

The following commands will fetch and install the nightly CVS tarball, i.e. the current development version. To get the official distribution version, use an appropriate URL.

• mkdir ~/tmp
  cd ~/tmp
  wget http://moin.sf.net/files/moin-0.11.tar.gz
  tar xfz moin-0.11.tar.gz
  cd moin-0.11
  python setup.py --quiet install --home=$HOME --record=install.log
  

This will install the MoinMoin software into the directories "~/lib/python/MoinMoin", "~/bin", and "~/share/moin". You'll find a detailed file list in "install.log".

Setting up a wiki instance

The next step is to create a copy of the wiki data and the config file.

• mkdir ~/wiki
  cd ~/wiki
  cp ~/share/moin/cgi-bin/moin_config.py .
  cp -r ~/share/moin/data .
  chmod -R o+rwX data
  vi moin_config.py
  

The last command starts the editor, you need to at least change the "data_dir" and "url_prefix" config values, as you can see in the following diff:

• @@ -28,4 +28,4 @@
   interwikiname = None
  -data_dir = './data/'
  -url_prefix = '/wiki'
  +data_dir = '/home/jh/wiki/data/'
  +url_prefix = '/~jh/wiki'
   logo_url = url_prefix + '/img/moinmoin.gif'
  

Setting up public_html and testing the installation

Now we create the public part of the wiki, which is directly accessible by the web browser.

• cd ~/public_html
  cp -r ~/share/moin/htdocs wiki
  cp ~/share/moin/cgi-bin/*.cgi .
  chmod a+rx *.cgi
  

To be able to execute the CGI script in your home directory, you need to extend Python's path within that script, and possibly adapt the bang path (that is the first line of the script). So, change "moin.cgi" similarly to this diff:

• @@ -1,2 +1,2 @@
  -#! /usr/bin/env python
  +#! /usr/local/bin/python2.1
  
  @@ -11,4 +11,4 @@
  
  -#import sys
  -#sys.path.append('/usr/local/home/USERNAME/lib/python')
  +import sys
  +sys.path.extend(['/home/jh/wiki', '/home/jh/lib/python'])
  
  

Finally, you can test your wiki installation by running the MoinMoin CGI Diagnosis:

• lynx -dump http://localhost/~jh/moin.cgi?test
  

And now, your wiki should work and is available at the URL "http://localhost/~jh/moin.cgi". Conclude your tests by editing and saving the FrontPage and checking out RecentChanges, which should reflect that edit.

Index

Requirements

Before you install MoinMoin, make sure you have the necessary infra-structure in place, namely the Apache for Microsoft Windows webserver, and a Python installation (version 2.0 or higher is recommended, don't run 1.5.2 without a compelling reason).

In the following description, we assume that you have installed or will install things to these locations:

• C:\Apache - the webserver

• C:\Python - the Python interpreter

• C:\Moin - MoinMoin itself

Quite often, you might want to install things elsewhere, which is no problem at all; you just have to adapt any paths that appear in a command or config file to the locations you have chosen.

This installation procedure was tested with Apache 1.3.23 for Windows running on Windows/NT4SP6a, and using Python 2.0.

Preparation

Installing Apache

You currently need an external webserver to run MoinMoin, the recommended option is to use Apache if you haven't installed one on your machine already. To install Apache, consult the Using Apache With Microsoft Windows document. Make sure that your webserver runs without problems before you start to install MoinMoin; problems with your webserver installation are not in the scope of this document.

Installing Python

Download Python 2.1.2 and install it. Python installation is done via a standard Windows installer program, which you should be familiar with.

Installing MoinMoin

Before creating a wiki instance, you have to download and install the basic MoinMoin software. We assume you already have downloaded the distribution archive to the "C:\TEMP" directory¹.

Open a console window and enter the following commands:

C:
cd \temp
unzip moin-0.11.zip
cd moin-0.11
python setup.py install --prefix=C:\Moin --record=install.log

This will install all necessary files to the "C:\Moin" directory, and create a "install.log" file listing all the files that are created there.

Creating a Wiki Instance

You could run your wiki directly using the sample wiki created in "C:\Moin", but this is not recommended for two reasons:

1. updating your wiki is more complicated and more dangerous.
2. creating a second wiki instance, even if you currently don't plan for one, is much easier.

So, enter these commands in a console window:

cd \Moin
md mywiki
md mywiki\data
xcopy share\moin\data mywiki\data /E
copy share\moin\cgi-bin mywiki

"mywiki" is the name of your wiki instance, you might want to chose a different name best fitting the intended use of this instance; just don't name it simply "wiki", because that would result in problems later on.

Next, start your editor and create the file "C:\Moin\mywiki\moin.bat" with the following content (remember to change any paths that are different with your setup):

@echo off
set PYTHONPATH=C:\Moin
C:
cd \Moin\mywiki
C:\Python\python.exe moin.cgi

• Python 2.2: Python 2.2 changed the installation layout to better fit the UNIX scheme. Because of this, you have to change the command setting the PYTHONPATH to "set PYTHONPATH=C:\Moin\Lib\site-packages".

Then, append these lines to "C:\Apache\conf\httpd.conf":

Alias /wiki/ "C:/Moin/share/moin/htdocs/"
ScriptAlias /mywiki "C:/Moin/mywiki/moin.bat"

The first line you only need once; the second line is needed once for each wiki instance (of course, each one with another wiki name and path).

That is all, restart your Apache server and try to access your new-born wiki with the URL "http://127.0.0.1/mywiki/". You should see the FrontPage, try to edit and save it, and if that works, see if your edit is reflected on the RecentChanges page.

Finally, edit "moin_config.py" and at least change "sitename" and "logo_url" to some personal values:

sitename = 'My Wiki'
logo_url = '/images/mywiki-logo.gif'

For a personal or intranet installation, you'll normally also add the line

allowed_actions = ['DeletePage', 'AttachFile']