How to do a basic installation of MoinMoin on your system.

Contents

Before you can integrate MoinMoin into your web environment, you have to install the MoinMoin source code and data files using the standard Python distutils mechanism (setup.py). This page explains the steps you usually need to take to do this. For more details on the distutils installation process, consult the Installing Python Modules document in your Python documentation set.

The installation is similar on Windows and Linux (and other POSIX-type systems; for simplicity, we just say "Linux" in the docs).

• We use text such as > command arguments to show what you have to type at the command prompt (also known as shell, terminal, etc.). In our examples "> " is the prompt, you don't have to type it in, you have to type what comes after it. Lines that do not begin with "> " are the answers to the commands you have typed. Read them carefully.

Check if Python is working

MoinMoin needs Python to run, so the first step is to check if an usable version of Python is installed and correctly set-up. If this is not the case, you will have to fix that before you can proceed.

The CHANGES file in the MoinMoin archive mentions what versions are supported. Python 2.3 is the minimum requirement for MoinMoin 1.5, but we suggest you use the latest Python release version.

You can download Python at http://www.python.org/download/.

If you are pretty sure an acceptable version of Python is installed but the commands below do not work, this may be because your Python files are not in the search path. Correctly setting the search path is outside the scope of this document; please ask for help on your favorite Python, Linux, or Windows discussion board.

If you have shell access, checking if Python is working is very simple. Just type the following command, and look at the result:

> python -V
Python 2.3.4

If you don't have shell access, you can try using this pythontest.cgi script (it assumes that you are using a Linux kind of webserver). Upload the script to your cgi-bin directory, use chmod a+rx pythontest.cgi (or a similar command in your FTP program) to make it executable, and invoke it using your web browser.

#!/bin/sh
echo Content-Type: text/plain
echo
echo "Your web server is running as:"
id
echo "CGI scripts work"
echo "Now we try to invoke Python interpreters and get their versions:"
echo "Your default version of python is:"
python -V 2>&1
echo 
echo "Available versions of python are:"
python2.2 -V 2>&1 && which python2.2
python2.3 -V 2>&1 && which python2.3
python2.4 -V 2>&1 && which python2.4
python2.5 -V 2>&1 && which python2.5
echo "Finished."

pythontest.cgi

If it doesn't display "CGI scripts work", well, then CGI scripts don't work. If it doesn't show one or more Python version numbers, then Python is not correctly installed. In both cases, before you can proceed, you will have to get in touch with the administrator of the server so that the problems get corrected.

Also be sure to read ../ApacheOnLinuxFtp after you've completed the ../BasicInstallation illustrated here.

Download MoinMoin

To download the distribution archive, go to the download area and fetch the latest archive.

The next step is to unpack the distribution archive (which you have done already if you are reading this text from your hard drive). If you read this on the web, the distribution comes in a versioned .tar.gz archive, which you can unpack as shown below.

• On Windows

  • You can use recent versions of programs like WinZip, WinRar, and WinAce, which handle .tar.gz kind of archives.

  • At the command prompt, you can use GNU gzip and GNU tar for Windows.

• On Linux

  • You can use your favorite file manager -- it should be able to unpack them.

  • At any shell prompt, you can use the tar command.

The distribution archive will always unpack into a directory named moin-<version>, for example moin-1.5.

Here is how you would unpack the archive (using GNU tar) and enter the directory with the MoinMoin files:

> tar xzf moin-1.5.0.tar.gz
> cd moin-1.5.0

Install MoinMoin

You can install MoinMoin to either:

• a system location (if you have the necessary rights to do that -- on Linux you need to be root)

• some specific location, like your home directory (Linux) or C:\moin (Windows).

The installation to a system location is easier, so choose that if possible.

If you have several versions of Python installed, please use the same version for setup and for running the wiki. Usually, the latest Python version will get the best results.

If you have problems with the setup.py install step, try using the command:

> python -v setup.py --quiet install --record=install.log

The additional -v flag should provide you detailed verbose messages every step of the way.

On Linux, if u get an error like Invalid Python installation: cannot find /usr/lib/Python2.x/config/Makefile, you may not have the python module distutils installed, it's usually a part of the Python development libarary (python-dev). Some Linux distributions may not have installed it by default. For example, on Mandrake you need to install the python-devel package, on Debian it's called python-dev.

Installing in the default system location

> python setup.py --quiet install --record=install.log

This installs MoinMoin to the default system location (typically the Python directory, for example on Linux, inside /usr/lib and /usr/share). Look at the install.log file to see what was installed, and where.

• Mac OS X note: use the command:

  python setup.py install --install-data='/usr/local'
  

  This will install the shared files to '/usr/local/share/moin', instead of an inconvenient location in the System folder.

Installing in the home directory or another specific location

Linux example, installing in the home directory:

> python setup.py --quiet install --prefix=$HOME --record=install.log

Windows example, installing in the C:\moin directory:

> python setup.py --quiet install --prefix="C:\moin" --record=install.log

All MoinMoin files will then be installed inside those directories, see install.log to know which files were installed, and where.

Note: 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, or it won't find the MoinMoin code.

For example, if you are running using a webserver and standard CGI, edit moin.cgi and add your installation directory to the Python path, like this:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, 'C:/moin')

Test installation

As a final step, if you have access to the shell or the command prompt, you can check that everything is correctly installed and ready to run. Start Python and type import MoinMoin. Nothing should be displayed in response to this command. Example:

> python
Python 2.3.4 (#1, May 29 2004, 17:05:23)
[GCC 3.3.3] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import MoinMoin
>>>

If you get this instead:

>>> import MoinMoin
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in ?
ImportError: No module named MoinMoin
>>>

then you have to tune your installation. Try modifying sys.path, as described above.

What has been installed

So, you have a ready-to-work MoinMoin installation now. Congratulations! Before you go on to configuring it, take a look at the various files and directories that have been installed.

It is important that you understand the different locations used in a MoinMoin setup, so read this carefully.

In the following descriptions, PREFIX is what you used with the setup.py command, or a default location if you didn't use the --prefix option. (Typical default values on Linux are /usr and /usr/local.) X.Y is the version of Python. Typically, this is 2.3 or 2.4.

Look into install.log to find out about following important locations:

• MoinMoin directory, usually PREFIX/lib/pythonX.Y/site-packages/MoinMoin -- this is where the MoinMoin source code is located

• share directory, usually PREFIX/share/moin - this is where the templates are located

  • data directory (wiki pages, users, etc.) - only MoinMoin should access this

  • underlay directory (wiki pages) - only MoinMoin should access this

  • htdocs directory with html support files (images for the various themes, etc.) - the web server will need to access this

  • server - MoinMoin example startup files (like moin.cgi for CGI, and other files for other startup methods)

  • config - MoinMoin example configuration files (like wikiconfig.py)

• bin directory with some scripts that help you use the MoinMoin shell commands

We talk of templates in the share directory because you usually will not use those files at that location, but copy them elsewhere when you need them. This way, you can set-up several wikis without problems, and easily upgrade to new MoinMoin versions.

After you have downloaded and installed MoinMoin, you will want to "have a wiki". As explained at the bottom of ../BasicInstallation, you have to copy several directories and files. This way, you can have as many wikis as you want, and you can easily upgrade MoinMoin: only the original files will be overwritten, not your copies.

Every time you copy those files (and modify the configuration of your server accordingly), you create what is called a wiki instance. Each wiki instance is independant from the others, with a different configuration, different pages, different users, etc.

Some of the steps you need to take depend on which web server and which operating system you use. They are described on dedicated pages, which you should read (at least the beginning) before reading this one. Some other steps are common to every webserver and operating system (copying files around, setting permissions), and this is what is described here.

You can use createinstance.sh (a bash script that install the instance).

Read this first

Security warnings

Note to Windows users

All the commands below are Linux commands. The text descriptions that introduce them should be enough to help you understand what you need to do. Use the Windows Explorer, or the appropriate text-mode commands.

Choose a wiki name

Choose a unique name for the new wiki instance you want to create. It should be a short word, something that reflects what you intend to use the wiki for, like the name of your organization, of your team, of the project you are working on, etc.

• Do not use the name "wiki" - it is reserved for internal use. You would need a special setup to use this with CGI, and you can't use it at all with standalone or twisted server.

The name "mywiki" is used as an example in the various commands below.

Choose a location

Choose a directory on your disk, it will contain all the files needed for your wiki instance. At the beginning, your wiki instance will use approximately 10 MB of disk space. Then of course, it will grow depending on the way your wiki is used. A personal wiki, even with many pages, might only use 30 MB or 40 MB of disk space. A popular wiki, or a wiki with many files attached to the pages, might use much more, of course.

If you are the administrator (or root) of the server, you can use anything you like or that makes sense to you, for example /usr/local/var/moin, /mnt/wikis, etc.

If you are a simple user, you will probably only be allowed to write in your personal, "home" directory. Choose a subdirectory that makes sense to you, for example the share/moin subdirectory.

Collect some important information

This is where the instructions differ according to the web server and operating system you use, and whether you are the administrator or a simple user. See the appropriate pages for your web server and operating system combination.

On Linux, the export command will be used to remember the collected information. Windows users should write it down carefully (maybe cutting-and-pasting in a Notepad window), or store it in environment variables if they use the command prompt.

• PREFIX is the prefix you used during the ../BasicInstallation

• SHARE is the name of the share directory, as discussed at the bottom of ../BasicInstallation

• WIKILOCATION is the name of the directory that will contain your wiki instance

• INSTANCE is the directory containing the wiki instance. It cannot be an existing directory readable through Apache, otherwise it will fail.

If you are an administrator, you also need to collect the following:

• USER is the user name of the web server

• GROUP is the name of the group to which the web server belongs

Now, Linux folks, let's store these settings in memory:

> export PREFIX=/usr                # this might be something else
> export SHARE=$PREFIX/share/moin   # this should be correct for most people
> export WIKILOCATION=$SHARE        # this is just an example
> export INSTANCE=mywiki            # this is just an example

Administrators also need the following two lines:

> export USER=www-data              # this is just an example
> export GROUP=www-data             # this is just an example

Copy the files

To create your new instance, you first need to create a directory named like your instance, inside the WIKILOCATION. Then you need to copy the data and underlay directories from your SHARE directory into your instance directory. Finally, you need to copy the wikiconfig.py file from the config directory into the instance directory.

Linux folks need just type these commands:

> cd $WIKILOCATION
> mkdir $INSTANCE                   # make a directory for this instance
> cp -R $SHARE/data $INSTANCE       # copy template data directory
> cp -R $SHARE/underlay $INSTANCE   # copy underlay data directory
> cp $SHARE/config/wikiconfig.py $INSTANCE   # copy wiki configuration sample file

• Note that you just need to keep one underlay directory on your system if you are running multiple wikis (e.g. in a farm.)

Set permissions

Administrators

Administrators need to restrict the permissions of the files, so that only the web server (and the administrator of course) can read and write them. For maximum security, no other user on the machine should be able to read or write anything in the wiki instance directory. Don't forget that this directory contains sensitive information, notably the (encrypted) passwords of the wiki users.

On Linux, the following commands should be enough:

> chown -R $USER.$GROUP $INSTANCE   # check that USER and GROUP are correct
> chmod -R ug+rwX $INSTANCE         # USER.GROUP may read and write
> chmod -R o-rwx $INSTANCE          # everybody else is rejected

Normal users

Normal users, on the contrary, need to broaden the permissions of the files, so that the web server can read and write them. On recent Windows versions, and on some versions of Unix, Linux and other systems, access control lists can be used to that effect. They are, however, powerful and complicated, much beyond the scope of this document. Ask a knowledgeable person about them.

Without them, normal users have to allow everybody to access the instance directory. This is the only way the web server can enter it and do its work. This is, of course, VERY INSECURE, since any other user and program on the server can read the directory. You should not use such a setup for a wiki open to the public.

On Linux, the following commands will open the instance directory to the whole world:

> chmod -R a+rwX $INSTANCE

Note:

• it is also possible to put the web server and the normal user in the same group, and then only open the instance directory to the members of that group. This is a bit more secure (depending on who else is in the group), but you need the cooperation of the server administrator; he is the one setting up groups.

• the best other possibility is that the server administrator sets up suexec to execute CGI scripts in user directories under the user id of that user. You don't need to give world permissions that way, so it is a quite secure setup, but you also need cooperation of the administrator.

Tune configuration

Now, you need to tune the configuration of your web server and of your wiki instance. Look at the appropriate help page for your web server, then come back here to tune the settings of your wiki instance.

Edit wikiconfig.py. The default settings should work fine in most cases, but there are some things that you will probably want to change, like the name and logo of your wiki! Read the comments inside wikiconfig.py, they will guide you through this process. (Start with "Wiki identity", around line 25.)

HelpOnConfiguration contains all the details about all the options, in case the comments in wikiconfig.py are not enough.

This page describes the particular steps that need to be taken to create a wiki instance using MoinMoin on Linux with the Apache web server. You should have already performed the ../BasicInstallation. Installations on other Unices like FreeBSD are very similar.

Two scenarios are possible. You might be the administrator (root) of the server, able to install and modify files almost anywhere on the machine, and notably able to modifiy the Apache configuration. You might also be a simple user, only able to write files into your home directory, and unable to alter the master Apache config file. The two scenarios are discussed below.

Table of contents

Administrator (root)

Most GNU/Linux distributions come with Apache pre-installed. There is, however, some variation as to where exactly the various Apache files are located. You should consult your distribution manual, or ask on the appropriate discussion board. In the following paragraphs, we assume a (quite standard) file system layout with:

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

• /var/log/httpd/error_log - the log file containing Apache error messages

Some distributions use apache instead of httpd for the directory names, others may use weirder settings.

Create a wiki instance

Creating a wiki instance involves copying files around and setting appropriate permissions. Before you can proceed, you need to know what user and group your Apache server runs as. The easiest way to know this is to issue this command:

> egrep "^User|^Group" /etc/httpd/httpd.conf
User wwwrun
Group nogroup

This shows a typical result: "wwwrun.nogroup". Other common results are "nobody.nogroup", "apache.apache" and "www-data.www-data". You can of course use your own. What matters is that you know which ones are in use, because you will need them to set file permissions.

Once you have gathered this information, read ../WikiInstanceCreation and follow the steps described there.

Install moin.cgi

There is one last file you need to copy, the bridge between Apache and MoinMoin: the CGI script that Apache will call every time a wiki page is requested, and that will in turn invoke all the MoinMoin components to handle the request. You can actually put this script anywhere you like (all the paths to the files MoinMoin needs can be configured to match your filesystem layout), but for the sake of simplicity and security, we suggest you follow the instructions below, unless you think you know better.

We will create a cgi-bin subdirectory in the instance directory. Using the environment variables defined in ../WikiInstanceCreation, run the following commands:

> cd $WIKILOCATION/$INSTANCE
> mkdir cgi-bin
> cp $SHARE/server/moin.cgi cgi-bin
> chown -R $USER.$GROUP cgi-bin
> chmod -R ug+rx cgi-bin
> chmod -R o-rwx cgi-bin

Configure moin.cgi

When moin.cgi is launched, it imports a MoinMoin module that in turn imports other modules and the configuration file. While the MoinMoin modules should always be found in a properly configured system (as described in ../BasicInstallation), it is likely that the configuration file will not be found. Edit the moin.cgi script to correct that. Add these lines near the top of the file:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '..')

You can also use the absolute name of the directory that contains the wikiconfig.py file instead of '..'.

Configure Apache

Now that every file is in place and properly locked down (as far as the filesystem is concerned), we need to configure Apache so that it offers access to the right files, and no others. However, since the default Apache configuration varies a lot according to the distribution you use, and since administrators often make important additions and changes to it, we cannot give exact instructions that cover all cases. Instead, we will first describe roughly what needs to be done, and then give a few specific lines that you should add at the appropriate place in your Apache config.

Your Apache should be set up so that:

• Access to your instance directory is denied (sane Apache installations should actually deny access to the whole server, and then only allow a few specific directories).

• An alias is set up to redirect requests from /wiki/ (in the URL) to the htdocs directory (in the share directory, as discussed at the bottom of ../BasicInstallation)

• A script alias is set up to redirect requests from whatever you want (we suggest you use your instance name, for example /mywiki) to the CGI script you just copied.

The following commands will add two lines at the bottom of your Apache config file. These lines only cover the last two items listed above. You have to check the first one by yourself (there is too much variation in Linux distributions). Note that you may have to move the two lines to the appropriate place in your config file -- maybe near other similar lines.

> echo "" >>/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
> echo "Alias /wiki/ \"$SHARE/htdocs/\"" >>/etc/httpd/httpd.conf
> echo "ScriptAlias /mywiki \"$WIKILOCATION/$INSTANCE/cgi-bin/moin.cgi\"" >>/etc/httpd/httpd.conf

You only need to define the alias for htdocs once. You need to define a different script alias for each wiki instance you intend to run.

Configure MoinMoin

Finally, check that the wikiconfig.py file in the instance directory contains correct paths for the htdocs prefix, the instance data directory, and the instance underlay directory. You can use relative paths for the directories, but note that they are relative to the CGI script, not the configuration file! You can also use absolute paths, and save yourself some headaches.

Here are the settings you should have in the config file if you followed all our suggestions:

    data_dir = '../data/'
    data_underlay_dir = '../underlay/'
    url_prefix = '/wiki'

There are other settings you will likely want to alter, look at the bottom of ../WikiInstanceCreation for more details about them.

Test the wiki

Everything should work fine now. It is time to restart the Apache server (usually with "/etc/init.d/apache restart", sometimes with "apachectl restart") and perform the following steps:

• Run the MoinMoin CGI Diagnosis: connect to "http://127.0.0.1/mywiki?action=test" (or the name and port you have defined in the Apache configuration file). Verify that the displayed information is correct. Check that the directories listed under Checking directories... are OK.

• Access your new wiki with the URL "http://127.0.0.1/mywiki/" (or the name and port you have defined in the Apache configuration file). You should see the FrontPage.

• If this is the case, try to edit it and save your changes.

• If that works, see if your edit is reflected on the RecentChanges page.

• If you see them, congratulations, your new wiki works!

If something goes wrong, have a look at Troubleshooting, at the bottom of this page.

Apache tricks

For more advanced configuration and some tricks see HelpMiscellaneous.

Simple user (home directory installation)

On machines shared by many people, simple users typically have no access to the root account, cannot modify the httpd.conf file, and cannot copy files into the system-wide cgi-bin and htdocs directories. In that case, Apache can be set up so that each user can host a web site in the home directory of his or her shell account, using the UserDir directive. If the machine administrator decides to use it, all URLs that start with "/~username" will be redirected to a directory in the users' home directories, where they have write permission and can install MoinMoin.

As an example, we will consider the case of a user named "mm". Of course, wherever you see "mm" below, you will replace it with your own username.

Make sure /~username works

The home directory installation can only work if the administrator (root) has allowed it. So, the first step is of course to check that it works. Typically, Apache is set up so that the public_html subdirectory in the home directory is used as the web site root. So, the first first step is to check if that directory exists.

> ls -ld ~/public_html
drwxr-xr-x   2 mm       users        4096 Nov 30 00:29 public_html

If the directory does not exist, create it, and be sure it can be read and entered by the web server.

> mkdir public_html
> chmod a+rx public_html
> ls -ld ~/public_html
drwxr-xr-x   2 mm       users        4096 Nov 30 00:35 public_html

Now, check if the "/~mm" URL works:

> lynx -error_file=/dev/stderr -dump http://localhost/~mm/ >/dev/null
URL=http://localhost/~mm/ (GET)
STATUS=HTTP/1.1 200 OK

If you get a "200 OK" response code, then it works, and you can go on to the next check. If you get a "403 Forbidden" or a "404 Not Found" response, then maybe something is wrong with your directory, or maybe the whole thing has not been enabled by your administrator.

• Check the permissions for your home directory (~) and your public_html directory. The first one should at least end with "--x", and the second one, as we saw above, with "r-x".

• It also possible that the administrator has set up another name for the personal web site directory. "public_html" is just the usual default, but anything can actually be used. There is no way to know, you have to ask the administrator (root).

• Finally, if the personal web site feature is disabled, maybe you can ask the administrator to enable it?

Once you have checked you can read the files in the directory, you need to check that you are also able to execute CGI scripts in that directory. Use the following commands to create a simple CGI script in the appropriate location:

> mkdir -p ~/public_html/cgi-bin
> cat > ~/public_html/cgi-bin/test.cgi
#!/bin/sh
echo Content-Type: text/plain
echo
echo "CGI scripts work"
<CTRL-D>
> chmod a+rx ~/public_html/cgi-bin/test.cgi
> lynx -dump http://localhost/~jh/cgi-bin/test.cgi
CGI scripts work

If you get anything else than "CGI scripts work", then something went wrong. Check the directory permissions as above, try other names (or ask about them). The sad truth might be that you are not allowed to execute CGI scripts. You would then have to ask the administrator (root) for that permission.

Once you get it, you can set up your wiki instance in the public_html directory.

Create a wiki instance

Creating a wiki instance involves copying files around and setting appropriate permissions. Read ../WikiInstanceCreation and follow the steps described there.

Install the htdocs files

The web server needs to access these files, so we need to copy them in the "public_html" directory. Just use this:

> cd ~/public_html
> cp -R ~/share/moin/htdocs wiki
> chmod -R a+rX wiki

Install moin.cgi

There is one last file you need to copy, the bridge between Apache and MoinMoin: the CGI script that Apache will call every time a wiki page is requested, and that will in turn invoke all the MoinMoin components to handle the request. You need to put this file in a directory for which CGI scripts execution is enabled. By default, this should work:

> cd ~/public_html
> mkdir cgi-bin
> cp $SHARE/server/moin.cgi cgi-bin
> chmod -R a+rx cgi-bin

Configure moin.cgi

When moin.cgi is launched, it imports a MoinMoin module (that in turn imports other modules and the configuration file). Since everything has been installed in your home directory, it is likely none of these will be found. Edit the moin.cgi script to correct that. Add these lines near the top of the file:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/mm/lib/python2.3')
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/mm/lib/python2.3/site-packages')
sys.path.insert(0, '/home/mm/share/moin/mywiki')

Of course, you need to adapt the paths to your situation. The first two lines should help locate the MoinMoin modules, the last one should help locate the wikiconfig.py file.

Note: You might also need to edit the first line of the file, to point to the correct version of Python. The default should be fine, but a line like "#! /usr/bin/python2.3" might help you if the default does not work.

Note 2: In this file there is a line reading request = RequestCGI(). If you have a complex mod_rewrite case, you might want to add properties = {'script_name': '/mywiki'}  in the parenthesis. This will let MoinMoin generate URLs that start with /mywiki and not the path that the webserver passed to MoinMoin:

def handle_request(req, env, form):
    request = RequestCGI(req, env, form, properties = {'script_name': '/mywiki'})
    request.run()

Configure MoinMoin

Finally, check that the wikiconfig.py file in the instance directory contains correct paths for the htdocs directory, the instance data directory, and the instance underlay directory. You can use relative paths for the directories, but note that they are relative to the CGI script, not the configuration file! You can also use absolute paths, and save yourself some headaches.

    data_dir = '/home/mm/share/moin/mywiki/data/'
    data_underlay_dir = '/home/mm/share/moin/mywiki/underlay/'
    url_prefix = '/~mm/wiki'

Test the wiki

Everything should work fine, now. It is time to perform the following steps:

• Run the MoinMoin CGI Diagnosis: > lynx -dump http://localhost/~mm/cgi-bin/moin.cgi?action=test

• If it worked, try to access your new-born wiki with the URL "http://127.0.0.1/~mm/cgi-bin/moin.cgi". You should see the FrontPage.

• If this is the case, try to edit it and save your changes.

• If that works, see if your edit is reflected on the RecentChanges page.

• If you see them, congratulations, you have a new wiki!

If something goes wrong, have a look at Troubleshooting, below.

Troubleshooting

See also ../TroubleShooting for generic stuff.

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.

Adding permission to serve the htdocs directory

In some (sane) Linux distributions (like SuSE 9.0) serving directories other than the document-root "/srv/www/htdocs" with Apache is switched off by default for security reasons in "/etc/httpd/httpd.conf" (or for Apache2 "/etc/apache2/httpd.conf"):

# forbid access to the entire filesystem by default
<Directory />
  Options None
  AllowOverride None
  Order deny,allow
  Deny from all
</Directory>

To allow Apache to serve directories outside of the document root you have to add these lines to "/etc/httpd/httpd.conf" (in SuSE it is recommended to create a new "http.conf.local" and include this file in "/etc/sysconfig/apache2"):

Alias /wiki/ "/usr/share/moin/htdocs/"
<Directory "/usr/share/moin/htdocs/">
   Order deny,allow
   Allow from all
</Directory>

ScriptAlias /mywiki "/usr/share/moin/mywiki/cgi-bin/moin.cgi"
<Directory "/usr/share/moin/mywiki/cgi-bin">
   Order deny,allow
   Allow from all
</Directory>

Of course, you need to adapt the paths to your particular situation.

Using MoinMoin with FastCgi

FastCGI is a method which enables apache to communicate with long-running scripts. This has the advantage that the script is only started and initialized one time, and that data could be cached in memory from request to request, enhancing the performance of the CGI application.

Deploying on Apache

To deploy MoinMoin using FastCGI you need an apache with mod_fastcgi. Please refer to the documentation of mod_fastcgi how to build it.

Follow the basic apache installation for your operating system as described in other parts of the MoinMoin installation documentation. This is HelpOnInstalling/ApacheOnLinux in most cases. Don't forget to install the fastcgi Apache module (e.g. libapache2-mod-fastcgi). Then in places where the documentation refers to moin.cgi you use moin.fcg instead. Be sure that .fcg is handled by the FastCGI module (AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcg in your apache config).

Normally apache will start CGI scripts with its own user and group, or with the user and group of the VirtualHost if you are using the suexec wrapper. To enable this with FastCGI you need to use FastCgiWrapper On in your apache config (see FastCGI Documentation).

Be sure to restart your apache after you changed py files (i.e. the config) for a running FastCGI server, or you won't see any changes!

Example for Apache2 on Debian

Edit the /etc/apache2/conf.d/your_wiki:

<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
   AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcgi .fcg
   FastCgiServer /your/path/to/moin.fcg -idle-timeout 60 -processes 1
   ScriptAlias /your_wiki "/your/path/to/moin.fcg"
</IfModule>

• number of processes depends on your hardware..

Expand the Apache installation:

apt-get install libapache2-mod-fastcgi
a2enmod fastcgi
apache2ctl graceful

Now, your wiki should respond a little faster.

Running as an external application and/or on Windows

MoinMoin can be run as an external application that answers FastCGI request via a local TCP/IP socket. This works on Windows as well. All you need to do (after having installed mod_fastcgi and a working MoinMoin instance) is this:

1. Select a port number for the internal communication. It should be larger than 1023. For this example, we chose 8888 (just for fun).

2. Add the following lines to your httpd.conf:

   Alias /moin.fcg "/your/path/to/moin.fcg"
   FastCgiExternalServer "/your/path/to/moin.fcg" -host localhost:8888
   

3. Edit moin.fcg. Replace

   fcg = thfcgi.THFCGI(handle_request)
   

   with

   fcg = thfcgi.THFCGI(handle_request, 0, 8888)
   

4. Start the file moin.fcg manually like a Python script:

   python moin.fcg
   

5. Start Apache.

Fallback to CGI if FastCGI is not available

Install and test MoinMoin according to HelpOnInstalling/ApacheOnLinux. Then make and test the changes to run mod_fastcgi. If you are satisfied, you can add the following block to your apache config:

<IfModule !mod_fastcgi.c>
    ScriptAlias /mywiki "/your/path/to/moin.cgi"
</IfModule>
<IfModule mod_fastcgi.c>
    AddHandler fastcgi-script .fcg
    ScriptAlias /mywiki "/your/path/to/moin.fcg"
</IfModule>

Now Apache will use mod_fastcgi if available and otherwise use the slow cgi script.

Deploying on lighttpd

The best option is to run moin as external application. In this case, you don't need to restart the web server when you want to restart moin.

Configuration

fastcgi.server = ( "/mywiki" =>
                       ( "localhost" =>
                         (
                           "host" => "127.0.0.1",
                           "port" => 8888,
                           "check-local" => "disable",
                           "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable",
                         )
                       )
                   )

• You will see a lot of "2005-12-02 16:30:11: (mod_fastcgi.c.2373) FastCGI-stderr:" errors in

lighttpd's error log, the reason is not clear.

Starting MoinMoin instance

To start a MoinMoin instance, either follow the changes in "Running as an external application and/or on Windows" above, or run moin.fcg using spawn-fcgi (installed with lighttpd).

cd /www/org.mywiki/bin
sudo -u www /usr/local/bin/spawn-fcgi -f ./moin.fcg -P moin.pid

To stop the instance later:

sudo kill `cat moin.pid`

• Running spawn-fcgi as root and using -u www -g www fail because of Python ImportError, the reason is not clear. sudo -u www seems to have to same effect.

Multiple moin processes

If you start multiple moin instances on different ports, lighttpd balance the load automatically between them, using all the cpus.

Use this configuration:

fastcgi.server             = ( "/mywiki" =>
                               ( "localhost" =>
                                 ( "host" => "127.0.0.1", 
                                   "port" => 1080,
                                   "check-local" => "disable",
                                   "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable",
                                 ),
                                 ( "host" => "127.0.0.1", 
                                   "port" => 1081, 
                                   "check-local" => "disable",
                                   "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable",
                                 ),
                               )
                             )

Multiple moin processes automatically started by lighttpd

As an alternative to manually starting multiple processes of moin.fcg and assigning a distinct TCP port to each, this task can be delegated to lighttpd itself. The key is to specify "bin-path" option to fastcgi.server, and to allow multiple moin.fcg processes to be started as configured by "min-procs" and "max-procs" options. The hidden trick is that lighttpd will allocate successive TCP port numbers to each process, starting with "port". Tested with lighttpd 1.4.10.

Example:

fastcgi.server = (  "/mywiki" =>
  (( "docroot"   => "/",
     "min-procs" => 4,
     "max-procs" => 4,
     # allocate successive port numbers for each process, starting with "port"
     "bin-path"  => "/usr/local/bin/moin.fcg",
     "host"      => "127.0.0.1",
     "port"      => 2200,
     "check-local" => "disable",
     "broken-scriptfilename" => "enable",
  ))
)

MoinMoin Startup script

Here is a startup script for Mac OS X, using DarwinPortsStartup system. It is probably useful for other unix like platforms.

#!/bin/sh

# Start and stop multiple moin fast cgi instances runnings on PORTS

NAME="moin"
DIR="/www/org.mywiki/bin"
FCGIAPP="./moin.fcg"
PREFIX="/usr/local"

# List of ports to start moin instances on, separated with whitesapce
# Keep in sync with fastcgi.server in lighttpd.conf
PORTS="1080 1081"

start_on_port () {
    # Start moin instance on port, leaving pid file
    port=$1
    
    cd "${DIR}" && sudo -u www "${PREFIX}/bin/spawn-fcgi" \
        -f "${FCGIAPP}" \
        -p $port \
        -P "${NAME}-${port}.pid" \
        > /dev/null
}

kill_on_port () {
    # Try to kill process using pid in pid file, then remove the pid file
    pidFile="${DIR}/${NAME}-$1.pid"
    kill `cat "$pidFile"` && rm -f "$pidFile" > /dev/null 
}

start () {
    for port in $PORTS; do start_on_port $port; done 
}

stop () {
    for port in $PORTS; do kill_on_port $port; done
}

case "$1" in
start)
    # XXX starting twice will break pid files (bug in spawn-fcgi)
    start && echo -n " $NAME"
        ;;
stop)
        stop && echo -n " $NAME"
        ;;
restart)
    stop
    start && echo -n " $NAME"
        ;;
*)
        echo "Usage: `basename $0` {start|stop|restart}" >&2
        ;;
esac

exit 0

Adding MoinMoin startup script on Mac OS X

With this script, moin instances will be started automatically on startup.

1. Install darwinports

2. Install DarwinPortsStartup package:

   sudo port install DarwinPortsStartup
   

3. Copy moin.sh into /opt/local/etc/rc.d:

   sudo cp moin.sh /opt/local/etc/rc.d
   

Why Use mod_python

mod_python embeds the python interpreter into the apache server. This saves initialization time and the need of forking cgi scripts. It doesn't have the ability to run as different users. It will always run as the main apache user and group. Be sure that your wiki data files are accessible and writable by your apache server.

The basic configuration is suitable for mod_python 3.1.3 and later. If you use older version, see the section "Older mod_python versions"

mod_python will cause your apache processes to increase their memory requirements considerably - especially as apache runs many separate processes which will each need to have their own copy of the python code and data in the process memory space. You may find that FastCGI, as detailed in HelpOnInstalling/ApacheWithFastCgi is rather more efficient in this respect.

Basic configuring

1. Install mod_python
2. Set up a wiki instance

3. Edit wikiconfig.py

4. Changes to Apache httpd.conf

5. Restart Apache

The sample configurations below are for a wiki instance called mywiki installed in a directory /var/www/moin/mywiki with the main MoinMoin installation installed in python's default site library path. The wiki appears as URL /mywiki under the server - ie http://my.ser.ver/mywiki. You will need to change these to reflect your installation.

Install mod_python

Most people will just add a mod_python package to their current operating system installation. If you are building from source then you should consult the mod_python documentation.

The mod_python installation should have added some lines to the Apache configuration file - either in the file itself or in an included configuration file (for example on Red Hat or Fedora linux the mod_python configuration is in /etc/httpd/conf.d/python.conf).

Make sure you have this line in httpd.conf or mod_python will not work:

LoadModule python_module modules/mod_python.so

After this restart Apache and make sure that it starts successfully, and that the error log has a line similar to this:-

[Sat Jan 01 15:40:49 2005] [notice] mod_python: Creating 4 session mutexes based on 150 max processes and 0 max threads.

You may need to change some environment variables on (eg) FreeBSD - this is detailed in the port installation message.

Set up a wiki instance

This is done as shown in WikiInstanceCreation. Its recommended to first configure the wiki with cgi and check that it works, then change the configuratin to use mod_python. This allows you be sure that any problems are in the mod_python transition rather than the basic MoinMoin installation.

1. Copy moin.cgi into your wiki directory

2. Configure httpd.conf as cgi first:

   • Alias /wiki/ "/usr/share/moin/htdocs/"
     ScriptAlias /mywiki "/var/www/moin/mywiki/moin.cgi"
     

Restart Apache and make test that your wiki works.

Edit `wikiconfig.py`

Make sure you use only absolute paths - relative paths will not work!

data_dir = '/var/www/moin/mywiki/data/'
data_underlay_dir = '/var/www/moin/mywiki/underlay/'

If you do not want to use absolute paths, you can use Python's os module to construct the relative paths:

import os 
data_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'data/')
data_underlay_dir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'underlay/')

Test that the wiki works after this change.

• In 1.2 and earlyer, the configuration file is called moin_config.py.

Changes to Apache `httpd.conf`

After your wiki is running as cgi script, convert it to run with mod_python.

If you run your wiki as cgi as we recommended before, remove or comment the ScriptAlias directive:

#ScriptAlias /mywiki "/var/www/moin/mywiki/moin.cgi"

Add a Location directive:

<Location /mywiki>
    SetHandler python-program
    # Add the path of your wiki directory
    PythonPath "['/var/www/moin/mywiki'] + sys.path"
    PythonHandler MoinMoin.request::RequestModPy.run
</Location>

If you have multiple MoinMoin instances then add one location directive for each one (changing the paths as appropriate) and add a line with the directive PythonInterpreter mywiki to each Location section. With this directive different subinterpreters with completely separate namespaces will be used for each wiki (see here for details).

If you did not install MoinMoin in the default location, you will have to add the path to MoinMoin to the system path:

    PythonPath "['/var/www/moin/mywiki', '/prefix/lib/python2.x/site-packages'] + sys.path"

Restart Apache - everything should now work correctly.

Solving problems for non-root-mounted wikis

• If your wiki does not have a root URL (like http://www.example.com/FrontPage), then you might need to follow the next steps:

On some installations, mod_python hands MoinMoin incorrect script_name and path_info. It usually happens when using the Apache Location directive, with a wiki in an arbitary path:

<Location /farm/mywiki>
    ...
</Location>

This will not work, because its not clear what is the script name, since with location setup, there is no real script.

To solve this problem, use a PythonOption directive:

<Location /farm/mywiki>
    # Location value must match the Apache Location value!
    PythonOption Location /farm/mywiki
    ...
</Location>

• New in release 1.3.5

Configuring root wiki

You may wish to have your wiki appearing at the root of your webserver - for example so that http://wiki.example.com/ will map to your wiki rather than having to use http://wiki.example.com/mywiki/. This requires a slightly different form of configuration using mod_rewrite - this is a standard module of recent Apache distributions, and is often enabled by default.

You need to set up your wiki instance as described above, and also copy moinmodpy.py from the Moin installation directory to the wiki instance directory (/var/www/moin/mywiki in these examples).

The Apache configuration needs mod_rewrite enabled - so the line

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

should appear in the first part of the httpd.conf configuration file.

The wiki and virtual host configuration sould look like this:-

<VirtualHost *:80>
  ServerAdmin postmaster@example.com
  DocumentRoot /var/www/html
  ServerName wiki.example.com
  Alias /wiki/ "/usr/share/moin/htdocs/"

  # Rewrite urls
  RewriteEngine On
  RewriteLogLevel 0
  # map /wiki static files to Moin htdocs
  RewriteRule ^/wiki/(.*)$ /usr/share/moin/htdocs/$1 [last]
  RewriteRule ^/robots.txt$ /usr/share/moin/htdocs/robots.txt [last]
  RewriteRule ^/favicon.ico$ /usr/share/moin/htdocs/favicon.ico [last]
  # map everything else to server script
  RewriteRule ^(.*)$ /var/www/moin/mywiki/moinmodpy.py$1

  <Directory "/var/www/moin/testwiki">
    # Modpy stuff
    AddHandler python-program .py
    # Add the path to the wiki directory, where
    # moinmodpy.py and wikiconfig.py are located.
    PythonPath "['/var/www/moin/mywiki'] + sys.path"
    PythonHandler moinmodpy
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

Apache should be restarted, and the FrontPage of mywiki should now appear at http://wiki.example.com/.

Other ways of handling root level wikis with Apache are detailed in the appropriately named HelpOnConfiguration/ApacheVoodoo.

Older mod_python versions

mod_python versions 2.7.10, 3.0.4 and 3.1.2b have a bug in apache.resolve_object. This bug was reported to the mod_python