TWiki Installation Notes

These installation steps use the Apache web server on Linux as an example. TWiki should run on other web servers and Unix systems as well. (TWiki on Windows is possible, but has not been documented well. More on that at http://TWiki.org/cgi-bin/view/Codev/TWikiOnWindows )

Note: Below installation steps assume user nobody for all files manupulated by the cgi scripts (executed by the web server), and user twiki for all other files. You need to replace user nobody with an other user in case the web server executes the script with a different user ( default for Debian is www-data ). Also, you can substitute user twiki with your own user name.

Note: Below installation steps assume that you have control over the web server configuraton files. In case you don't (i.e. if you are installing it on a hosted server) follow the steps but use these directories instead:

Installation steps

• Request the TWiki distribution (in Unix ZIP format) from http://TWiki.org/download.html .
• Create directory /home/httpd/twiki and unzip the TWiki distribution into this directory.
• The twiki/bin directory of TWiki must be set as a cgi-bin directory. Add /home/httpd/twiki/bin to file /etc/httpd/httpd.conf with only ExecCGI option.
• The twiki/pub directory of TWiki must be set so that it is visible as a URL. Add /home/httpd/twiki to file httpd.conf with normal access options (copy from /home/httpd/html ).
• Now add ScriptAlias for /twiki/bin and Alias for /twiki to file httpd.conf .
  Note: The ScriptAlias must come before the Alias in Apache, otherwise it will fail to correctly set up /twiki/bin/ , due to the fact that it sees that as being just another subdirectory of the /twiki/ alias.
  
• Here are example httpd.conf entries:

   ScriptAlias /twiki/bin/ "/home/httpd/twiki/bin/"
   Alias /twiki/ "/home/httpd/twiki/"
   <Directory "/home/httpd/twiki/bin">
  	 Options +ExecCGI
  	 SetHandler cgi-script
  	 Allow from all
   </Directory>
   <Directory "/home/httpd/twiki/pub">
  	 Options FollowSymLinks +Includes
  	 AllowOverride None
  	 Allow from all
   </Directory>

• Restart Apache by /etc/rc.d/rc5.d/S85httpd restart .
• Test if the twiki/bin directory is cgi-enabled:
  • Enter the URL of that directory into your browser ( http://your.domain.com/twiki/bin ). It is not set correctly as cgi-bin in case you get something like "Index of /twiki/bin" . It is OK if you get a message like "Forbidden. You don't have permission to access /twiki/bin/ on this server."
  • Execute the testenv script from your browser ( http://your.domain.com/twiki/bin/testenv ). It shows a table with all CGI environment variables and tests the settings in your twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm configuration file.
• Make sure PERL 5 and the PERL CGI library is installed on your system. Default location of PERL executable is /usr/bin/perl . In case PERL is installed in a different location, the first line of all perl scripts in the twiki/bin directory need to be changed (alternatively you can create a symbolic link from /usr/bin/perl ).
• To be able to edit the perl scripts and .tmpl files it is necessary to chown and chgrp -R twiki so all the files have the owner you want.
• The scripts execute as nobody . Set the file permission of all Perl scripts in the twiki/bin directory as executable to -rwxr-xr-x .
• Set the permission of all files below twiki/data so that they are writable by user nobody. A simple way is to chmod them to 666 ( -rw-rw-rw- ).
• Set the permission of the twiki/data directory and all its subdirectories so that files in there are writable by user nobody. A simple way is to chmod them to 777 ( drwxrwxrwx ).
• Set the permission of the twiki/pub directory and all its subdirectories so that files in there are writable by user nobody. A simple way is to chmod them to 777 ( drwxrwxrwx ).
• Edit the file twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm and set the variables at the beginning of the file to your needs.
• Make sure RCS is installed. Set $rcsDir in twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm to mach the location of your RCS binaries.
• Point your browser at http://your.domain.com/twiki/bin/view and start TWiki-ing away!
• Using your browser, edit the TWikiPreferences topic in the TWiki.TWiki web to set the WIKIWEBMASTER email address, the WEBCOPYRIGHT message and other preferences.
• Note in case the cgi scripts must have a file extension like .pl or .cgi:
  • Add the extension to all the scripts (except for the .pm ones) in twiki/bin
  • Edit wikicfg.pm and set the file extension in the $scriptSuffix variable.
  • If you use .htaccess, edit the file and add the file extension to edit, view, preview, etc.
• Note in case the cgi scripts are not running as user nobody: The *,v RCS repository files delivered with the installation package are locked by user nobody . In case the user is different (e.g. www-data ), it is not possible to check in files, this has the effect that the topic version number does not increase when saving a topic. In this case you need to unlock all repository files and lock them as user www-data (check the rcs man pages), or simply delete all the repository files. A simple way to switch the locker of the RCS files is to use sed:
  for f in *,v; do sed 's/nobody\:/www-data\:/' $f > x; mv x $f; done
• Security issue: Directories twiki/data , twiki/templates and all its subdirectories should be set so that they are not visible as a URL. (Alternatively, move the directries to a place where they are not visible, and change the variables in twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm accordingly)
• Enable email notification of topic changes, Notification of Changes has more. Using your browser, edit also the WebNotify topic in all webs and set the users you want to notify.
• Add the TWiki:Main.PoweredByTWikiLogo to your Main topic.

• Optional: You can add new rendering rules or new %VARIABLES%. To insure an easy upgrade of TWiki it is recommended to do this customization in twiki/bin/wikicfg.pm , not twiki/bin/wiki.pm .

• Optional: If you are on a non authenticated server (i.e. not using SSL) and you would like to authenticate users:
  • Rename file .htaccess.txt in the twiki/bin directory to .htaccess and change it to your needs. For details consult the HTTP server documentation (for Apache server: [1], [2]). Note: In case .htaccess does not have any effect you need to enable it: Add "AllowOverride All" to the Directory section of access.conf for your twiki/bin directory.
  • Copy the TWikiRegistrationPub? topic to TWikiRegistration. You can customize the topic if needed. Note: You can delete or add new input tags to the registration form. The name="" parameter of the input tags must start with: "Twk0..." (if this is an optional entry), or "Twk1..." (if this is a required entry). This will ensure that the fields are processed correctly.

• Optional: You can automatically generate usage statistics for all webs. To enable this:
  • Make sure variable $doLogTopicView, $doLogTopicSave and $doLogTopicUpload in wikicfg.pm are set. This will generate log entries in file twiki/data/log<date>.txt .
  • Topic WebStatistics must be present in all webs where you want to have statistics. You can use the topic in the Main web as a template.
  • Call the twiki/bin/statistics script from a cron job, once a day is recommended. This will update the WebStatistics topics in all webs.
  • Attention: The script must run as the same user as the CGI scripts are running, which is user nobody on most systems. Example crontab entry:
    0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/TWiki/bin; ./statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
  • There is a workaround in case you can't run the script as user nobody : Run the utility twiki/bin/geturl in your cron job and specify the URL of the twiki/bin/statistics script as a parameter. Example:
    0 0 * * * (cd /path/to/TWiki/bin; ./geturl mydomain.com /urlpath/to/TWiki/bin/statistics >/dev/null 2>&1)
  • The twiki/bin/statistics script can also be executed as a CGI script, just enter the URL in your browser. Examples:
    • Update current month for all webs:
      http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics
    • Update current month for Main web only:
      http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics/Main
    • Update January 2000 for Main web:
      http://mydomain.com/twiki/bin/statistics/Main?logdate=200001

• To create a new web:
  • Use a name for the web consisting of characters A..Z , a..z but not in WikiNotation.
  • Create a new template directory under twiki/templates .
  • Create a new data directory under twiki/data and check the file permission of the directory.
  • Copy the Web*.txt files from the twiki/data/Main directory to the new data directory, preserving the original files' owner, group and permissions ( on Unix use cp -p ). The data files must be writable by the owner the CGI scripts are running on ( usually nobody ). Hint: You can set permissions of .txt and .txt,v files to -rw-rw-rw- and then edit the topic using your browser, RCS will restore the file permission correctly when saving the topic.
  • Add the new web to the web list (visible in the upper right corner of each topic) by editing the site-level preferences TWikiPreferences:
    • Add the new web to the WIKIWEBLIST variable.
  • Add the new web to the web table (at the bottom of each WebHome topic) by editing the TWikiWebsTable topic.
  • Change the web preferences by editing the WebPreferences topic of the new web:
    • Set the WEBBGCOLOR variable to a color of your taste. The number represents the unique color for the web (consult an HTML book for colors.)
    • Customize the WEBTOPICLIST variable to contain the web specific links you prefer.
    • Optional: Set the WEBCOPYRIGHT variable to have a web-specific copyright text (at the bottom of each topic).
  • If needed, create customized templates in the new templates directory. (Non existing templates are inherited from twiki/templates )
  • If you want to use a category table, copy the three files twikicatitems.tmpl , twikicatedit.tmpl and twikicatview.tmpl from the twiki/templates/Know directory to the new templates directory, and customize it. More on that in TWiki Category Table.
  • In case you want usage statistics for this web: Copy file WebStatistics.txt from the twiki/data/Main directory to the new data directory. Edit topic WebStatistics in the new web and delete old usage entries.
  • Note that user home topics are only located in the TWiki.Main web, so don't try to move them or create them in other webs. From any web you can refer to users located in the TWiki.Main web like Main.UserName or %MAINWEB%.UserName.

Contents of Directories

Here are contents of directories showing file permissions. Please note that this is for debugging reasons only and does not exactly reflect the distribution:

Directory twiki/bin :

drwxrwxr-x	2 twiki twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:34 .
drwxrwxr-x	3 twiki twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:34 ..
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 650 Feb 10  2000 .htaccess
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	4322 Mar 12 00:31 attach
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	1426 Jun 20 19:52 delete
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	9001 Jul 28 11:03 edit
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	1811 Mar 11 02:27 geturl
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	5006 Mar 11 02:41 mailnotify
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	1769 Mar 11 03:07 oops
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	6890 Jun 21 19:58 preview
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	7606 Mar 31 18:30 rdiff
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	8349 Jun 21 18:12 register
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	2693 Jul  5 14:32 save
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	3831 Jul 20 12:13 search
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	9835 Jun 20 19:03 statistics
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	 509 Feb  7  2000 testenv
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki  14543 Jul 20 18:46 upload
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	4755 May 22 18:11 view
-rwxrwxr-x	1 twiki twiki	1689 Jun 20 20:10 viewfile
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki  34123 Nov  1 15:43 wiki.pm
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	7234 Oct 23 00:34 wikiaccess.pm
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki  11719 Oct 28 21:58 wikicfg.pm
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	6441 Nov  1 23:13 wikiprefs.pm
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki  13160 Oct 27 14:53 wikisearch.pm
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki  10540 Oct 28 21:43 wikistore.pm

Directory twiki/templates/ :

drwxrwxr-x	4 twiki twiki	4096 Aug  3 01:17 .
drwxrwxr-x	4 twiki twiki	4096 Aug 19 18:38 ..
drwxrwxr-x	2 twiki twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:35 Know
drwxrwxr-x	2 twiki twiki	4096 May  1 01:24 Main
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	2688 Aug 15 18:15 attach.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1283 Jul 20 15:56 attachtable.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1907 Jul 28 16:41 changes.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	2265 Aug 15 17:57 edit.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 965 Feb  8  2000 mailnotify.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	  30 Jan 13  1999 notedited.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 940 Jul 20 15:59 notext.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 907 Jul 20 16:01 notwiki.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 341 Mar  8 11:39 noweb.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1000 Mar  8 11:40 oops.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1043 Oct 23 19:17 oopsaccesschange.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1036 Oct 23 19:17 oopsaccessview.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 914 Mar  8 11:40 oopsdel.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1423 May 29 01:23 oopslocked.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1067 Mar  8 11:41 oopsregexist.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 955 Mar  8 11:41 oopsregpasswd.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 966 Mar  8 11:41 oopsregrequ.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1244 Apr 28 17:11 oopsregthanks.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1003 Jul 22 12:48 oopsregwiki.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1607 Mar  8 11:42 oopsrev.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 949 Mar  8 11:43 oopsupload.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1735 Aug 15 18:14 preview.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1682 Aug 15 18:14 rdiff.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 530 Jul 22 12:10 register.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	 690 Apr 28 16:53 registernotify.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1900 Aug 15 18:15 search.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1785 Aug 15 18:15 searchbookview.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki twiki	1559 Aug 19 02:53 view.tmpl

Directory twiki/templates/Know (has a TWiki Category Table) :

drwxrwxr-x	2 twiki	twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:35 .
drwxrwxr-x	4 twiki	twiki	4096 Aug  3 01:17 ..
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 446 Jun  7  1999 notedited.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 206 Jun  7  1999 twikicatedit.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	1068 Aug 18 18:26 twikicatitems.tmpl
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 231 Jun  7  1999 twikicatview.tmpl

Directory twiki/data/ :

drwxrwxrwx	6 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug  3 01:09 .
drwxrwxr-x	4 twiki	twiki	4096 Aug 19 18:38 ..
-rw-rw-r--	1 nobody  nobody	 51 Apr 21 16:48 .htpasswd
drwxrwxrwx	2 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug 20 17:18 Know
drwxrwxrwx	2 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug 19 04:15 Main
drwxrwxrwx	2 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug 20 17:56 TWiki
-rw-rw-rw-	1 twiki	twiki		1 Mar 11 04:19 debug.txt
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  1516 Aug 20 17:56 log200008.txt

Part of directory twiki/data/Main :

drwxrwxrwx	2 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug 19 04:15 .
drwxrwxrwx	6 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug  3 01:09 ..
-rw-rw-rw-	1 twiki twiki	  3716 Aug 19 02:19 .changes
-rw-rw-rw-	1 twiki twiki		  9 Aug 19 02:45 .mailnotify
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	358 Aug 18 17:22 OfficeLocations.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	878 Aug 18 17:22 OfficeLocations.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	680 Aug 18 17:36 TWikiGuest.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  1989 Aug 18 17:36 TWikiGuest.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	459 Aug 18 17:19 TWikiUsers.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  3840 Aug 18 17:19 TWikiUsers.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	 95 Aug 19 03:06 WebChanges.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	284 Aug 19 03:06 WebChanges.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  1853 Aug 18 18:08 WebHome.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  6523 Aug 18 18:08 WebHome.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	 56 Aug 18 17:21 WebIndex.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	245 Aug 18 17:21 WebIndex.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	495 Aug 18 17:40 WebNotify.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  1896 Aug 18 17:40 WebNotify.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  1904 Aug 19 01:01 WebPreferences.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  3108 Aug 19 01:01 WebPreferences.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  5553 Aug 19 02:30 WebSearch.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  8406 Aug 19 02:30 WebSearch.txt,v
-rw-r--r--	1 nobody  nobody	729 Aug 18 17:41 WebStatistics.txt
-r--r--r--	1 nobody  nobody  1129 Aug 18 17:41 WebStatistics.txt,v

Directory twiki/pub/ :

drwxrwxrwx	6 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug  3 01:21 .
drwxrwxr-x	3 twiki	twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:35 ..
drwxrwxrwx	3 nobody  nobody  4096 Jun 17 16:35 Know
drwxrwxrwx	2 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug  3 01:21 Main
drwxrwxrwx	3 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug  3 01:21 TWiki
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	1078 Jan 14  2000 favicon.ico
drwxrwxr-x	2 twiki	twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:35 icn
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	3016 Oct  5  1999 twikilogo.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	5320 Oct  5  1999 twikilogo1.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	6125 Oct  5  1999 twikilogo2.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	7218 Oct  5  1999 twikilogo3.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	6710 Oct  5  1999 twikilogo4.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	2877 Jun  7  1999 wikiHome.gif

Directory twiki/pub/icn/ :

drwxrwxr-x	2 twiki	twiki	4096 Jun 17 16:35 .
drwxrwxrwx	6 nobody  nobody  4096 Aug  3 01:21 ..
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 801 Mar 26  1999 _filetypes.txt
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 143 Mar  9  1999 bat.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 926 Mar  9  1999 bmp.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 141 Mar 25  1999 c.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 144 Mar  9  1999 dll.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 152 Mar  9  1999 doc.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 130 Mar  9  1999 else.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 876 Mar 26  1999 exe.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 147 Mar  9  1999 fon.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 142 Mar 25  1999 h.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 156 Mar  9  1999 hlp.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 186 Mar  9  1999 html.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 144 Mar 25  1999 java.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 148 Mar  9  1999 mov.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 150 Mar  9  1999 pdf.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 146 Mar 25  1999 pl.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 150 Mar  9  1999 ppt.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 148 Mar 25  1999 ps.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 148 Mar 25  1999 py.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 130 Mar  9  1999 ram.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 154 Mar  9  1999 reg.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 147 Mar 25  1999 sh.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 155 Mar  9  1999 sniff.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 149 Mar  9  1999 ttf.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 134 Mar  9  1999 txt.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 154 Mar  9  1999 wav.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 152 Mar  9  1999 wri.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 152 Mar  9  1999 xls.gif
-rw-rw-r--	1 twiki	twiki	 144 Mar  9  1999 zip.gif

-- PeterThoeny - 16 Mar 2001