Working topic for INSTALL.html included in root of TWiki04x00x00 release

Motivation

This intent for this document is to provide a stand-alone document with the Dakar release that provides as simple-as-possible instructions for getting TWiki up-and-running on a standard system (Apache/Linux), with links to TWiki.org for supplemental information. It also includes some additional notes for installing TWiki without root access (e.g. on a hosted domain).

Description

A brief note about how I'm producing this document. Since it describes how to install TWiki, it needs to be a static html document. What I've done is compose the topic within TWiki and then copy the source from the print view. Then I tweak a few items such as making the references to style sheets and graphics relative. After going through this a couple of times, I also found it easier to code links within the document using html and disabling the default sort feature on tables.

Presumably, after Dakar get's out the door, we'll figure out a more efficient method to produce this kind of static html document. For now, I intend to incorporate any last-minute suggestions and produce the final document for committing to SVN prior to the release deadline. So please add any comments or corrections before 7 pm GMT on 31 Jan 2005 (at least for this round).

Thanks!

-- LynnwoodBrown - 31 Jan 2006

Impact

Documentation

Documentation in progress, before it is merged into the TWiki web.

TWiki Installation Guide

The following is installation instructions for the TWiki Dakar production release on an Apache web server on Linux. Visit TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki for the latest updates to this guide and supplemental information for installing or upgrading TWiki, including notes on installing TWiki on other platforms.

Preparing to install TWiki

Before attempting to install TWiki, you are encouraged to review the TWiki:TWiki.AdminSkillsAssumptions. This guide assumes the person installing TWiki has, at a minimum, basic knowledge of server administration and cgi script management on the system on which TWiki is to be installed. While it is possible to install TWiki with ftp access alone (for example, on a hosted site), it is tricky and may require additional support from your hosting service (for example, in setting file ownership).

While this installation guide specifically describes installation on an Apache web server on Linux, TWiki should be fine with any web server and OS that meet the system requirements. For additional notes on installing TWiki on other systems, see TWiki:TWiki/InstallingTWiki#OtherPlatforms.

If you are installing TWiki without Unix/Linux root (administrator) privileges (for example, on a hosted domain), see Notes on Installing TWiki on Non-Root Account for supplemental instructions to the basic steps presented below.

If you need help, ask a question in the TWiki:Support web or on TWiki:Codev.TWikiIRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #twiki)

Basic Installation

1. Download the TWiki distribution from http://TWiki.org/download.html.
2. Make a directory for the installation and unpack the distribution in it.
3. Make sure the user that runs CGI scripts on your system can read and write all files in the distribution.
   Detailed instructions on file permissions are beyond the scope of this guide, but in general:
   • During installation and configuration, the CGI user needs to be able to read and write everything in the distribution,
   • Once installation and configuration is complete, the CGI user needs write access to everything under the data and pub directories and to lib/LocalSite.cfg. Everything else should be read-only.
   • Everybody else should be denied access to everything, always.
4. Make sure Perl 5 and the Perl CGI library are installed on your system.
   The default location of Perl is /usr/bin/perl. If it's somewhere else, change the path to Perl in the first line of each script in the twiki/bin directory.
   Some systems require a special extension on perl scripts (e.g. .cgi or .pl). If necessary, rename all files in twiki/bin (i.e. rename view to view.pl etc). If you do this, make sure you set the ScriptSuffix option in configure (Step 6).
5. Create the file /twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg.
   There is a template for this file in /twiki/bin/LocalLib.cfg.txt.
   The file must contain a setting for $twikiLibPath, which must point to the absolute file path of your twiki/lib e.g. /home/httpd/twiki/lib.
   If you need to install additional CPAN modules, but can't update the main Perl installation files on the server, you can set $CPANBASE to point to your personal CPAN install. Don't forget that the webserver user has to be able to read those files as well.
6. Configure the webserver so you can execute the bin/configure script from your browser.
   • If you are unsure about how to do this on your system, see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherPlatforms for links to information about various server setups. There is an example Apache httpd.conf file in twiki_httpd_conf.txt at the root of the package. This file also contains advice on securing your installation. There's also a script called tools/rewriteshebang.pl to help you in fixing up the shebang lines in your CGI scripts.
7. Run the configure script from your browser (i.e. enter http://yourdomain/twiki/bin/configure into your browser address bar) and resolve any errors or warnings it tells you about.
   When you run configure for the first time, remember to first set the General Path Settings, save these settings, and then return to configure to continue configuration.

You now have a basic, unauthenticated installation running. At this point you can just point your Web browser at http://yourdomain.com/twiki/bin/view and start TWiki-ing away!

Next Steps (optional)

Once you have TWiki installed and running, you might consider the following optional steps for setting up and customizing your TWiki site. Many of the references below refer to topics within your TWiki installation. For example, TWiki.TWikiSkins refers to the TWikiSkins topic in your TWiki web. If not available locally, you can find these topics in the on-line reference copy of TWiki Release 4.0.

Enable Authentication of Users

This step provides for site access control and user activity tracking on your TWiki site. This is particularly important for sites that are publicly accessible on the web. This guide describes only the most common of several possible authentication setups for TWiki and is suitable for public web sites. For information about other setups, see TWiki.TWikiUserAuthentication, and TWiki:TWiki.TWikiUserAuthenticationSupplement.

These are the steps for enabling "Template Login" which asks for a username and password in a web page, and processes them using the Apache 'htpasswd' password manager. Users can log in and log out.

1. Under the Security Settings pane of configure :
   1. Select TWiki::Client::TemplateLogin for {LoginManager}.
   2. Select TWiki::Users::HtPasswdUser for {PasswordManager}.
   3. Save your configure settings.
2. Create an empty file called .htpasswd in the data directory.
3. Register yourself using the TWiki.TWikiRegistration topic.
   Check that the password manager recognizes the new user. Check that a new line with the username and encrypted password is added to the data/.htpasswd file. If not, you probably got a path wrong, or the permissions may not allow the webserver user to write to that file.
4. Edit a topic (by clicking on the Edit link at beginning or end of topic) to check if authentication works.
5. Edit the Main.TWikiAdminGroup topic to include users with system administrator status. Additional instructions are provided in that topic.
   This is a very important step, as users in this group can access all topics, independent of TWiki access controls.
6. Clear admin notes: Some pages are meant to be customized after choice of authentication - check and update these topics (remove notices): Main.TWikiAdminGroup, TWiki.ChangePassword, TWiki.ResetPassword, and TWiki.ChangeEmailAddress.

You are strongly encouraged to read TWiki.TWikiUserAuthentication, TWiki:TWiki/TWikiUserAuthenticationSupplement, and TWiki:TWiki/SecuringTWikiSite for further information about managing users and security of your TWiki site.

Set TWiki Preferences

Preferences for customizing many aspects of TWiki are set simply by editing a special topic with TWiki.

• Edit TWiki.TWikiPreferences. Read through it and set any additional settings you think you might need. (You can click the 'Edit' button near the top to edit the settings in place).
• Alternately, you can copy any settings or variables that you want to customize from TWiki.TWikiPreferences and paste them into Main.TWikiPreferences. This will protect your local customizations from being overwritten in later upgrades. See notes at top of TWiki.TWikiPreferences for more information.

Enable Email Notification

Each TWiki web has an automatic email notification service that sends you an email with links to all of the topics modified since the last alert. To enable this service:

1. Confirm the Mail and Proxies settings in the Configure interface.
2. Confirm the Email and Proxy Server Settings in the TWikiPreferences topic.
3. Setup a cron job (or equivalent) to call the bin/mailnotify script as described in the TWiki.MailerContrib topic.

Enable WebStatistics

You can generate a listing manually, or on an automated schedule, of visits to individual pages, on a per web basis. For information on setting up this feature, see the TWiki.TWikiSiteTools topic.

Enable Localisation

TWiki now supports displaying of international (non-ASCII) characters and presentation of basic interface elements that have been translated into various languages. To enable these features, see the Localisation section of configure. For more information about these features, see TWiki:TWiki.InternationalizationSupplement.

Install Plugins

TWiki:Plugins is an extensive library of Plugins for TWiki, that enhance functionality in a huge number of ways. A few plugins are pre-installed in the TWiki distribution. For more information on these, see TWiki.InstalledPlugins. Installation instructions for the other plugins can be found in the plugin topics on TWiki.org. Additional documenation on TWiki plugins can be found at TWiki:TWiki.TWikiPluginsSupplement.

Customize your TWiki!

The real power of TWiki lies in it's flexibility to be customized to meet your needs. A good place to start for exploring what's possible is TWiki:TWiki/TWikiAdminCookBook which offers tips and tricks for customizing your TWiki site. Many of these are appropriate to implement immediately after installing TWiki and before adding content so now's a good time to look at these. If you would like to customize the look of your TWiki, see TWiki:TWiki.TWikiSkinsSupplement.

Troubleshooting

The first step is to re-run the configure script and make sure you have resolved all errors, and are satisfied that you understand any warnings.

Failing that, please check the topics listed below which include important tips for HP-UX, Solaris, OS/390, and many other platforms.

• For Unix or Linux, check TWiki:Codev/TWikiOnUnix and TWiki:Codev/TWikiOnLinux.
• For Windows, check the TWiki:Codev/WindowsInstallCookbook.
• For MacOS X, check TWiki:Codev/TWikiOnMacOSX.
• To install TWiki on SourceForge, for use on a software development project, read TWiki:Codev/TWikiOnSourceForge
• For other platforms, see TWiki:Codev/TWikiOn, and search the TWiki:Codev and TWiki:Support webs for other installation notes.

It is also advisable to review TWiki:Codev/KnownIssuesOfTWiki04x00x00.

If you need help, ask a question in the TWiki:Support web or on TWiki:Codev/TWikiIRC (irc.freenode.net, channel #twiki)

Appendixes

TWiki System Requirements

Low client and server base requirements are core features that keep TWiki widely deployable, particularly across a range of browser platforms and versions.

Server Requirements

TWiki is written in Perl 5, uses a number of shell commands, and requires RCS (Revision Control System), a GNU Free Software package. TWiki is developed in a basic Linux/Apache environment. It also works with Microsoft Windows, and should have no problem on any other platform that meets the requirements.

Resource	Required Server Environment *
Perl	5.005_03 or higher (5.8.4 or higher is recommended)
RCS	5.7 or higher (including GNU diff) Optional, TWiki includes a pure perl implementation of RCS that can be used instead (although it's slower)
GNU diff	GNU diff 2.7 or higher is required when not using the all-Perl RcsLite. Install on PATH if not included with RCS (check version with diff -v) Must be the version used by RCS, to avoid problems with binary attachments - RCS may have hard-coded path to diff
Other external programs	fgrep, egrep
Cron/scheduler	• Unix: cron • Windows: cron equivalents
Web server	Apache is well supported; for information on other servers, see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#OtherWebServers.

Required CPAN Modules

The following Perl CPAN modules are used by TWiki:

Module	Preferred version
Algorithm::Diff (included)
CGI::Carp	>=1.26
Config	>=0
Cwd	>=3.05
Data::Dumper	>=2.121
Error (included)
File::Copy	>=2.06
File::Find	>=1.05
File::Spec	>=3.05
FileHandle	>=2.01
IO::File	>=1.10
Text::Diff (included)
Time::Local	>=1.11

Optional CPAN Modules

The following Perl modules may be used by TWiki:

Module	Preferred version	Description
CGI::Cookie	>=1.24	Used for session support
CGI::Session	>=3.95	Used for session support
Digest::base
Digest::SHA1
Jcode		Used for I18N support with perl 5.6
Locale::Maketext::Lexicon	>=0	Used for I18N support
Net::SMTP	>=2.29	Used for sending mail
Unicode::Map		Used for I18N support with perl 5.6
Unicode::Map8		Used for I18N support with perl 5.6
Unicode::MapUTF8		Used for I18N support with perl 5.6
Unicode::String		Used for I18N support with perl 5.6
URI		Used for configure

Most of them will probably already be available in your installation. You can check version numbers with the configure script, or if you're still trying to get to that point, check from the command line like this:

perl -e 'use FileHandle; print $FileHandle::VERSION."\n"'

Client Requirements

The TWiki standard installation has relatively low browser requirements:

• HTML 3.2 compliant
• Cookies, if persistent sessions are required

CSS and Javascript are used in most skins, although there is a low-fat skin (Classic skin) available that minimises these requirements. Some skins will require more recent releases of browsers. The default skin (Pattern) is tested on IE 6, Safari, and Mozilla 5.0 based browsers (such as Firefox).

You can easily select a balance of browser capability versus look and feel. Try the installed skins at TWiki/TWikiSkinBrowser and more at TWiki:Plugins.SkinPackage.

Important note about TWiki Plugins

• Plugins can require just about anything - browser-specific functions, stylesheets (CSS), Java applets, cookies, specific Perl modules,... - check the individual Plugin specs.
  • Note: Plugins included in the TWiki distribution do not add requirements, except for the CommentPlugin which requires Perl 5.6.1.

Notes on Installing TWiki on Non-Root Account

The following supplemental notes to the Basic Installation instructions apply to installing TWiki on a system where you don't have Unix/Linux root (administrator) privileges, for example, on a hosted Web account or an intranet server administered by someone else.

Referring to the Basic Installation steps presented above:

• Step 2: If you cannot unpack the TWiki distribution directly in your installation directory, you can unpack the distribution on your local PC and then manually create the directory structure on your host server and upload the files as follows:
  • Using the table below, create a directory structure on your host server
  • Upload the TWiki files by FTP (transfer as text except for the image files in pub directory.)
  • Note: Don't worry if you are not able to put the twiki/lib directory at the same level as the twiki/bin directory (e.g. because CGI bin directories can't be under your home directory and you don't have root access). You can create this directory elsewhere and configure the twiki/bin/setlib.cfg file (done in Step 2).

TWiki dir:	What it is:	Where to copy:	Example:
twiki	start-up pages	root TWiki dir	/home/smith/twiki/
twiki/bin	CGI bin	CGI-enabled dir	/home/smith/twiki/bin
twiki/lib	library files	same level as twiki/bin	/home/smith/twiki/lib
twiki/locale	language files	dir secure from public access	/home/smith/twiki/locale
twiki/pub	public files	htdoc enabled dir	/home/smith/twiki/pub
twiki/data	topic data	dir secure from public access	/home/smith/twiki/data
twiki/templates	web templates	dir secure from public access	/home/smith/twiki/templates
twiki/tools	TWiki utlilities	dir secure from public access	/home/smith/twiki/tools

• Step 3: Files in the pub directory must be readable as a url. This means that directory permissions should be set to 755 (or 775 ) and file permissions should be set to 644 (or 664). If you can run a chmod command, you can accomplish this in two quick steps by running these commands from the root direct:
  1. chmod -R 755 pub
  2. chmod 644 `find pub -type f -print`
     • In addition, you should create a .htaccess file in the pub directory, using the template included in the root level of the distribution entitled pub-htaccess.txt.
     • Note: This setup does not provide for absolute security for TWiki attachments. For more information, see TWiki:Codev.SecuringYourTWiki.
• Step 6: In order to run the configure script, create a file called .htaccess in the bin directory that includes the following single line: SetHandler cgi-script . This informs the server to treat all the perl scripts in the bin directory as scripts.

For additional information about installing TWiki on a hosted accounts, see TWiki:TWiki.InstallingTWiki#WebHostingSites

Implementation

Any comments on how the documentation is written or could be improved

---

Discussion

This looks good!

It does seem to be missing the internationalisation setup that was there for CairoRelease - see http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki03/TWikiInstallationGuide#Step_4_Internationalisation_Setu

• I think it has changed. Now the setup is done through the configure interface. -- LB

I don't think any of this has changed (i.e. InternationalisationEnhancements stuff for accented characters etc), so it could be just be cloned and used as-is.

It would also be good to add pointers to configuration of the UserInterfaceInternationalisation parts.

Neither of these have to be in the Install.html file but jumping-off points would be good.

• See the short note I added above under Enable Localisation . We've also added a new entry topic for this in TWiki web where we'll add links to additional information about these features. - LB_

Also, the list of CPAN modules should include all those tested by configure - CPAN:CGI is not included, but I know testenv did recommend a version number, so configure should do so as well.

• Sorry, Richard, but I ran out of time before I could figure this one for now. We'll catch it on next update. LB

-- RichardDonkin - 31 Jan 2006

Thanks, Richard, for the input! See my comments above.

-- LynnwoodBrown - 31 Jan 2006

For anyone writing the I18N sections - as you point out, configure does change things, but mainly it's just the syntax of the settings, and it can all be done via the web interface now.

Also, http://twiki.org/cgi-bin/view/TWiki03/TWikiInstallationGuide#Step_4_Internationalisation_Setu has a more recent version including some extra troubleshooting tips and other fixes that I wrote since CairoRelease.

-- RichardDonkin - 31 Jan 2006