# 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 Basic Installation Next Steps (optional) Enable Authentication of Users Set TWiki Preferences Enable Email Notification Enable WebStatistics Install Plugins Troubleshooting Appendixes TWiki System Requirements Server Requirements Required CPAN Modules Optional CPAN Modules Client Requirements Important note about TWiki Plugins Notes on Installing TWiki on Non-Root Account # 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 the "cookbooks" list at TWiki:Codev.CategoryCookbook. If you are installing TWiki without Unix/Linux root (administrator) privileges, 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 Download the TWiki distribution from http://TWiki.org/download.html. Make a directory for the installation and unpack the distribution in it. 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. 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). 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. 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. 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`. 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. Under the `Security Settings` pane of `configure` : Select `TWiki::Client::TemplateLogin` for `{LoginManager}`. Select `TWiki::Users::HtPasswdUser` for `{PasswordManager}`. Save your `configure` settings. 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. Create a new topic to check if authentication works. 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. You are strongly encouraged to read `TWiki.TWikiUserAuthentication` 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: Confirm the Mail and Proxies settings in the Configure interface. Confirm the Email and Proxy Server Settings in the `TWikiPreferences` topic. 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. ## 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. Installation instructions for the other plugins can be found in the plugin topics on TWiki.org. # Troubleshooting The first step is to re-run the `configure` script and make sure you have resolved all errors, and are happy that you understand any warnings. Failing that, please check the topics listed below, they include some 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. 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 other servers, see the TWiki:Codev.CategoryCookbook lists
### Required CPAN Modules The following Perl 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: `chmod -R 755 pub` `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 5: 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.