Manual:Running MediaWiki on GNU/Linux

<-MediaWiki User's Guide: Running MediaWiki

Required software

 * Web server with PHP 4.1.2 or higher (4.3.x is preferred, see http://www.php.net/manual/en/install.unix.php)
 * A MySQL server. 4.0.x is preferred, but 3.2.x should work as well. (see http://dev.mysql.com/doc/mysql/en/Installing.html)

These instructions assume you are using Linux and Apache, and that LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) is already set up on your machine.

Configuration

 * 1) Download MediaWiki:  or see MediaWiki from CVS
 * 2) If you downloaded a gzipped file, unzip the source files in some directory: tar zxvf mediawiki-x.y.z.tar.gz
 * 3) The new web-based install does not require root access.  If for some reason you are using the old installation you might need to use commads such as: su - and mv /path_to_mediawiki_unzip_dir/
 * 4) Move the directory into your web directory: i.e. mv mediawiki-x.y.z /usr/local/apache/htdocs/wiki or mv mediawiki-x.y.z public_html/wiki.  Rename it the directory from "mediawiki-x.y.z" to something nice, like "wiki", since it'll be in your URL.
 * 5) To run the install script, you'll need to temporarily make the 'config' subdirectory writable by the web server. The simplest way to do this on a Unix/Linux system is to make it world-writable: chmod a+w config
 * 6) Hop into your browser and surf into the wiki directory. It'll direct you into the config script. Fill out the form...  remember you're probably not on an encrypted connection.  Gaaah! :)
 * 7) If all goes well, you should soon be told that it's set up your wiki database and written a configuration file. There should now be a 'LocalSettings.php' in the config directory; move it back up to the main wiki directory, and the wiki should now be working.
 * 8) Once the wiki is set up, you should remove the config directory, or at least make it not world-writable (though it will refuse to config again if the wiki is set up).

Old configuration

 * Change into your path: i.e. cd /usr/local/apache/htdocs
 * Read the wiki/INSTALL file since this may change from release to release
 * Start up Apache and MySQL if they are not running (this varies between distributions and setups, see their documentations for specifics)
 * Set permissions of the wiki/ directory (This needs to be made more specific and secure): i.e. chmod -R a+rwx wiki/</tt>
 * In your favorite browser, visit this config file for the install: i.e. mozilla http://www.example.net/wiki/config/index.php</tt>

Running a PHP Accelerator?
In some cases, when running 1.2.4, one may encounter problems during the install. If this happens, try disabling phpa by placing php_value phpa Off</tt> in .htaccess in the root directory of your install.


 * Running MediaWiki on Slackware Linux
 * Running MediaWiki on FreeBSD

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