Here are some quick instructions on how to download and install Pm Wiki. Improvements to these instructions would be greatly appreciated. If you encounter problems during installation process take a look at Trouble Shooting.

1. Download the latest version of PmWiki from http://www.pmwiki.org/pub/pmwiki/.

2. Extract the tar image using "tar xvfz pmwiki.tgz" (note that the tar file has to be extracted with the proper permissions set... see the note at the end of this page for more.). This will create a pmwiki-x.y.z directory which contains the PmWiki software. Rename this directory to "pmwiki" by executing "mv pmwiki-x.y.z pmwiki" . The files in this directory include

    COPYING            The GNU General Public License
    README             A small intro file
    local/             A directory for local configuration scripts
    pmwiki.php         Main PmWiki script
    pub/               Directory of publicly accessible files
      css/             Directory for generic .css files
      skins/           Directory of layout templates
    sample-config.php  A sample configuration file
    scripts/           Some scripts that extend the possibilities of PmWiki
    wikilib.d/         Directory containing some default PmWiki files

These files need to be placed where they can be accessed by a web server (e.g. in a public_html directory of some sort).

3. Temporarily change the permissions on the directory containing pmwiki.php directory to 2777. In Unix this is normally done by changing to the directory containing pmwiki.php and executing "chmod 2777 ." (note the dot at the end). This will (1) make the directory writable so the web server can create the data directory it needs for the wiki files, and (2) preserve group ownership of the directory so the installer account can manipulate the files created in this directory.

4. If you're running Apache version 2.0.30 or later, you may need to set the AcceptPathInfo directive to "on" for the pmwiki.php script. This can be as simple as adding

    AcceptPathInfo on

to either the .htaccess file in the directory containing pmwiki.php or the server's httpd.conf file. If changing the httpd.conf file, don't forget to restart Apache to have the change take effect.

For more on this issue, see Accept Path Info.

5. Open a web browser to the pmwiki.php script. When pmwiki.php is first executed, it creates the wiki.d directory for holding wiki pages with appropriate ownership and permissions. Once wiki.d has been created, the directory permissions can be set back to 755 or whatever you prefer to use (e.g., execute "chmod 755 .").

6. Installations of PmWiki onto Microsoft Windows platforms will want to look at PmWiki:WinDiff for additional packages to be loaded to enable Page History functionality. If your provider has put you in safe mode, you can use Cookbook:PHPDiffEngine to enable Page History.

7. Check out Initial Setup Tasks for other tasks you may want to perform to begin customizing your PmWiki installation. You might also want to peruse the Release Notes for further information.

(Note: It is important that the tar file (*.tar) is unpacked with the proper permissions set. For *nix operating systems, please check your permission mask by typing umask at the command-line. If it says anything other than "2", you'll need to change the permission mask by typing umask 002 at the command-line. Then unpack the tar file. If you do not do this the pmwiki.php script will not be able to make use of other files in the tree.)

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