MediaWiki - ArchWiki

# MediaWiki

Note: If you are using xampp, instead of LAMP, there are different steps you need to take after installing. More info here

## Installation

You need to have a web server, such as Apache installed, configured to be able to use PHP.

Install the php-gd, php-intl and mediawiki, all available from the official repositories.

You will also need a database, such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, or sqlite (php-sqlite and sqlite).

## Configuration

The steps to achieve a working MediaWiki configuration involve editing the PHP settings and adding the MediaWiki configuration snippets.

### PHP

First, adjust the `open_basedir` in `/etc/php/php.ini` to include the mediawiki data directory (`/var/lib/mediawiki` by default):

    /etc/php/php.ini

    open_basedir = /srv/http/:/home/:/tmp/:/usr/share/pear/:/usr/share/webapps/:/var/lib/mediawiki/

Then, also in `/etc/php/php.ini`, uncomment the following lines: (in the `Dynamic Extensions` section)

    extension=gd.so
    extension=intl.so

Note:

- If you would like to use SQLite as database, also uncomment `extension=pdo_sqlite.so` if using MariaDB uncomment `extension=mysqli.so`.
- Since MediaWiki 1.24, it is necessary to also uncomment `extension=iconv.so`.

Second, tweak the session handling or you might get a fatal error (`PHP Fatal error: session_start(): Failed to initialize storage module[...]`) by finding the `session.save_path` path. A good choice can be `/var/lib/php/sessions` or `/tmp/`.

    /etc/php/php.ini

    session.save_path = "/var/lib/php/sessions"

You will need to create the directory if it doesn't exist and then restrict its permissions:

    # mkdir -p /var/lib/php/sessions/
    # chown http:http /var/lib/php/sessions
    # chmod go-rwx /var/lib/php/sessions

### Web server

#### Apache

Copy `/etc/webapps/mediawiki/apache.example.conf` to `/etc/httpd/conf/extra/mediawiki.conf` and edit it as needed.

Add the following lines to `/etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf`

    Include conf/extra/mediawiki.conf

Restart the `httpd.service` daemon.

#### Nginx

To get MediaWiki working with Nginx, create the following file:

    /etc/nginx/mediawiki.conf

    location / {
       index index.php;
       try_files $uri $uri/ @mediawiki;
    }
    location @mediawiki {
       rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?title=$1&$args;
    }
    location ~ \.php5?$ {
       include /etc/nginx/fastcgi_params;
       fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/php-fpm/php-fpm.sock;
       fastcgi_index index.php5;
       fastcgi_param  SCRIPT_FILENAME  $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
       try_files $uri @rewrite;
    }
    location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
       try_files $uri /index.php;
       expires max;
       log_not_found off;
    }
    # Restrictions based on the .htaccess files
    location ^~ ^/(cache|includes|maintenance|languages|serialized|tests|images/deleted)/ {
       deny all;
    }
    location ^~ ^/(bin|docs|extensions|includes|maintenance|mw-config|resources|serialized|tests)/ {
       internal;
    }
    location ^~ /images/ {
       try_files $uri /index.php;
    }
    location ~ /\. {
       access_log off;
       log_not_found off;
       deny all;
    }

Ensure that php-fpm is installed and started.

Include a server directive, similar to this

    /etc/nginx/nginx.conf

    server {
      listen 80;
      server_name mediawiki;
      root /usr/share/webapps/mediawiki;
      index index.php;
      charset utf-8;
    # For correct file uploads
      client_max_body_size    100m; # Equal or more than upload_max_filesize in /etc/php/php.ini
      client_body_timeout     60;
      include mediawiki.conf;

    }

Finally, restart the `nginx.service` daemon.

#### Lighttpd

You should have Lighttpd installed and configured. "mod_alias" and "mod_rewrite" in server.modules array of lighttpd is required. Append to the lighttpd configuration file the following lines

    /etc/lighttpd/lighttpd.conf

    alias.url += ("/mediawiki" => "/usr/share/webapps/mediawiki/")
    url.rewrite-once += (
                    "^/mediawiki/wiki/upload/(.+)" => "/mediawiki/wiki/upload/$1",
                    "^/mediawiki/wiki/$" => "/mediawiki/index.php",
                    "^/mediawiki/wiki/([^?]*)(?:\?(.*))?" => "/mediawiki/index.php?title=$1&$2"
    )

Restart the `lighttpd.service` daemon.

### LocalSettings.php

Open the wiki url (is `http://your_server/mediawiki/`) in a browser and do the initial setup to create `LocalSettings.php`. Then save it to `/usr/share/webapps/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php`.

## Tips and tricks

### Mathematics (texvc)

Usually installing texvc and enabling it in the config are enough:

    $wgUseTeX = true;

If you get problems, try to increase limits for shell commands:

    $wgMaxShellMemory = 8000000;
    $wgMaxShellFileSize = 1000000;
    $wgMaxShellTime = 300;

### Unicode

Check that php, apache and mysql uses UTF-8. Otherwise you may face strange bugs because of encoding mismatch.

### VisualEditor

After following this instruction on how to install the VisualEditor, you need a backend nodejs application on your server, called Parsoid, to get it finally working.

Simply install parsoid-git from the AUR and adjust the path to your MediaWiki in following file:

    /usr/share/webapps/parsoid/api/localsettings.js

    parsoidConfig.setInterwiki( 'localhost', 'http://localhost/mediawiki/api.php' );

After that simply enable and start `parsoid.service`.

### Other Extensions

Usually extensions are located in `/usr/share/webapps/mediawiki/extensions` and managing them manually may, over time, be more work than creating a package in AUR. See mediawiki-ext-confirmaccount-git[broken link: package not found] and mediawiki-ext-usermerge-git[broken link: package not found] for examples.

Category:

- Web Server