Quick MoinMoin on FreeBSD
A quick guide for setting up your first MoinMoin Wiki on FreeBSD.
About this HowTo
- MoinMoin versions
- 1.9.6
- Platforms
- FreeBSD 9.1-RELEASE
This guide will show you step by step the manual installation of a single MoinMoin Wiki under FreeBSD. It is simple and quick, but it also tries to explain the reason of why you have to execute every step. In the end of this guide, you will have a functional MoinMoin Wiki running on your system. Have fun 
NOTE: This tutorial does not work on FreeBSD 10.2 Release. The instructions repeated exactly from this tutorial leads to 403 errors.
Contents
1. Installation
MoinMoin is written in the Python programming language. Specifically, the current version is written in Python 2.x. MoinMoin is actually a WSGI-compatible Python web application. So, in order to execute MoinMoin, we need an HTTP server that knows WSGI. For this reason we will use the popular Apache HTTP server along with the wsgi_module that is the best Python WSGI adapter module for Apache. I could characterize this setup as production-ready for a small Wiki.
1.1. Requirements
The software packages that we have to install (or ensure that we have installed) are:
- Python 2.7
- Apache HTTP Server 2.2
- Apache Module WSGI
1.1.1. Python
Ensure that Python 2.7 is installed (probably it is):
pkg info lang/python27
If it is not installed, install from Ports with:
cd /usr/ports/lang/python27 make config-recursive make install clean
1.1.2. Apache HTTP Server
Ensure that Apache HTTP Server 2.2 is installed:
pkg info www/apache22
If it is not installed, install from Ports with:
cd /usr/ports/www/apache22 make config-recursive make install clean
When configuring, please make sure that the THREADS option is selected. This option is needed from the mod_wsgi module for its daemon mode.
1.1.3. Apache Module WSGI
Ensure that mod_wsgi is installed:
pkg info www/mod_wsgi2
If it is not installed, install from Ports with:
cd /usr/ports/www/mod_wsgi2 make config-recursive make install clean
1.2. MoinMoin Installation
Now we proceed to the installation of MoinMoin. We use the MoinMoin port for that:
cd /usr/ports/www/moinmoin make config-recursive make install
Please do not clean after installing as we will use it to create our wiki instance.
We are finished with installing software packages. We continue with the configuration.
2. Configuration
We will make any necessary configurations in order to get our first MoinMoin Wiki up and running.
2.1. Creating a Wiki instance
Step into the MoinMoin port and create your first MoinMoin Wiki instance.
cd /usr/ports/www/moinmoin make MOINTYPE=WSGI instance
A MoinMoin Wiki instance has been created under /usr/local/www/wiki.
2.2. Apache HTTP Server
All the configuration of the Apache HTTP Server will be done using the httpd.conf file. Please open it in your favorite text editor.
vim /usr/local/etc/apache22/httpd.conf
First, make sure that Apache can load the WSGI module. Search for the following line, and if it doesn't exist, add it.
LoadModule wsgi_module libexec/apache22/mod_wsgi.so
Now, navigate to the end of the file, and add the following information that instruct the Apache HTTP Server to:
map the URL /moin_static194/ to the (filesystem) directory that MoinMoin store its static files
allow access to the directory that MoinMoin store its static files
- map the URL /mywiki to the file moin.wsgi and designate it a WSGI script
allow access to the directory that our MoinMoin Wiki instance lives
- run the WSGI module in daemon mode instead of embedded mode
Alias /moin_static194/ "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/MoinMoin/web/static/htdocs/"
<Directory "/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/MoinMoin/web/static/htdocs/">
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
WSGIScriptAlias /mywiki "/usr/local/www/wiki/moin.wsgi"
<Directory "/usr/local/www/wiki/">
Order deny,allow
Allow from all
</Directory>
WSGIDaemonProcess moin processes=5 threads=10 maximum-requests=1000
WSGIProcessGroup moin
3. Execution
Fire up your favorite Internet browser and type the URL:
http://localhost/mywiki
You can see the Welcome page of MoinMoin. You can follow the instructions there for further configuration.
Congratulations! Your first MoinMoin Wiki is waiting for you!