Please note, I am not a computer professional, hacker, coder - some of this may seem very simplistic to some, but may be greek to others. Some of it I understand, other bits have been 'parrot fashion'. Feel free to contact me if it doesn't work for you - but be aware of my limitations!
I'm assuming you've got here via some rational process, and that you'll have some idea of what wikitect is. If not, you may want to learn more - you could look here or here.
I start my quest at the wikitect page of AboutUs. The 'What We Have' segment there has the critical info on accessing the current wikitect code. Version control is handled by something called 'git', an instance of which needs to be installed on my machine, so that it can talk to the git server on the source site.
So I need to install 'git' . I found some useful instructions here. Please look at them (open in a new tab):
- download the ‘expat’ utility from sourceforge as instructed.
Next, you will be using the Terminal application - found in applications/utilities
Following the same instructions: you may need to create the ~/.bash_login file, if it doesn’t exist:
[I used ‘pico’]
$ pico .bash_loginthen add the line:
export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATHctrl-O to save
ctrl-X to exit
quit from ‘Terminal’
restart ‘Terminal’
use ‘cd’ to get to the directory which expat was downloaded into. Follow the instructions some more:
tar xvzf expat-2.0.1.tar.gzOh-oh! At this stage, I got these error messages from ‘configure’
cd expat-2.0.1
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
checking for gcc... noThe problem was that I didn’t install Apple's ‘Xcode’ tools when I installed the OS, so I went and did this from my original system disks - separate install process from OS X.
checking for cc... no
checking for cc... no
checking for cl... no
configure: error: no acceptable C compiler found in $PATH
See `config.log' for more details.
IF YOU DON’T HAVE AN X-CODE DISK:Try again:
go here: http://developer.apple.com/tools/download/
and make a free registration (click ‘not a member’), then make the (enormous) download of the Xcode .dmg
./configure --prefix=/usr/localSuccess! So continuing on:
makeDone with installing expat.
sudo make install
Now, go and download ‘git’ from its source page.
Next, unpack and install -
use ‘cd’ to get to the directory you downloaded into.
tar xvzf git-1.5.2.4.tar.gzDone with installing git. Your machine now has git as part of its application set, and can talk to the git server that holds the wikitect source code:
cd git-1.5.2.4
make configure
./configure --prefix=/usr/local
make all
sudo make install
Still in Terminal, follow the steps from the Wikitect page:
I omitted this next step - this assumes you want to serve the wikitect up from your own local machine - this is fine, but you won't be able to share it unless your machine acts as a web server, and mine doesn't. In theory, this is straightforward on Mac OS X, once you turn on 'personal web sharing' in the system preferences>sharing pane, but I haven't figured out how to get my browser to access the scripts.
- cd public_html
- git clone git://c2.com/wikitect.git
- It works - although the first time it failed as the remote server didn't seem to want to respond - I tried again a minute later, and got my own little wikitect folder.
The next step is all about permissions - because wikitect makes and modifies files, and this is normally disallowed for web-sites, we need to change the permissions to allow it to do its stuff. We need to do this on your hosting machine, not your local machine, so we're finished with Terminal.
If the host is a linux system, and you have command line access, then the next command may be all that you need.
- chmod 755 wikitect wikitect/*.cgi
User or Owner: 7 = rwx = Yes for read, yes for write, yes for execute
Group: 5 = r-x = Yes for read, no for write, yes for execute
Other: 5 = r-x = Yes for read, no for write, yes for execute
[For more information on linux/unix permissions, you could look here]
- And now, you've done it! Congratulations!
http:***slash******slash***www***dot***dilgreenarchitect***dot***co***dot***uk***slash***cgi-bin***slash***wikitect***slash***index.cgi
[NB I have had to unlink and disguise this address as bad things happened - please use your brain to reconstruct it].
Obvious, really.
Well, that's all for now. Next project is to set up an empty wikitect and start rolling my own.
Don't hold your breath.