Install Dokuwiki + Apache2 + Php on MacOS

• Sat, Jul 23, 2016
• 2-minute read

I began to forget important things since I don’t remember when. Then I knew I was not young any more. This is frustrating. But I’m happy, because it’s time to build a personal wiki! Exciting, isn’t it?

Among innumerous possibilities, I finally chose Dokuwiki. It’s as versatile as Mediawiki, and meanwhile stupidly simple to control.

To use dokuwiki on macOS, one need two things: apache and php. Luckily in my case both of them have been provided by the basic installation of macOS EI Capitan.

Apache2 + PHP on macOS

Here I list only the modifications on the config files.

Apache General Settings

Result from diff /etc/apache2/httpd.conf /etc/apache2/httpd.conf.bak is shown below:

160c160
< LoadModule vhost_alias_module libexec/apache2/mod_vhost_alias.so
---
> #LoadModule vhost_alias_module libexec/apache2/mod_vhost_alias.so

169c169
< LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so
---
> #LoadModule php5_module libexec/apache2/libphp5.so

181,184c181,182
< User ctan
< Group staff
---
> User _www
> Group _www

501c499
< Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf
---
> #Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

The first and the last differences enable using virtual hosts. The second one turn php on. The third modification gave me the authority to make changes to local file system directly from inside Dokuwiki.

I created two new virtual hosts other than the default one.

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin master@localtest.com
    DocumentRoot "/Users/ctan/Workspace/sites/localtest"
    ServerName localtest.com
    ServerAlias www.localtest.com
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/localtest.com-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/localtest.com-access_log" common
    <Directory "/Users/ctan/Workspace/sites/localtest">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin master@ctwiki.com
    DocumentRoot "/Users/ctan/Workspace/sites/wiki"
    ServerName ctwiki.com
    ServerAlias www.ctwiki.com
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/ctwiki.com-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/ctwiki.com-access_log" common
    <Directory "/Users/ctan/Workspace/sites/wiki">
        Options Indexes FollowSymLinks MultiViews
        AllowOverride All
        Order deny,allow
        Allow from all
        Require all granted
    </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerName localhost
    DocumentRoot /Library/WebServer/Documents/
</VirtualHost>

With this configuration, I have the default virtual host changed to “localtest” (explained later in this post). The second host is for dokuwiki. The third one is actually to give the name “localhost” back to the original default.

As described in /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf:

The first VirtualHost section is used for all requests that do not match a ServerName or ServerAlias in any block.

I forked dokuwiki on Github, then cloned it to local computer. Installation was basically super user-friendly. Just open http://www.ctwiki.com/install.php, and follow the instructions.