Ikiwiki + Git + Debian Etch

After a lot of head scratching, I seem to have ikiwiki up and running using a git repository - all running on Debian Etch.

I'm using the version of ikiwiki that ships with Etch (1.33.3), which doesn't seem to have some of the nice features available in the current version (2.32.3) such as the ikiwiki-makerepo command. In addition, I am using git 1.4.4.4-2 (also on Etch).

Nevertheless, I was able to make it work. I did the following somewhat cumbersome steps. Note: if you are using a more recent version of ikiwiki, you probably shouldn't follow these steps.

Creating the git repositories

Create a bare repository:

mkdir iw-repo
cd iw-repo
git --bare init-db

Copy the sample blogs directory into a temporary directory
```
cp -rp /usr/share/doc/ikiwiki/examples/blog/ temp
```
Initialize the temp directory as a git repository
```
cd temp
git init-db
```
Check in the files
```
git add *
git commit -a
```
Push to the bare repo
```
git push ../iw-repo
```
Delete your temp directory
```
cd ..
rm -rf temp
```
Create at working directory from the bare repo
```
git clone iw-repo iw-working
```

Setting up ikiwiki

Copy the sample setup file to your home directory

cp /usr/share/doc/ikiwiki/html/ikiwiki.setup ~/

Edit the file. A big concept I missed the first time arround: the "wrappers" section refers to executable files that ikiwiki will create for you. There are two that you may be interested in:
- The ikiwiki.cgi wrapper is used by the web server to execute commands based on comments or posts added via the web browser.
- The post-update wrapper is executed every time you update the git repository - it triggers the wiki to be re-freshed.

The "wrapper" variable is the file location you want ikiwiki to create the wrapper file for you.

Setting up your local repository

Clone the repository:

git clone user@host:/path/to/iw-repo local-ikiwiki

Now - make changes to any of the files.
Finally - commit your changes and push them upstream:
```
git add
git commit
git push
```
And voila, it should be showing up on your site.