Ikiwiki Setup (part 2)

Created by Steven Baltakatei Sandoval on 2020-12-23T02:35Z under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and last updated on 2020-12-23T15:15Z.

Update

I figured out how to migrate the git repository containing my legacy reboil.com website (an Amazon Web Services S3 bucket using Route 53 DNS routing (see this reference)) to an ikiwiki blog (this blog post you should be reading as of 2020-12-23). Using this handy procedure, I found it to be possible to maintain a line of continuity in git commit and log data in the git repository that the default ikiwiki configuration on my Freedombox uses.

I spent the past few hours figuring out how to get ikiwiki, git, and cron to play nicely together so I can push blog posts like this using a git push operation from my personal laptop without having to login as root to my Freedombox via ssh. I think I have something working. Even if my configuration changes in the near future, the ability to version-control my blog posts gives me peace of mind that I can preserve an roll back my blog's content.

Here are steps that I used to set this up.

Setup Procedure

The setup basically consists of the following steps:

  • Create a ikiwiki blog.

  • Creating a gitweb bare repository to initially mirror the ikiwiki repository.

  • Push the initial ikiwiki repository master branch to the gitweb repo.

  • Add the gitweb repository as a remote in the ikiwiki repository.

  • Create a root user cron job on the Freedombox to periodically perform the required pushes, pulls, and ikiwiki rebuilds.

With all these preparations in place, it will then be possible to create a new blog post via two methods:

  1. Creation, committing, and signing of a new blog post markdown file in a local clone of the gitweb repository on a personal computer.

  2. Creation or editing of a markdown file via ikiwiki's webCGI interface. (note: the commit is not signed and may later be manually pulled from/merged/pushed to the gitweb repository).

The following sections will explain these steps in detail for a blog named blog-test. Once a working setup is confirmed functional, repeat the steps for a blog named blog.

  1. Setup ikiwiki application

    Install ikiwiki via the Freedombox plinth menus.

    Create a blog named blog-test. This will cause the URL of the blog to be shorter (i.e. https://reboil.com/ikiwiki/blog-test).

  2. Setup gitweb application

    Install gitweb via the Freedombox plinth menus.

    Create a git repository named ikiwiki-blog-test.

  3. Setup ikiwiki repository

    Create a backup git bundle of the blog's initial state via:

    $ sudo su -
# pushd /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test
# git bundle create ~/$(date --iso-8601=seconds)..blog-test.bundle --all

    Add the gitweb remote (a local directory) via:

    # git remote add localgitweb /var/lib/git/ikiwiki-blog-test.git

    The ikiwiki repo remote list should read:

    /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test# git remote -v
localgitweb /var/lib/git/ikiwiki-blog-test.git (fetch)
localgitweb /var/lib/git/ikiwiki-blog-test.git (push)
origin  /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test.git (fetch)
origin  /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test.git (push)

    The ikiwiki repo branch list should read:

    /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test# git branch --all
* master
  remotes/localgitweb/master
  remotes/origin/master

  4. Setup gitweb repository

    In the Freedombox Plinth webUI, under Apps, under Gitweb, create a repository named ikiwiki-blog-test.

    From the ikiwiki repo working directory, push the blog master branch to the gitweb repo.

    # pushd /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test
/var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test# git push localgitweb master
Enumerating objects: 12, done.
Counting objects: 100% (12/12), done.
Delta compression using up to 2 threads
Compressing objects: 100% (11/11), done.
Writing objects: 100% (12/12), 1.65 KiB | 141.00 KiB/s, done.
Total 12 (delta 0), reused 0 (delta 0)
To /var/lib/git/ikiwiki-blog-test.git
 * [new branch]      master -> master

    Create and push the ikiwiki repo's master branch to the master branch on the gitweb repo.

    # git push localgitweb master:master

    The ikiwiki repo branches should look something like this:

    /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test# git branch --all
/var/lib/ikiwiki/blog# git branch --all 
  ikiwiki_revert_337dd2a3446701388bafc9616bccfaac659ca44a
* master
  remotes/localgitweb/master
  remotes/origin/master

  5. Setup root user cron job

    Create a bash script file at /root/ikiwiki_blog-test_update.sh. The script should perform the following pseudocode functions:

    #!/bin/bash
# Fetch updates
echo "STATUS:Fetching updates." 1>&2
pushd /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test
git fetch --all
git checkout master

# Push ikiwiki repo 'master' to gitweb repo 'master'
# Ref/Attrib: https://stackoverflow.com/a/3206144
echo "STATUS:Pushing ikiwiki-master to gitweb-master." 1>&2
git push localgitweb master:master

# Pull gitweb repo 'master' to ikiwiki repo 'master'
# Ref/Attrib: https://stackoverflow.com/a/8888015
echo "STATUS:Pulling gitweb-master to ikiwiki-master" 1>&2
git pull localgitweb master:master

# Push changes
echo "STATUS:Push to ikiwiki" 1>&2
git push origin
echo "STATUS:Rendering ikiwiki." 1>&2
ikiwiki --setup /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test.setup --rebuild --verbose --gettime

popd

    Create a cron job.

    # crontab -e

    Have it contain the following line.

    0 * * * * /bin/bash /root/ikiwiki_blog_update.sh 1>/dev/null 2>&1

    You may have to manually perform an initial merge, but the /var/lib/ikiwiki/blog-test ikiwiki git repository should now automatically synchronize with the /var/lib/git/ikiwiki-blog-test.git gitweb repository at the top of every hour.

Summary

Using a Freedombox, ikiwiki, git, gitweb, and cron, it is possible to set up a blog that can be updated remotely via git push.

This work by Steven Baltakatei Sandoval is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0