HelpContents > HelpForAdministrators > HelpOnConfiguration

This page should help you with configuring an already installed MoinMoin wiki. If you have not installed one yet please go to HelpOnInstalling.

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General

Character Set

Moin uses Unicode internally, and utf-8 for external output and input, like pages, HTML output and translation files. The external character set is defined in config.charset to utf-8. This setting is fine for all languages, as any character can be encoded in UTF-8. You should not change this value, although technically it is possible.

Important: to use Unicode values, you must setup a correct coding line in the first line of your configuration file. Check that your editor is configured correctly.

Certain options must use Unicode values. For example, the site name could contain German umlauts or French accents or be in Chinese or Hebrew. Because of this, you must use unicode strings for those items. Unicode strings are defined by prefixing the letter u to the string. Here are some examples:

    # Site name, used by default for wiki name-logo [Unicode]
    sitename = u"Jürgen's Wiki"
    # another example:
    sitename = u'הוויקי של יורגן'

Read the comments in the configuration file - they tell you which options must use Unicode values.

Notes:

You can't mix different encodings in the same file. If your coding line says iso-8859-1, all your characters, the whole file content, must be in that encoding.
If you use utf-8 encoding (or plain ascii), you don't have to use unicode strings, moin will decode your string correctly for you.

International Setup

The default configuration file shipped with moin uses iso-8859-1 coding. This is fine for Latin languages like English or German, but not usable for non-latin languages. If you want to have non-latin characters in your configuration items, use utf-8 coding for the config file.

Set the first line of all configuration files to this line:

# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-

You need a text editor being capable of (and also really using) utf-8 encoding for editing the config files.

Values using unicode strings can be recognized by their default value being u"...." or ur"..." (the u means unicode) or when the description explicitly tells [unicode].

For ready made configuration in your language, see ConfigMarket. Read also the section about unicode options.

Customization of user preferences

You can predefine, disable or remove several options in the user preferences, see HelpOnConfiguration/UserPreferences.

Configuring a single wiki

If you run a single wiki, you should not copy the file farmconfig.py into your configuration directory (remove it and the .pyc file, if it is there). Without farmconfig, moin uses the default wikiconfig.py.

wikiconfig.py can be located anywhere, you just have make sure it can be imported by moin - it is a good idea to add the directory where it resides as first element to sys.path (this is the list of pathes python uses when searching for importable stuff). sys.path setup is done early, usually in the server adaptor script you use (e.g. moin.cgi or moin.wsgi) - see the comments in the script for details.

General notes on wiki/farmconfig.py structure:

# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-

from MoinMoin.config.multiconfig import DefaultConfig

class Config(DefaultConfig):

    sitename = u'MyWiki'   # u means that it will be converted to Unicode
    interwikiname = 'MyWiki'
    data_dir = '/where/ever/mywiki/data/'
    underlay_dir = '/where/ever/mywiki/underlay/'
    
    # More settings follow...

First, you must define the coding of the config file. The default setting is suited for Latin ("western") languages only, for international setup, read section #intsetup. If you don't define the coding, you can't use non-ascii characters.
Next we import moin's internal default configuration. The default configuration includes values for all options, so we don't have to define all values, just what we want to customize.
Then we define a new configuration class called "Config" and inherit all settings from the default configuration we imported. Note that the class name must be "Config".
Next lines are the configuration options for the Config class. Note that each line must be indented by 4 spaces, tabs are not allowed. Moin will not run if you use wrong indentation.
A common configuration item is sitename - in most cases you don't want your wiki to have the default u"Untitled Wiki" name. You can define any name you like in any language, but before you do that, read section #character-set.
If you followed the install instructions, the wiki will run without any other change, but you might want to change some values, like data_dir, data_underlay_dir acl_rights_before and more. For most cases, setting all the values in the supplied wikiconfig.py file is enough.
Anything we do not define simply stays at moin's internal defaults which we inherited from DefaultConfig.

Configuration of multiple wikis

The moinmoin wiki engine is capable of handling multiple wikis using a single installation, a single set of configuration files and a single server process. Especially for persistent environments like Twisted, this is necessary, because the Twisted server will permanently run on a specific IP address and TCP port number. So for virtual hosting of multiple domains (wikis) on the same IP and port, we need the wiki engine to permanently load multiple configs at the same time and choose the right of them when handling a request for a specific URL.

To be able to choose the right config, moin uses config variable wikis located in the file farmconfig.py - it simply contains a list of pairs (wikiname, url-regex). Please only use valid python identifiers for wikiname (to be exact: identifier ::= (letter|"_") (letter | digit | "_")* - just try with a simple word if you didn't understand that grammar rule). When processing a request for some URL, moin searches through this list and tries to match the url-regex against the current URL. If it doesn't match, it simply proceeds to the next pair. If it does match, moin loads a configuration file named <wikiname>.py (usually from the same directory) that contains the configuration for that wiki.

farmconfig.py in the distribution archive has some sample entries for a wiki farm running multiple wikis. You need to adapt it to match your needs if you want to run multiple wikis.

For simpler writing of these help pages, we will call such a <wikiname>.py configuration file simply wikiconfig.py, of course you have to use the filename you chose.

Of course you have already adapted the wikis setting in farmconfig.py (see above), so we only give some hints how you can save some work. Please also read the single wiki configuration hints, because it explains config inheritance.

We now use the class-based configuration to be able to configure the common settings of your wikis at a single place: in the base configuration class (see farmconfig.py for an example):

farmconfig.py:

# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-
# farmconfig.py:
from MoinMoin.config.multiconfig import DefaultConfig
class FarmConfig(DefaultConfig):
    url_prefix = '/wiki'
    show_hosts = True
    underlay_dir = '/where/ever/common/underlay'
    # ...

Explanation:
- first we import the default config, like we do when configuring a single wiki
- now we define a new farm config class - and inherit from the default config
- then we change everything that our farm wikis have in common, leaving out the settings that they need to be different
- this FarmConfig class will now be used by the config files of the wikis instead of moin's internal DefaultConfig class, see below:

The configs of your individual wikis then only keep the settings that need to be different (like the logo, or the data directory or ACL settings). Everything else they get by inheriting from the base configuration class, see moinmaster.py for a sample.

moinmaster.py:

# -*- coding: iso-8859-1 -*-
# moinmaster.py:
from farmconfig import FarmConfig
class Config(FarmConfig):
    show_hosts = False
    sitename = u'MoinMaster'
    interwikiname = 'MoinMaster'
    data_dir = '/org/de.wikiwikiweb.moinmaster/data/'
    # ...

Explanation:
- see single wiki configuration, the only difference is that we inherit from FarmConfig (that inherited from DefaultConfig) instead of directly using DefaultConfig
- now we override show_hosts to be False - we want it for most wikis in our farm, but not for this one
- we also override sitename, interwikiname and data_dir (the usual stuff)

Overview of Configuration Options

The following table contains default values and a short description for most configuration variables. Most of these can be left at their defaults, those you need to change with every installation are listed in the sample wikiconfig.py that comes with the distribution.

You can also have a look at MoinMoin/config/multiconfig.py, class DefaultConfig for further information (that file has the builtin default configuration).

Variable name	Default	Description
DesktopEdition	`False`	if True, give all local users special powers - only use this for a local desktop wiki!
SecurityPolicy	`None`	Class object hook for implementing security restrictions
acl_...	...	wiki-wide access control list definition (see HelpOnAccessControlLists)
actions_excluded	`['xmlrpc', 'CopyPage', 'MyPages']`	Exclude unwanted actions (list of strings)
allow_xslt	`False`	if True, enables XSLT processing via 4Suite (note that this enables anyone with enough know-how to insert arbitrary HTML into your wiki, which is why it defaults to `False`)
anonymous_session_lifetime	`None`	Lifetime in hours of the session cookie for anonymous users. See HelpOnSessions.
antispam_master_url	`"http://master.moinmo.in/?action=xmlrpc2"`	where antispam security policy fetches spam pattern updates (if it is enabled)
auth	`[MoinAuth()]`	list of auth objects, to be called in this order (see HelpOnAuthentication)
auth_methods_trusted	`['http', 'xmlrpc_applytoken']`	authentication methods for which users should be included in the special "Trusted" ACL group.
bang_meta	`True`	if True, enable `!NoWikiName` markup
cache_dir	`'<data_dir>/cache'`	Path to the farm wide cache directory.
caching_formats	`['text_html']`	output formats that are cached; set to [] to turn off caching (useful for development)
changed_time_fmt	`'%H:%M'`	Time format used on RecentChanges for page edits within the last 24 hours
chart_options	`None`	If you have gdchart, use something like chart_options = {'width': 720, 'height': 540}
cookie_*	...	Change domain, path and lifetime of moin's session cookie, see HelpOnSessions.
data_dir	`'./data/'`	Path to the data directory containing your (locally made) wiki pages.
data_underlay_dir	`'./underlay/'`	Path to the underlay directory containing distribution system and help pages.
date_fmt	`'%Y-%m-%d'`	System date format, used mostly in RecentChanges
datetime_fmt	`'%Y-%m-%d %H:%M:%S'`	Default format for dates and times (when the user has no preferences or chose the "default" date format)
default_markup	`'wiki'`	Default page parser / format (name of module in `MoinMoin.parser`)
docbook_html_dir	...	Path to the directory with the Docbook to HTML XSLT files (optional, used by the docbook parser). The default value is correct for Debian Etch.
edit_bar	`['Edit', ..., 'ActionsMenu']`	list of edit bar entries
editor_default	`'text'`	Editor to use by default, 'text' or 'gui'
editor_force	`False`	if True, force using the default editor
editor_ui	`'freechoice'`	Editor choice shown on the user interface, 'freechoice' or 'theonepreferred'
editor_quickhelp	`{'wiki':"...", ...}`	Quickhelp provided at the bottom of edit pages. To customize, specify a dictionary with key matching default_markup (e.g. 'wiki') and give a string value containing wiki markup
edit_locking	`'warn 10'`	Editor locking policy: `None`, `'warn <timeout in minutes>'`, or `'lock <timeout in minutes>'`
edit_rows	`20`	Default height of the edit box
hacks	`{}`	for use by moin development
history_count	`(100, 200)`	number of revisions shown for info/history action (default_count_shown, max_count_shown)
hosts_deny	`[]`	List of denied IPs; if an IP ends with a dot, it denies a whole subnet (class A, B or C)
html_head*	...	Additional <HEAD> tags, see HelpOnThemes.
html_pagetitle	`None`	Allows you to set a specific HTML page title (if None, it defaults to the value of `sitename`)
interwikiname	`None`	InterWiki name (prefix, moniker) of the site, or None
interwiki_preferred	`[]`	In dialogues, show those wikis at the top of the list.
language_default	`'en'`	Default language for user interface and page content, see HelpOnLanguages!
language_ignore_browser	`False`	if True, ignore user's browser language settings, see HelpOnLanguages!
logo_string	sitename	The wiki logo top of page, HTML is allowed (`<img>` is possible as well) [Unicode]
log_reverse_dns_lookups	`True`	if True, do a reverse DNS lookup on page SAVE. If your DNS is broken, set this to False to speed up SAVE.
log_timing	`False`	if True, add timing infos to the log output to analyse load conditions
mail_...	...	Sending and receiving of email, see /EmailSupport.
mimetypes_xss_protect	`['text/html', ...]`	"content-disposition: inline" isn't used for them when a user downloads such attachments
mimetypes_embed	`[...]`	mimetypes that can be embedded by EmbedObject macro
navi_bar	`[u'RecentChanges',` `u'FindPage',` `u'HelpContents',]`	Most important page names. Users can add more names in their quick links in user preferences. To link to URL, use `u"[url link title]"`, to use a shortened name for long page name, use `u"[LongLongPageName title]"`. To use page names with spaces, use `u"[page_name_with_spaces any title]"` [list of Unicode strings]
nonexist_qm	`False`	if True, display links to non-existing pages with a question mark by default, like in the original wiki (can be changed in userprefs)
page_category_regex	`ur'(?P<all>Category(?P<key>\S+))'`	Pagenames exactly matching this regex are regarded as Wiki categories [Unicode]
page_credits	`[...]`	list with html fragments with logos or strings for crediting.
page_dict_regex	`ur'(?P<all>(?P<key>\S+)Dict)'`	Pagenames exactly matching this regex are regarded as pages containing variable dictionary definitions [Unicode]
page_front_page	`u'HelpOnLanguages'`	Name of the front page. We don't expect you to keep the default. Just read HelpOnLanguages in case you're wondering... [Unicode]
page_group_regex	`ur'(?P<all>(?P<key>\S+)Group)'`	Pagenames exactly matching this regex are regarded as pages containing group definitions [Unicode]
page_header* / page_footer*	...	Custom HTML markup sent by the theme, see HelpOnThemes.
page_iconbar	`["view", ...]`	list of icons to show in iconbar, valid values are only those in page_icons_table. Available only in classic theme.
page_icons_table	`{...}`	dict of {'iconname': (url, title, icon-img-key), ...}. Available only in classic theme.
page_license_enabled	`False`	if True, show a license hint in page editor.
page_license_page	`u'WikiLicense'`	Page linked from the license hint. [Unicode]
page_local_spelling_words	`u'LocalSpellingWords'`	Name of the page containing user-provided spellchecker words [Unicode]
page_template_regex	`ur'(?P<all>(?P<key>\S+)Template)'`	Pagenames exactly matching this regex are regarded as pages containing templates for new pages [Unicode]
password_checker	`func(username, password)`	checks whether a password is acceptable (default check is length >= 6, at least 4 different chars, no keyboard sequence, not username used somehow (you can switch this off by using `None`)
quicklinks_default	`[]`	List of preset quicklinks for a newly created user accounts. Existing accounts are not affected by this option whereas changes in navi_bar do always affect existing accounts. Preset quicklinks can be removed by the user in the user preferences menu, navi_bar settings not.
refresh	`None`	refresh = (minimum_delay_s, targets_allowed) enables use of `#refresh 5 PageName` processing instruction, targets_allowed must be either `'internal'` or `'external'`
rss_cache	`60`	suggested caching time for RecentChanges RSS, in seconds
search_results_per_page	`25`	Number of hits shown per page in the search results
secrets	`'...'`	Long, random, secret string used by some subsystems (Default: auto-generate from some other config settings)
session_handler	`DefaultSessionHandler()`	Session handler, see HelpOnSessions
shared_intermap	`None`	Path to a file containing global InterWiki definitions (or a list of such filenames)
show_hosts	`True`	if True, show host names and IPs. Set to False to hide them.
show_interwiki	`False`	if True, let the theme display your interwiki name
show_names	`True`	if True, show user names in the revision history and on RecentChanges. Set to False to hide them.
show_section_numbers	`0`	1 to show section numbers in headings by default
show_timings	`False`	if True, show some timing values at bottom of a page
show_version	`False`	if True, show moin's version at the bottom of a page
sistersites	`[]`	list of tuples `('WikiName', 'sisterpagelist_fetch_url')`
sitename	`u'Untitled Wiki'`	Short description of your wiki site, displayed below the logo on each page, and used in RSS documents as the channel title [Unicode]
stylesheets	`[(media, csshref), ...]`	List of tuples (media, csshref) to insert after theme css, before user css, see HelpOnThemes.
subscribed_pages_default	`[]`	List of pagenames used for presetting page subscriptions for newly created user accounts.
superuser	`[]`	List of trusted user names with wiki system administration super powers (not to be confused with ACL admin rights!). Used for e.g. making full backups, software installation, language installation via SystemPagesSetup and more. See also HelpOnSuperUser.
supplementation_page	`False`	if True, show a link to the supplementation page in the theme
supplementation_page_name	`u'Discussion'`	default name of the supplementation (sub)page [unicode]
supplementation_page_template	`u'DiscussionTemplate'`	default template used for creation of the supplementation page [unicode]
surge_*	...	Surge protection tries to deny clients causing too much load/traffic, see /SurgeProtection.
textchas*	...	Spam protection setup using site-specific questions/answers, see HelpOnTextChas.
theme_default	`'modern'`	the name of the theme that is used by default (see HelpOnThemes)
theme_force	`False`	if True, do not allow to change the theme
traceback_show	`True`	if True, show debug tracebacks to users when moin crashes
traceback_log_dir	`None`	Directory to store tracebacks or None.
trail_size	`5`	Number of pages in the trail of visited pages
tz_offset	`0.0`	default time zone offset in hours from UTC
ua_spiders	...\|google\|wget\|...	A regex of HTTP_USER_AGENTs that should be excluded from logging
unzip_attachments_count	`101`	max. number of files which are extracted from the zip file
unzip_attachments_space	`200000000`	max. total amount of bytes can be used to unzip files [bytes]
unzip_single_file_size	`2000000`	max. size of a single file in the archive which will be extracted [bytes]
url_mappings	`{}`	lookup table to remap URL prefixes (dict of `'prefix': 'replacement'`); especially useful in intranets, when whole trees of externally hosted documents move around
url_prefix_static	`'/moin_static170'`	used as the base URL for icons, css, etc. - includes the moin version number and changes on every release. This replaces the deprecated and sometimes confusing `url_prefix = '/wiki'` setting.
url_prefix_action	`None`	Use 'action' to enable action URL generation to be compatible with robots.txt. It will generate .../action/info/PageName?action=info then. Recommended for internet wikis.
userprefs_disabled	`[]`	Disable the listed user preferences plugins
user_autocreate	`False`	if True, user accounts are created automatically (see HelpOnAuthentication).
user_dir	`<data_dir>/user`	share user data between multiple wikis. See HelpOnUserHandling
user_email_unique	`True`	if True, check email addresses for uniqueness and don't accept duplicates.
user_jid_unique	`True`	if True, check Jabber IDs for uniqueness and don't accept duplicates.
user_homewiki	`Self`	interwiki name of the wiki where the user home pages are located (useful if you have many users). You could even link to nonwiki "user pages" if the wiki username is in the target URL.
user_checkbox_* / user_form_*	...	Disable / remove / set defaults for user preferences, see /UserPreferences.
xapian_*	...	Configuration of the Xapian based indexed search, see HelpOnXapian.

Some values can only be set from MoinMoin/config/__init__.py (part of the moin code and thus GLOBALLY changing behaviour of all your wikis), but not from the individual wiki's config - you should only touch them if you know what you are doing:

charset	`'utf-8'`	the encoding / character set used by the wiki Do not change `config.charset`. It is not tested and we can't support this.
lowerletters	ucs-2 lowercase letters	Lowercase letters, used to define what is a WikiName
smileys	`[...]`	a list of smiley markups moin supports - image and image sizes are defined in the theme code.
umask	`0770`	umask used by moin, the default gives rights to owner and group, but not to world.
upperletters	ucs-2 uppercase letters	uppercase letters, used to define what is a WikiName
url_schemas	`['http', 'ftp', ...]`	URL schemas you want to have recognized