• Table of contents
• Prepare the Environment
• Install Nginx
• Install PostgreSQL
  • Create PostgreSQL Databases and Users
• Install MediaWiki
• Resources

This is a guide on setting up MediaWiki with Nginx on FreeBSD 12.

Prepare the Environment¶

• Before installation of the components, make sure everything is up to date using the following command:
  

  pkg update -f && pkg upgrade
  

• Create the mediawiki user:
  

  pw user add -n mediawiki -m -s /sbin/nologin -c "MediaWiki" 
  

---

Install Nginx¶

• Install Nginx
  

  pkg install nginx
  

• Start and enable nginx at boot:
  

  sysrc nginx_enable=YES
  service nginx start
  

• Create a configuration directory to make managing individual server blocks easier
  

  mkdir /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d
  

• Edit the main nginx config file:
  

  vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/nginx.conf
  

  • And strip down the config file and add the include statement at the end to make it easier to handle various server blocks:
    

    worker_processes  1;
    error_log  /var/log/nginx-error.log;
    
    events {
        worker_connections  1024;
    }
    
    http {
        include       mime.types;
        default_type  application/octet-stream;
        sendfile        on;
        keepalive_timeout  65;
    
        # Load config files from the /etc/nginx/conf.d directory
        include /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/*.conf;
    }
    

---

Install PostgreSQL¶

• Start by installing the postgresql packages:
  

  pkg install postgresql12-{server,client} php74-{pdo_pgsql,pgsql}
  

• Enable, initialize and start PostgreSQL
  

  sysrc postgresql_enable=YES
  service postgresql initdb
  service postgresql start
  

• Edit the pg_hba.conf file:
  

  vi /var/db/postgres/data12/pg_hba.conf
  

  • And add the following to the end of the file to enable password authentication:
    

    host    all        all        samehost        md5
    

Create PostgreSQL Databases and Users¶

• Log in to postgresql user account
  

  su - postgres
  

• Connect to postgresql database
  

  psql -d template1
  

  • Create a user and database for MediaWiki:
    

    CREATE USER mediawikiuser WITH PASSWORD 'SuperSecretPassword' CREATEDB;
    
    CREATE DATABASE mediawikidb OWNER mediawikiuser;
    

• Quit postgresql and exit the user:
  

  \q
  exit
  

---

Install MediaWiki¶

• Install mediawiki:
  

  pkg install mediawiki135-php74
  

• Create an wiki.example.com server block config file:
  

  vi /usr/local/etc/nginx/conf.d/wiki.example.com.conf
  

  • Add the following:
    

    
    server {
        server_name cyto.wiki;
        root /usr/local/www/mediawiki;
        index  index.php;
    
        client_max_body_size 5m;
        client_body_timeout 60;
    
        location / {
            try_files $uri $uri/ @rewrite;
        }
    
        location @rewrite {
            rewrite ^/(.*)$ /index.php?title=$1&$args;
        }
    
        location ^~ /maintenance/ {
            return 403;
        }
    
         location /rest.php {
            try_files $uri $uri/ /rest.php?$args;
        }
    
        location ~ \.php$ {
            include fastcgi_params;
            fastcgi_pass unix:/var/run/mediawiki.sock;
            fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $request_filename;
    
        }
    
        location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
            try_files $uri /index.php;
            expires max;
            log_not_found off;
        }
    
        location = /_.gif {
            expires max;
            empty_gif;
        }
    
        location ^~ /cache/ {
            deny all;
        }
    
        location /dumps {
            root /usr/local/www/mediawiki/local;
            autoindex on;
        }
    }
    
    

• Create the mediawiki php-fpm pool config file:
  

  vi /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.d/mediawiki.conf
  

  • And add the following:
    

    [mediawiki.example.com]
    user = mediawiki
    group = www
    listen = /var/run/mediawiki.sock
    listen.owner = mediawiki
    listen.group = www
    pm = dynamic
    pm.max_children = 5
    pm.start_servers = 2
    pm.min_spare_servers = 1
    pm.max_spare_servers = 3
    ;php_admin_value[session.save_path] = "/usr/local/www/mediawiki/tmp" 
    

• Change the file ownership to the mediawiki user:
  

  chown -R mediawiki: /usr/local/www/mediawiki/
  

• Restart nginx and start php-fpm:
  

  service nginx restart
  sysrc php_fpm_enable=YES
  service php-fpm start
  

• Complete the installation by opening a web browser and go to http://wiki.example.com/ then follow the basic account and database setup steps.

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Resources¶

• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Installation_guide
• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Short_URL/Nginx
• https://www.nginx.com/resources/wiki/start/topics/recipes/mediawiki/