FAQ

What is PmWiki?

PmWiki is a wiki-based system for collaborative creation and maintenance of websites. See PmWiki.

What can I do with it?

PmWiki pages look and act like normal web pages, except they have an "Edit" link that makes it easy to modify existing pages and add new pages into the website, using basic editing rules. You do not need to know or use any HTML or CSS. Page editing can be left open to the public or restricted to small groups of authors. Feel free to experiment with the Text Formatting Rules in the "Wiki sandbox". The website you're currently viewing is built and maintained with PmWiki.

What are the requirements?

See the PmWiki requirements page.

Where can I find documentation?

See the documentation index page.

How can I download PmWiki?

See the download page.

How do I install PmWiki?

Instructions for installation are on the installation page.

How do I get help with PmWiki?

See Mailing lists and How to get assistance.

How do you pronounce "Michaud"?

"Michaud" is french pronounced "mee show", the trailing D is silent.

I'm new to PmWiki, where can I find some basic help for getting started?

The Basic Editing page is a good start. From there, you can just follow the navigational links at the top or the bottom of the page (they are called Wiki Trails) to the next pages, or to the Documentation Index page, which provides an outline style index of essential documentation pages, organized from basic to advanced.

How do I include special characters such as Copyright (©) and Trademark (® or ™) on my wiki pages?

See special characters on how to insert special characters that don't appear on your keyboard.

How can I preserve line-breaks from the source text?

PmWiki normally treats consecutive lines of text as being a paragraph, and merges and wraps lines together on output. This is consistent with most other wiki packages. An author can use the (:linebreaks:) directive to cause the following lines of markup text in the page to be kept as separate lines in the output. Or a wiki administrator can set in config.php $HTMLPNewline = '<br/>'; to force literal new lines for the whole site.

Can I just enter HTML directly?

By default (and by design), PmWiki does not support the use of HTML elements in the editable markup for wiki pages. There are a number of reasons for this described in the PmWiki Philosophy and Audiences. Enabling HTML markup within wiki pages in a collaborative environment may exclude some potential authors from being able to edit pages, and pose a number of display and security issues. However, a site administrator can use the Cookbook:Enable HTML recipe to enable the use of HTML markup directly in pages.

Where can I find more documentation?

See the documentation index and the markup master index pages.

How do I create a new page?

Typing [[my new page]] will create a link to the new page. There's a lot you can do with double bracket links.

Why do some new pages have a title with spaces like "Creating New Pages" and others end up with a WikiWord-like title like "CreatingNewPages"?

The default page title is simply the name of page, which is normally stored as "CreatingNewPages." However, you can override a page's title by using the (:title Creating New Pages:) directive. This is especially useful when there are special characters or capitalization that you want in the title that cannot be used in the page name.

How do I create a link that will open as a new window?

Use the %newwin% wikistyle, as in:

%newwin% https://example.com/ %%

How do I create a link that will open a new window, and configure that new window?

This requires javascript. See Cookbook:PopupWindow.

How do I place a mailing address in a page?

Use the mailto: markup, as in one of the following:

* mailto:myaddress@example.com
* [[mailto:myaddress@example.com]]
* [[mailto:myaddress@example.com | email me]]
* [[mailto:myaddress@example.com?subject=Some subject | email me]]

The markup [[mailto:me@example.com?cc=someoneelse@example.com&bcc=else@example.com&subject=Pre-set Subject&body=Pre-set body | display text]] lets you specify more parameters like the message body and more recipients (may not work in all browsers and e-mail clients).

See also Cookbook:DeObMail for information on protecting email addresses from spammers.

How can I enable links to other protocols, such as nntp:, ssh:, xmpp:, etc?

See Cookbook:Add Url schemes

How do I make a WikiWord link to an external page instead of a WikiPage?

Use link markup. There are two formats:

[[https://example.com/ | WikiWord]]
[[WikiWord -> https://example.com/]]

How do I find all of the pages that link to another page (i.e., backlinks)?

In the wiki search form, use link=Group.Page to find all pages linking to Group.Page.

Use the link= option of the (:pagelist:) directive, as in

(:pagelist link=SomePage list=all:)   -- show all links to SomePage
(:pagelist link={$FullName} list=all:)  -- show all links to the current page

Note that (with a few exceptions) includes, conditionals, pagelists, searchresults, wikitrails, and redirects are not evaluated for Wikilinks, and so any links they put on the page will not be found as backlinks. All other directives and markup, for example links brought to the page by (:pmform:), will be found.

What link schemes does PmWiki support?

See PmWiki:Link schemes

How do I open external links in a new window or mark them with an icon?

See Cookbook:External links

How can I use an image as a link?

Use [[Page| Attach:image.jpg ]] or [[ https://site | https://site/image.jpg ]] See Images#links

Why my browser does not follow local file:// links?

For security reasons, most browsers will only enable file:// links if the page containing the link is itself on the local drive. In other words, most browsers do not allow links to file:// from pages that were fetched using https:// such as in a PmWiki site. See also Cookbook:DirList for a workaround.

How links to the first existed page ? for example [[Group1.Page Group2.Page|Page]]

See ConditionalMarkup

(:if exists Group1.Page:)
   [[Group1.Page|Page]]
(:elseif exists Group2.Page:)
   [[Group2.Page|Page]]
(:ifend:)

How do I make Reference links also show up on the bottom of the page like Wikipedia? Or, how do I list all links on a page?

See Cookbook:Footnotes.

Why are some external images correctly embedded, and others aren't?

If the current page is on a secure URL with the "https://" protocol, some browsers will refuse to load pictures from insecure URLs (the other way around is allowed). Also, some webmasters configure their servers to disallow hotlinking.

Is it possible to link an image on PmWiki without using a fully qualified URL?

Yes. For images that are attachments, the general format is Attach:Groupname./image.gif. To link to an image that is on the same server, use Path:/path/to/image.gif where "Path:" replaces the server name like "https://www.example.com".

Can I attach a client image file on PmWiki?

Yes, see Uploads .

How can I include a page from another group that contains an attached image?

Include the page in the normal way, ie (:include GroupName.Pagename:). In the page to be included (that contains the image) change Attach:filename.ext to Attach:{$Group}./filename.ext.

Why, if I put an image with rframe or rfloat and immediatly after that I open a new page section with ! the section title row is below the image instead of on the left side?

Because the CSS for headings such as ! contains an element clear:both which forces this behaviour. Redefine the CSS locally if you want to stop this happening, but I think the bottom border (that underlines the heading) would need further re-definition. I just use bolding for the title, and 4 dashes below ---- to separate a new section, and it saves the effort of fiddling with the core definitions.

Unlike the lframe and rframe directives, cframe does not fully honour the width setting. While the frame itself resizes to match the request, the enclosed image does not, and retains its original width. Effect is the same in IE and Fx. I've added an example beneath the standard example above.

Is it possible to disallow all images? I already disabled uploads but I also want to disallow external images from being shown on my wiki pages.

Yes, add to config.php:

DisableMarkup('img');
$ImgExtPattern = "$^";

How can I make it so that when I place an image in a page, the block of text it is in is a <p> (paragraph) rather than a <div> (division)?

If you just want it to happen for a single image (instead of all), then try putting [==] at the beginning of the line, as in:

Having [==] at the beginning of a line forces whatever follows to be part of a paragraph.

Is there any way to use relative paths for images?

See Cookbook:RelativeLinks and $EnableLinkPageRelative.

Is there a way to attach a BMP and have it display rather than link?

Add to config.php the following line:
$ImgExtPattern = "(?:$ImgExtPattern|\\.bmp|\\.BMP)";
Note that BMP images are uncompressed and quite heavy. You may wish to convert them to PNG (lossless) or JPG (lossy) format, and thus reduce 5-20 times their filesizes.

How do I add an image type to $ImgExtPattern and yet have it include any future default image types added in PmWiki?

You can append the extensions to the $ImgExtPattern variable this way:
$ImgExtPattern = "(?:$ImgExtPattern|\\.webp|\\.WEBP)";

Is there a way to have a table to the left or right of an image?

Yes, see TableAndImage.

When I upload a file, how do I make the link look like "file.doc" instead of "Attach:file.doc Δ"?

Use parentheses, as in [[(Attach:)file.doc]]. There is also a configuration change that can eliminate the Attach: -- see Cookbook:AttachLinks.

Why can't I upload files of size more than 50kB to my newly installed PmWiki?

Out of the box PmWiki limits the size of files to be uploaded to 50kB. Add

Why does my upload exit unexpectedly with "Incomplete file received"?

You may be running out of space in a 'scratch' area, used either by PmWiki or by PHP. On *nix, check that you have sufficient free space in /tmp and /var/tmp.

How do I make it so that the upload link still allows one to make another upload (if someone wants to replace the old version of a file with a newer version, for example). Currently you only get the upload link when there is no file in the upload directory.

Use the Attach page action, and click on the delta symbol (Δ) shown against each of files listed. If you can't see the attach action either uploads are not enabled, you are not authorized to upload, or the attach action has been commented out or is missing. See also available actions.

How do I hide the " Attach:" for all attachments

See Cookbook:AttachLinks, note that this does not currently work for [[Attach:my file.ext]] .

How can I link a file that have a 4-letter file extension such like 'abc.pptx'?

See Cookbook:Upload Types

How can I prevent others from using the url's of my images on their site

See Cookbook:Prevent Hotlinking

How can I display a file that lacks a correct extension? (e.g. you are using Cookbook:LinkIcons)

A file can be displayed by addition of a "false" extension to the URL. For example, if the url is https://example.com/dox/mydoc, add a fake query string on the end with the desired extension (e.g., https://example.com/dox/mydoc?format=.docx). If query strings are unsuitable, a fragment identifier should work, e.g. https://example.com/dox/mydoc#.docx.

How do I create a basic table?

Tables are created via use of the double pipe character: ||. Lines beginning with this markup denote rows in a table; within such lines the double-pipe is used to delimit cells. In the examples below a border is added for illustration (the default is no border).

|| border=1 rules=rows frame=hsides
|| cell 1 || cell 2 || cell 3 ||
|| cell 1 || cell 2 || cell 3 ||

How do I create cell headers?

Header cells can be created by placing ! as the first character of a cell. Note that these are table headers, not headings, so it doesn't extend to !!, !!!, etc.

|| border=1 rules=cols frame=vsides
||! cell 1 ||! cell 2 ||! cell 3 ||
|| cell 1  ||  cell 2 ||  cell 3 ||

How do I obtain a table with thin lines and more distance to the content?

"Thin lines" is tricky and browser dependent, but the following works for Firefox and IE (Nov. 2009):

||border="1" style="border-collapse:collapse" cellpadding="5" width=66%
||!Header ||! Header || '''Header'''||
||cells   ||  with   ||      padding||
||        ||         ||             ||

How do I create an advanced table?

See table directives

My tables are by default centered. When I try to use '||align=left' they don't align left as expected.

Use ||style="margin-left:0px;" instead.

How can I specify the width of columns?

You can define the widths via custom styles, see Cookbook:FormattingTables and $TableCellAttrFmt. Add in config.php : $TableCellAttrFmt = 'class=col$TableCellCount';

table.column td.col1 { width: 120px; }
table.column td.col3 { width: 40px; }

How can I display a double pipe "||" in cell text using basic table markup?

Escape it with [=||=] to display || unchanged.

How do I apply styles to the elements of the table, like an ID to the table row, or a class/style to the TD?

See $WikiStyleApply.

Alternately, use table directives, which allow specifying styling either directly (style="...") or by a class="..." attribute for CSS.

Is there a simple way to change the table defaults? I prefer a border and I'm tired of adding it to every table.

You can set $SimpleTableDefaultClassName = 'simpletable'; and/or define your own styles in your stylesheet. The "simpletable" class is available in the core skins, and can be redefined or overridden in pub/css/local.css.

Can I define table headers using the table directive markup?

Yes, use (:head:) or (:headnr:) with PmWiki version 2.2.11 or newer. See also Cookbook:AdvancedTableDirectives.

Is it possible to do nested tables?

Yes, if you nest simple tables inside advanced tables. See also Cookbook:AdvancedTableDirectives.

Is it possible to add background images to tables and table cells?

Yes, see Cookbook:BackgroundImages.

Is it possible to apply styles to the elements of the table, like an ID to the table row, or a class/style to the TD?

Yes, see $WikiStyleApply.

Is it possible to automatically generate columns or rows in tables, i.e. without having to do a lot of counting?

Yes, this is possible with the Cookbook:CreateColumns recipe - it allows you to specify a certain number of columns, and/or to specify a certain number of items per column. Plus, someone has provided some similar markup on the TableDirectives-Talk page.

Is it possible to use table captions in table directives similar to simple tables? Tried ! Captiontext ! and (:caption:) . Didn#t work. How to do?

Yes, this is possible with the Cookbook:AdvancedTableDirectives recipe - There you will find a (:caption:) directive.

How can I change the keyboard shortcuts for editing and saving a page?

See Customizing access keys.

Can I get (:redirect:) to return a "moved permanently" (HTTP 301) status code?

Use (:redirect PageName status=301:).

Is there any way to prevent the "redirected from" message from showing at the top of the target page when I use (:redirect:)?

From version 2.2.1 on, set in config.php $EnableRedirectQuiet=1; and in the page (:redirect OtherPage quiet=1:) for a quiet redirect.

Is there any method for redirecting to the equivalent page in a different group, i.e. from BadGroup/thispage => GoodGroup/thispage using similar markup to (:redirect Goodgroup.{Name}:)?

How can a wiki enable linebreaks by default, i.e. without having the directive (:linebreaks:) in a page or in a GroupHeader?

Add to config.php such a line:
$HTMLPNewline = '<br/>';

What's the maximum number of includes that can exist in a page?

By default, PmWiki places a limit of 50 include directives for any given page, to prevent runaway infinite loops and other situations that might eat up server resources. (Two of these are GroupHeader and GroupFooter.) The limit can be modified by the wiki administrator via the $MaxIncludes variable.

Is there any way to include from a group of pages without specifying by exact name, e.g. between Anchor X and Y from all pages named IFClass-* ?

This can be achieved using page lists.

There appears to be a viewing issue when the included page contains the (:title:) directive.

In a default installation, the last title in the page overrides previous ones so you can place your (:title :) directive at the bottom of the page, after any includes. See also $EnablePageTitlePriority.

How to test to see if the page is part of another page?

(:if ! name {PmWiki.IncludeOtherPages$FullName}:) 
%comment% name of this page is not the same as the page this text was sourced from
->[[{PmWiki.IncludeOtherPages$FullName}#anchor | more ...]]
(:ifend:)

Is there any way to include (chapters of) pages which are protected (authuser.php)?

You can achieve this the other way around: have the public sections in a public page (passwdread=@nopass or @_site_read) and include those into both the protected page, and the public page.

Note that it is strongly recommended to NOT hide sensitive content inside a conditional in an unprotected page.

Are InterMap names case sensitive?

Yes, thus eAdmin: is a different InterMap link than EAdmin:.

How can I achieve a localmap.txt mapping with the effect of Pics: Path:/somepathto/pics/?

Use the following:

How can I define an InterMap in PHP?

Use the following:

      $LinkFunctions['PmWikiHome:'] = 'LinkIMap';
      $IMap['PmWikiHome:'] = 'https://pmwiki.org/wiki/$1';

How can I define an InterMap link that lets me refer to files at the server "root"?

From the page https://example.org/index.php/Main/HomePage I want to create a relative link to a directory at the "root" level of the site. The fully qualified URL is https://example.org/commoninfo/infoaboutu.php. I want to do this because the domain name will change, which would break an absolute link.

 Root    /

 Root:commoninfo/infoaboutu.php

Or, you can use the predefined "Path:" prefix, as in Path:/commoninfo/infoaboutu.php.

Is there a variable like $LastModified, but which shows me the creation time?

No, but you can create one in config.php. For instance:

# add page variable [={$PageCreationDate}=] in format yyyy-mm-dd

$FmtPV['$PageCreationDate'] = '[[PmWiki/Functions#PSFT|PSFT]]("[=%Y-%m-%d=]", $page["ctime"])';

How can I test if a variable is set and/or not empty?

Use [=(:if ! equal "{$Variable}" "":) $Variable is not empty. (:ifend:)=]. Note that undefined/inexistent variables appear as empty ones.

Categories: PmWiki Developer

FAQ

How can I get rid of the 'Main' group in urls for pages pointing to Main?

See Cookbook:Get Rid Of Main.

How can I limit the creation of new groups?

See Cookbook:Limit Wiki Groups.

Why doesn't [[St. Giles and St. James]] work as a link? (It doesn't display anything.)

Because it contains periods, and destroys PmWiki's file structure, which saves pages as Group.PageName. Adding those periods disrupts this format. Links may only contain words. If you need a link precisely as shown, the page must be named eg StGilesAndStJames then you can use the (:title:) directive to have the page's title appear with periods (:title St. Giles and St. James:). (Although in US grammar the period is often omitted and in UK grammar the period must be omitted for contractions like St).

How can I delete a wiki group?

Normally you can't, as this requires an admin with server-side access to delete the file that makes up the group's RecentChanges page. But there is an option method of making it possible to delete RecentChanges pages from within the wiki if the admin enables the code found on Cookbook:RecentChanges Deletion.

How can I delete a wiki group's Group.RecentChanges page?

Normally you can't, as this requires an admin with server-side access to delete a file. But there is an optional method of making it possible to delete RecentChanges pages from within the wiki if the admin enables the code found on Cookbook:RecentChanges Deletion.

Can I delete a wiki group inside wiki.d folder on the server to eliminate the group?

Yes, if you delete all files named YourGroup.*, the pages from that group will be removed from the wiki. Note that the documentation (group PmWiki) and the site configuration (groups Site and SiteAdmin) that exist in the default installation, are located in wikilib.d and not in wiki.d, and some recipes provide files located in a wikilib.d subdirectory in the cookbook directory. (You shouldn't delete the groups Site and SiteAdmin, they are required for normal function.)

How can I list all pages in a WikiGroup?

In a wiki page use (:pagelist group=GroupName list=all:) or in a search box type GroupName/ list=all.

How do I set the same header or footer for all pages/groups?

The header and footer for each page are controlled by the variables $GroupHeaderFmt and $GroupFooterFmt. If your site-wide header and footer pages are Site.SiteHeader and Site.SiteFooter, you can add this in config.php:

### If you use Site.SiteHeader and Group.GroupHeader
$GroupHeaderFmt = '(:include {$SiteGroup}.SiteHeader'
  . ' basepage={*$FullName}:)(:nl:)' . $GroupHeaderFmt;

### If you use Site.SiteHeader instead of Group.GroupHeader
$GroupHeaderFmt = '(:include {$SiteGroup}.SiteHeader'
  . ' basepage={*$FullName}:)(:nl:)';

### If you use Site.SiteFooter and Group.GroupFooter
$GroupFooterFmt .= '(:nl:)(:include {$SiteGroup}.SiteFooter'
  . ' basepage={*$FullName}:)';

### If you use Site.SiteFooter instead of Group.GroupFooter
$GroupFooterFmt = '(:nl:)(:include {$SiteGroup}.SiteFooter'
  . ' basepage={*$FullName}:)';

Note that single quotes must be used in the lines above.

See also the Cookbook:AllGroupHeader recipe.

Instead of using an additional page, you could set any wiki text in $GroupHeaderFmt, for example:

What's the difference between a PageList and a WikiTrail?

The pagelist directive dynamically generates a list of pages. There are many ways to generate the list, including using a WikiTrail as the source.
The pagelist directive then displays the pages that match the criteria using an optional template - for example displaying each page name on a separate line as a link or including the entire content.
The pagelist directive currently does not have built-in navigation markup that you can put on the pages in the list.
By contrast, WikiTrails are simply specified via links on an "index" page and you can put previous-next navigation markup on each page. The two serve very different purposes. WikiTrails are useful for specifying the pages in web feeds, for creating a "tour" through a predefined set of pages, and many other things.

Is there a way to remove page history from page files?

1. Administrators can clean page histories using the Cookbook:ExpireDiff recipe.

2. Administrators with FTP file access can download individual pages from the wiki.d directory, open them in a text editor, manually remove history, and re-upload the files to wiki.d/ directory. Care must be exercised, when manually editing a page file, to preserve the minimum required elements of the page and avoid corrupting its contents. See PageFileFormat#creating.

3. Edit the page. Select all the contents of the edit text area and cut them to the clipboard. Enter delete into the text area and click on the save and edit button. Select all the contents of the edit text area and paste the contents of the clipboard over them. Click on the save button. This will remove all of the page's history up to the final save in which the pasted material is re-added.

How can I restrict viewing the page history (?action=diff) to people with edit permission?

In the local/config.php file, set

In case of this restriction is set up on a farm, and you want to allow it on a particular wiki, set in your local/config.php:

How can I password protect all the pages and groups on my site? Do I really have to set passwords page by page, or group by group?

Administrators can set passwords for the entire site by editing the config.php file; they don't have to set passwords for each page or group. For example, to set the entire site to be editable only by those who know an "edit" password, an administrator can add a line like the following to local/config.php:

For more information about the password options that are available only to administrators, see PasswordsAdmin.

I get http error 500 "Internal Server Error" when I try to log in. What's wrong?

This can happen if the encrypted passwords are not created on the web server that hosts the PmWiki.
The PHP crypt() function changed during the PHP development, e.g. a password encrypted with PHP 5.2 can not be decrypted in PHP 5.1, but PHP 5.2 can decrypt passwords created by PHP 5.1.
This situation normally happens if you prepare everything on your local machine with the latest PHP version and you upload the passwords to a webserver which is running an older version.
The same error occurs when you add encrypted passwords to local/config.php.

Solution: Create the passwords on the system with the oldest PHP version and use them on all other systems.

How can I create private groups for users, so that each user can edit pages in their group, but no one else (other than the admin) can?

Modify the edit attribute for each group to id:username, e.g. set the edit attribute in JaneDoe.GroupAttributes to id:JaneDoe.

There is a more automatic solution, but it's probably not a good idea for most wikis. Administrators can use the AuthUser recipe and add the following few lines to their local/config.php file to set this up:

$group = FmtPageName('$Group', $pagename);
$DefaultPasswords['edit'] = 'id:'.$group;
include_once("$FarmD/scripts/authuser.php"); 

This automatically gives edit rights to a group to every user who has the same user name as the group name. Unfortunately it also gives edit rights to such a user who is visiting a same-named group not just for pages in that group, but for any page on the wiki that relies on the site's default edit password. This can create security holes.

How come when I switch to another wiki within a farm, I keep my same authorization?

PmWiki uses PHP sessions to keep track of authentication/authorization information, and by default PHP sets things up such that all interactions with the same server are considered part of the same session.
For security considerations about shared session pools, see the "Session injection" chapter in Cookbook:SessionSecurityAdvice.
To fix the browser-side convenience issue, one easy way is to make sure each wiki uses a different cookie name for its session identifier. Near the top of one of the wiki's local/config.php files, before calling authuser or any other recipes, add a line like:

You can pick any alphanumeric name for XYZSESSID; for example, for the cs559-1 wiki you might choose

This will keep the two wikis' session cookies independent of each other.

Is it possible to test the password level for display and/or if condition? Example: * (:if WriterPassword:) (display Edit link) (:ifend:)

You can use (:if auth edit:). See ConditionalMarkup.

Can I use (:if …:) to hide secrets in a wiki page?

You can, but usually that's not secure. The recommended strategy is to put secrets in a separate page and restrict all read-related¹ access permissions to those users who are allowed to read the secrets. To display the secrets in another page, you can include (parts of) the secrets page: Users with read access to the secrets will readily see them, whereas other users see nothing or (at your choosing) some other text, e.g. a login link.

The reason why Conditional Markup isn't suitable for access control is that it only applies for rendering wikitext as a web page, and that's just one of many ways to access a page's text. In order to rely on Conditional Markup for protection of secrets, you'd have to restrict all access methods that can circumvent it. To do so, you'd need to keep track of all methods available. In a default installation of PmWiki, some of the easy methods include: Editing a page, viewing its edit history, its source, or including fragments of it into the edit preview of another page. (Preview: To avoid traces in RecentChanges.) However, this list is far from exhaustive, and could easily grow with Recipes? or future versions of PmWiki.

How is a Wiki Group deleted?

An admin can remove the group pages from wiki.d/. Note that a wiki page may also have related uploads.

Fully deleting a group via the wiki isn't possible, since a delete counts as an "update" which causes the Recent Changes? page to be re-created. It is possible to modify the site's configuration to allow deletion of the group's RecentChanges page -- see Cookbook:RecentChangesDeletion.

How is a Category deleted?

To delete a category, delete all the [[!Category]] references from all pages where they occur, then delete the category page as explained above.

maintenance

Should I rename pmwiki.php to index.php?

Renaming pmwiki.php is not recommended. Instead, create an index.php file that contains this single line

How do I make pmwiki.php the default page for a website?

Create an index.php file that runs PmWiki from a subdirectory (pmwiki/ for example) and place it in the site's web document root (the main directory for the website).

Note: You will also need to explicitly set the $PubDirUrl variable (e.g. to "https://example.com/pmwiki/pub") in local/config.php .

How do I enable "Clean URLs" that are shorter and look like paths to my wiki pages? Why does pmwiki.org appear to have a directory structure rather than "?n=pagename" in URLs?

See Cookbook:CleanUrls.

How can I run PmWiki on a standalone (offline, portable) machine ?

See Cookbook:Standalone or Cookbook:WikiOnAStick.

How can I determine what version of PmWiki I'm running now?

See version - Determining and displaying the current version of PmWiki (pmwiki-2.3.29).

How can I test a new version of PmWiki on my wiki without changing the prior version used by visitors?

The easy way to do this is to install the new version in a separate directory, and for the new version set (in local/config.php):

    $WikiLibDirs = array(&$WikiDir,
      new PageStore('/path/to/existing/wiki.d/{$FullName}'),
      new PageStore('wikilib.d/{$FullName}'));

This lets you test the new version using existing page content without impacting the existing site or risking modification of the pages. (Of course, any recipes or local customizations have to be installed in the new version as well.)

Then, once you're comfortable that the new version seems to work as well as the old, it's safe to upgrade the old version (and one knows of any configuration or page changes that need to be made).

How do I disable uploading of a certain type of file?

Here's an example of what to add to your local/config.php file to disable uploading of .zip files, or of files with no extension:

$UploadExtSize['zip'] = 0;  # Disallow uploading .zip files
$UploadExtSize[''] = 0;     # Disallow files with no extension

How do I attach uploads to individual pages or the entire site, instead of organizing them by wiki group?

Use the $UploadPrefixFmt variable (see also the Cookbook:UploadGroups recipe).

$UploadPrefixFmt = '/$FullName';    # per-page, in Group.Name directories
$UploadPrefixFmt = '/$Group/$Name'; # per-page, in Group directories with Name subdirectories
$UploadPrefixFmt = '';   # site-wide

For $UploadDirQuota - can you provide some units and numbers? Is the specification in bytes or bits? What is the number for 100K? 1 Meg? 1 Gig? 1 Terabyte?

Units are in bytes.

   $UploadDirQuota = 100*1024;         # limit uploads to 100KiB
   $UploadDirQuota = 1000*1024;        # limit uploads to 1000KiB
   $UploadDirQuota = 1024*1024;        # limit uploads to 1MiB
   $UploadDirQuota = 25*1024*1024;     # limit uploads to 25MiB
   $UploadDirQuota = 2*1024*1024*1024; # limit uploads to 2GiB

Is there a way to allow file names with Unicode or additional characters?

Yes, see $UploadNameChars

Where is the list of attachments stored?

It is generated on the fly by the

Downloading binary files such as pictures or ZIP archives with $EnableDirectDownload=0; sometimes results in corrupted files, why?

Some recipe or local configuration may output something before the file. This may happen if you have PHP files with a closing "?>" marker at the end, and some text or white space after it. It is recommended to remove these closing markers from your local and cookbook files.
Alternatively, there may be some PHP warning or message before the file data. On Unix-like systems you can peek into the file with the command less -f -L file.ext and see the first few characters or lines. See Troubleshooting on how to track the source for the errors/warnings.

How do I report a possible security vulnerability of PmWiki?

Pm wrote about this in a post to pmwiki-users from September 2006. In a nutshell he differentiates two cases:

1. The possible vulnerability isn't already known publicly: In this case please contact us by private mail.
2. The possible vulnerability is already known publicly: In this case feel free to discuss the vulnerability in public (e.g. on pmwiki-users or in the PITS).

See his post mentioned above for details and rationals.

What about the botnet security advisory at https://isc.sans.edu/diary/Reports+of+Bots+exploiting+pmwiki+and+tikiwiki/1672?

Sites that are running with PHP's register_globals setting set to "On" and versions of PmWiki prior to 2.1.21 may be vulnerable to a botnet exploit that is taking advantage of a bug in PHP. The vulnerability can be closed by turning register_globals off, upgrading to PmWiki 2.1.21 or later, or upgrading to PHP versions 4.4.3 or 5.1.4.
In addition, there is a test at PmWiki:SiteAnalyzer that can be used to determine if your site is vulnerable.

Wiki Vandalism and Spam

Assumptions

you are using a Blocklist and Url approvals.

You don't want to resort to password protecting the entire wiki, that's not the point after all.

Ideally these protections will be invoked in config.php

How do I stop pages being deleted, eg password protect a page from deletion?

Use Cookbook:DeleteAction and password protect the page deletion action by adding $DefaultPasswords['delete'] = '*'; to config.php or password protect the action with $HandleAuth['delete'] = 'edit';

How do I stop pages being replaced with an empty (all spaces) page?

Add block: /^\s*$/ to your blocklist.

how do I stop pages being completely replaced by an inane comment such as excellent site, great information, where the content cannot be blocked?

Try using the newer automatic blocklists that pull information and IP addresses about known wiki defacers.

(OR) Try using Cookbook:Captchas or Cookbook:Captcha (note these are different).

(OR) Set an edit password, but make it publicly available on the Site.AuthForm template.

How do I password protect the creation of new groups?

See Cookbook:Limit Wiki Groups

How do I password protect the creation of new pages?

See Cookbook:Limit new pages in Wiki Groups

How do I take a whitelist approach where users from known or trusted IP addresses can edit, and others require a password?

Put these lines to local/config.php:

## Allow passwordless editing from own turf, pass for others.
if ($action=='edit'
 && !preg_match("/^90\\.68\\./", $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']) )    
 { $DefaultPasswords['edit'] = pmcrypt('foobar'); }

Replace 90.68. with the preferred network prefix and foobar with the default password for others.

For a single IP, you may use

if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == '127.0.0.1') { # your IP address here
 $_POST['authpw'] = 'xxx';                  # the admin password
}

Please note the security issues: this means that you have your admin passwords in clear in config.php and someone with access to the filesystem can read them (for example a technician of your hosting provider); your IP address may change from time to time (unless you have a fixed IP contract with your ISP). When that happens, someone with your old IP address will be logged in automatically as admin on your wiki. It is extremely unlikely to become a problem, but you should know it is possible; if you are behind a router, all other devices which pass through that router will have the same IP address for PmWiki - your wifi phone, your wife's netbook, a neighbour using your wifi connection, etc. All these people become admins of your wiki. Again, you should evaluate if this is a security risk; In some cases, your ISP will route your traffic through the same proxy as other people. In such a case, thousands of people may have the same IP address.

See also Cookbook:AuthDNS & Cookbook:PersistentLogin

How do I password protect page actions?

See Passwords for setting in config.php

or

How do I moderate all postings?

Enable PmWiki.Drafts

• Set $EnableDrafts, this relabels the "Save" button to "Publish" and a "Save draft" button appears.
• Set $EnablePublishAttr, this adds a new "publish" authorization level to distinguish editing from publishing.

How do I make a read only wiki?

In config.php set an "edit" password.

How do I restrict access to uploaded attachments?

See

• instructions for denying public access to the uploads directory
• Cookbook:Secure attachments

How do I hide the IP addresses in the "diff" pages?

If the user fills an author name, the IP address is not displayed. To require an author name, set in config.php such a line:

  $EnablePostAuthorRequired = 1;

The IP address can also be seen in a tooltip title when the mouse cursor is over the author name. To disable the tooltip, set in config.php:

$DiffStartFmt = 
  "<div class='diffbox'><div class='difftime'><a name='diff\$DiffGMT' href='#diff\$DiffGMT'>\$DiffTime</a>
   \$[by] <span class='diffauthor'>\$DiffAuthor</span> - \$DiffChangeSum</div>";

How do I stop some Apache installations executing a file which has ".php", ".pl" or ".cgi" anywhere in the filename

Use $UploadBlacklist

How do I stop random people from viewing the ?action=source (wiki markup) of my pages? I have (:if auth edit:) text that I don't want the world to see.

$HandleAuth['source'] = 'edit'; or $HandleAuth['source'] = 'admin';

How to I secure my cookies?

See $EnableCookieSecure and $EnableCookieHTTPOnly

How do I set a global password to resist spambots, and informed humans of the password?

See Cookbook:OpenPass-Talk

How can I embed JavaScript into a page's output?

There are several ways to do this. The Cookbook:JavaScript recipe describes a simple means for embedding static JavaScript into web pages using custom markup. For editing JavaScript directly in wiki pages (which can pose various security risks), see the JavaScript-Editable recipe. For JavaScript that is to appear in headers or footers of pages, the skin template can be modified directly, or