Gollum is the Git-based wiki software used as the backend of the GitHub Wiki. Deploying Gollum will allow you to host a GitHub-like Wiki system on your server. In this tutorial we will install Gollum on a Debian 10 Vultr instance.
A fresh Debian 10 Vultr instance with the latest updates.
Make a sudo user named gollumuser. Follow the Vultr best practices guide. Use the gollumuser user for the remainder of this guide.
Install Gollum's dependencies.
$ sudo apt install ruby ruby-dev cmake libssl-dev pkg-config build-essential zlib1g-dev libicu-dev git -y
Install Gollum with the Ruby package manager, gem.
$ sudo gem install gollum
Switch to the gollumuser home directory.
$ cd ~
Make a directory for the new wiki.
$ mkdir my-wiki
Change to the wiki directory.
$ cd my-wiki
Create a git repository in the wiki directory.
$ git init
Start Gollum.
$ gollum
Note: You can exit Gollum with CTRL + C.
While Gollum is running, navigate with your web browser to your server's IP address at port 4567. For example:
http://192.0.2.123:4567
Create a wiki page. Feel free to create multiple wiki pages. The pages you create are saved in Markdown format as .md files in the ~/my-wiki git repo directory.
You can also create or edit pages from the CLI by creating Markdown files and then committing them to the git repo.
Exit Gollum with CTRL + C, then switch to the wiki directory:
$ cd ~/my-wiki
Create a new file, page1.md
$ nano page1.md
Enter some content.
Testing A B C D E F G
Save and exit the file, then configure git with your name and email.
$ git config --global user.email "admin@example.com"
$ git config --global user.name "admin"
Commit your changes.
$ git add page1.md
$ git commit -m "create page1"
Start Gollum.
$ gollum
Review your changes in a web browser. For example:
http://192.0.2.123:4567/golllum/latest_changes
To learn more about Gollum, use gollum --help or visit the official Gollum website.