From: david@lang.hm Date: Sat, 05 Feb 2011 07:00:16 GMT Subject: Re: moving to a git-backed wiki Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <20110204143421.GA6449@gnu.kitenet.net> On Fri, 4 Feb 2011, Joey Hess wrote: > Jeff King wrote: >> If it sounds like I'm handwaving away scalability problems, I am. I'd be >> curious to see some performance numbers for gollum or ikiwiki versus >> more traditional wiki formats. > > Ikiwiki builds static pages, this tends to mean it doesn't have > performance, because there is little more to perform than > httpd < file > network :) > So I've routinely had ikiwiki sites slashdotted, and not noticed. I think you mean it doesn't have performance _problems_ ;-) David Lang > Ikiwiki is not enormously fast in the rare cases when it does have to > run as a CGI, but little of that has to do with git. About the worst > case is that saving a page edit leads to a git commit -- if git > decides to gc the repository right then, it could make the save stall > for a while. There are easy ways to avoid that. (ie, git gc in cron job) > In general, though ikiwiki as a CGI is fast enough to not be annoying -- > although it won't scale to a site the size of wikipedia. > > Since I'm lazy, ikiwiki does not include a history or diff viewer. It > just points off to gitweb or a similar tool. As you say, gitweb can be > fast enough, and really most wiki users do read their current content, > or maybe make an edit; digging in the history is comparatively rare. > And once users realize the wiki is in git, they can use gitk to dig in > the history without using any server resources. :) > > The feature I like best with using git for a wiki (besides ease of > branching) is that it can actually make a legitimate use of the > woefully underused git push over git:// feature. Ikiwiki can be > configured to check such pushes, running via the pre-receive hook. This > allows it to limit the changes that can be pushed anonymously to changes > that could be made using the web interface. So if you've chosen to lock > some pages, or virus filter attachments, or whatever, in the web side of > the wiki, that all applies to the anonymous git pushes too. Details at > > >