deadwiki

deadwiki is a Markdown-powered wiki that uses your filesystem as its db. This means you can keep your wiki in a git repository and edit content with your text editor, or read and modify pages with style using its 1990s-era web interface.

There are three built-in ways to access your deadwiki:

• Run the local webserver and use the (minimal) HTML UI.
• Run a native WebView app that wraps the UI.
• Just use your filesystem. Regular Markdown files. cat, ls, etc.

~ status ~

Very barebones, no native app yet. Under construction!

The git master may be broken, so make sure you install from crates.io (see below).

I use it every day, and I like combining it with other small tools. I keep a Markdown TODO list in ~/.todo that I manage on the command line with a todo program, and I have a little scratch pad in ~/.scratch that I add links to in a shell using an s program, like:

$ s https://git.coolstuff.com/some/repo

With deadwiki, I symlinked both of those files into my ~/.deadwiki dir and can browse them using a fancy, 1990s-era HTML interface.

~ getting started ~

To begin, create an empty directory or find one already populated with .md files. This is your deadwiki. Simply point the CLI utility at it to get going:

$ dead my-wiki-dir/
-> deadwiki serving my-wiki-dir/ at http://0.0.0.0:8000

Now visit http://0.0.0.0:8000/ in your browser! (Or don't. It's up to you.)

You can edit wiki pages locally with something like vim, or by using the web UI. Edits show up on the next page load, as do new pages - there is no database and no fancy pantsy caching. Just you, your filesystem, and a dream.

In addition to CommonMark, Markdown files can link to each other by putting the [Page Name] in brackets. Like most wikis, it'll either be a link to the actual page or a way to create it.

Finally, if you want to sync your wiki automatically, there is some very basic git support. Basically, if you start the dead program with the -s or --sync flag and point it at an existing git repository, it'll do this every 30 seconds or so:

git add .
git commit -am update
git pull origin master
git push origin master

Like I said, super basic! But it works, and it's nice that it syncs changes you make even outside of the web UI.

~ keyboard shortcuts ~

Web-based wiki editing uses SimpleMDE, plus a dash of other shortcuts in editor mode:

~ installation ~

Hey, how do I get that handy dandy dead CLI utility? With cargo:

cargo install deadwiki

Now you should be able to run dead -h to see the possibilities.

~ hacking ~

The code is in pretty rough shape right now, so enter at your own risk, but you can hack on it pretty easily using cargo:

$ git clone https://github.com/xvxx/deadwiki
$ cd deadwiki
$ cargo run wiki/

There's a basic wiki included that shows off some features.

~ future features ~

• search
• jump to page (via fuzzy finder)
• --gopher: serve wiki pages over gopher too, probably using phd
• *.css in wiki dir gets included

~ philosophy ~

• no database
• text editor/plain text friendly
• prefer server-side rendering
• take your data with you (scm friendly)
• js only for user input (keyboard shortcuts, markdown editor, finder)
• no js frameworks/helpers
• build time matters (72 crates currently, ~22s release ~10s debug)

~ screenies ~

Rendering Markdown. Wow.	Editing Markdown. Amazing.

~ bug reports ~

Please direct all known and unknown (suspected) bugs to this URL:

• https://github.com/xvxx/deadwiki/issues/new