This page documents step-by-step how to properly setup and customize *ikiwiki* on [NearlyFreeSpeech](https://nearlyfreespeech.net). A good deal of the documentation here has been lifted from [ikiwiki.info/tips/nearlyfreespeech/](https://ikiwiki.info/tips/nearlyfreespeech/) but altered and updated.

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## Register for an account and set up a site

After you get an account, create a site using their web interface.

Mine is named `ikiwiki-test` and I used their DNS instead of getting my own, resulting in http://ikiwiki-test.nfshost.com/. (Not being kept up anymore.)

They gave me 2 cents free funding for signing up, which is enough to pay for 10 megabytes of bandwidth, or about a thousand typical page views, at their current rates. Plenty to decide if this is right for you. If it is, $5 might be a good starting amount of money to put in your account.

## ssh in and configure the environment

ssh into their server using the ssh hostname and username displayed on the site's information page. Example:

    ssh username_ikiwiki-test@ssh.phx.nearlyfreespeech.net

Now set up `.profile` to run programs from `~/bin`.

    cd $HOME
    echo "PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin" > .profile
    . .profile

## Download an unpack ikiwiki

Use `wget` to download the ikiwiki tarball. You can find the `tar` file at the bottom of this page: [packages.debian.org/unstable/source/ikiwiki](https://packages.debian.org/unstable/source/ikiwiki)

Then unpack it:

    tar zxvf ikiwiki*.tar.gz