One of the most challenging parts of installation for the "ordinary user" is likely to be getting Apache to accept path info: step 4 of the installation instructions. I'm going to try to say a few words about this matter for the benefit of those who aren't so familiar with Apache.

First, you may not even need to do this step. If you're not familiar with Apache configuration, just skip it. You will know that you need to make some changes here if you can't access http://yoursite.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HomePage but can access http://yoursite.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php. In particular, you will get an error saying the relevant page can't be found. The reason is that there isn't really such a page. pmwiki.php is a file, not a directory, and what follows is really intended as information to be passed to this script. But by default, the newer versions of Apache often prevent information from being passed in that way. So we need to tell Apache to allow it.

Each directory accessible by Apache may contain a .htaccess file in which configuration options specific to that directory may be set. The file is so-called because one thing it can be used to do (and often is used to do) is control access, perhaps by requiring a password. But it can also contain other options, and one of these is AcceptPathInfo. All you need to do here may be to create a .htaccess file if one does not already exist and include the line

AcceptPathInfo On

If that works, great.

But it may not work, because the main Apache configuration file (usually httpd.conf and located somewhere in /etc/), often defaults to preventing any options from being changed (or "overridden") in .htaccess files. So you may need to make a change to the main configuration file to get the "override" to work. Open the Apache configuration file in your favorite editor and add the following lines at the end:

<Directory /var/www/html/pmwiki/>

AllowOverride FileInfo

</Directory>

Obviously, you should use whatever directory is appropriate to your installation. And you can add them wherever, really, but it's always a good idea to keep your customizations in one place. In any event, that will allow the override you need.

(Added by heck@fas.harvard.edu.)