This is a guide to using Gollum (Git-powered wiki with browser frontend) to run a local wiki with certain requirements:

• Use latest stable version of Gollum (6.1.0 as of this writing)
  • in a container
  • with rootless Podman
  • on a SELinux-enabled distro (Fedora 41)
  • via a systemd user service
• Use a CommonMark-compliant parser (commonmarker 0.23.11) instead of the default kramdown
  • We're stuck with commonmarker <1.0 due to breaking changes.
• Store Gollum config in the same place as wiki contents

We will use this branch as the basis of a new wiki, with some example config included.

1. Clone this branch to ~/wiki. This will be your wiki.

   git clone -b example --depth 1 https://github.com/jn64/gollum.git ~/wiki

2. Reset the git history (you don't need your wiki to be linked to this repo):

   cd ~/wiki
   rm -rf ~/wiki/.git
   git init -b main
   git add .
   git commit -m init

3. Build custom Gollum image that includes commonmarker instead of kramdown:

   podman build -t gollum:v6.1.0-commonmark https://github.com/jn64/gollum.git#v6.1.0-commonmark

   The resulting image is localhost/gollum:v6.1.0-commonmark (see podman image list).

4. Create a temporary container with this custom image:

   podman run --name gollum --rm --init -v ~/wiki:/wiki:z -v ~/wiki/.gollum:/etc/gollum:z -p 4567:4567 --userns=keep-id:uid=1000,gid=1000 gollum:v6.1.0-commonmark -- --config /etc/gollum/config.rb

   Test it by visiting http://localhost:4567 in your browser. Make sure it works (edit, create new page, etc).

5. Stop the container with Ctrl-C, or in another terminal:

   podman container stop gollum

6. Generate quadlet from previous podman-run command:

   mkdir -p ~/.config/containers/systemd
   podlet -i podman run --name gollum --rm --init -v ~/wiki:/wiki:z -v ~/wiki/.gollum:/etc/gollum:z -p 4567:4567 --userns=keep-id:uid=1000,gid=1000 gollum:v6.1.0-commonmark -- --config /etc/gollum/config.rb > ~/.config/containers/systemd/gollum.container

7. Start the service:

   systemctl --user daemon-reload
   systemctl --user start gollum

Done! The service will start automatically at your user login.

For convenience, pin or bookmark http://localhost:4567 in your browser.

See .gollum/config.rb

• https://github.com/gollum/gollum/wiki/Gollum-via-Docker
• https://github.com/gollum/gollum#configuration
• https://github.com/gjtorikian/commonmarker/blob/v0.23.11/README.md#options
• Auto-generating a systemd unit file using Quadlets
• containers/podlet: Generate Podman Quadlet files from a Podman command, compose file, or existing object