What Is DokuWiki?

DokuWiki is a flat-file wiki that stores all content as plain text files — no database required. It’s been around since 2004 and has a massive plugin ecosystem (2,000+ plugins). DokuWiki is used by organizations from small teams to large enterprises including CERN. It’s the right choice when you want a wiki that’s dead simple to back up (copy a folder), easy to version control, and has zero external dependencies. Official site

Prerequisites

A Linux server (Ubuntu 22.04+ recommended)
Docker and Docker Compose installed (guide)
200 MB of free disk space
128 MB of RAM (minimum)
A domain name (optional, for remote access)

Docker Compose Configuration

Create a docker-compose.yml file:

services:
  dokuwiki:
    image: lscr.io/linuxserver/dokuwiki:2025-05-14b-ls294
    container_name: dokuwiki
    environment:
      - PUID=1000            # Your user ID (run `id -u` to find it)
      - PGID=1000            # Your group ID (run `id -g` to find it)
      - TZ=America/New_York  # Your timezone
    volumes:
      - dokuwiki_config:/config    # All DokuWiki data — pages, media, config, plugins
    ports:
      - "8080:80"            # Web UI (HTTP)
    restart: unless-stopped

volumes:
  dokuwiki_config:

Start the stack:

docker compose up -d

DokuWiki is available at http://your-server-ip:8080.

Initial Setup

1. Run the Installer

Navigate to http://your-server-ip:8080/install.php in your browser. Fill in:

Wiki Name — your wiki’s title
Superuser — admin username
Real Name — display name for the admin
Email — admin email address
Password — set a strong admin password
ACL Policy — choose “Open Wiki” (anyone can read/edit), “Public Wiki” (anyone can read, registered users edit), or “Closed Wiki” (registered users only)

Click Save. DokuWiki creates the initial configuration.

2. Restart the Container

After running the installer, restart the container to finalize the setup:

docker compose restart dokuwiki

3. Enable Nice URLs

Find Use nice URLs — set to .htaccess
Check Use slash as namespace separator in URLs
Click Save

This changes URLs from doku.php?id=page:name to /page/name.

Configuration

Access Control Lists (ACLs)

DokuWiki uses ACLs for permissions. Go to Admin > Access Control List Management:

Set namespace-level permissions (e.g., engineering:* readable by the engineers group)
Permissions: None, Read, Edit, Create, Upload, Delete
Permissions cascade — a rule on a namespace applies to all pages below it

User Management

Go to Admin > User Manager to create accounts. For larger deployments, configure LDAP or Active Directory authentication through the authldap plugin.

Plugins

DokuWiki’s plugin system is its greatest strength. Go to Admin > Extension Manager to browse and install plugins directly from the admin panel.

Essential plugins:

Wrap — advanced text/box formatting
Tag — tag-based page organization
Move — rename and move pages with automatic link updates
Discussion — add comment threads to pages
LDAP Auth — integrate with Active Directory/LDAP
Markdown — write in Markdown instead of DokuWiki syntax

DokuWiki Syntax

DokuWiki uses its own markup syntax (not Markdown by default):

====== Heading 1 ======
===== Heading 2 =====
==== Heading 3 ====

**bold**  //italic//  __underline__  ''monospaced''

  * Unordered list item
  - Ordered list item

[[pagename|Link text]]
[[https://example.com|External link]]

{{:image.png|Alt text}}

If you prefer Markdown, install the Markdown plugin.

Advanced Configuration (Optional)

Template Customization

DokuWiki templates control the site appearance. The default template works well, but popular alternatives include:

Mikio — modern, responsive design
Bootstrap3 — Bootstrap-based theme
Argon — clean, minimal

Install templates through the Extension Manager like plugins.

Caching

DokuWiki caches rendered pages aggressively by default. To adjust, edit conf/local.php:

$conf['cachetime'] = 86400; // Cache duration in seconds (default: 1 day)

Namespaces

DokuWiki organizes pages into namespaces (similar to folders). Create a page at engineering:setup-guide to put it in the engineering namespace. Create engineering:start to set the namespace landing page.

Reverse Proxy

Configure your reverse proxy to forward to port 8080. See Reverse Proxy Setup for full details.

Caddy example:

wiki.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

Nginx Proxy Manager: Create a proxy host pointing to http://dokuwiki:80 (same Docker network) or http://your-server-ip:8080.

Backup

DokuWiki’s flat-file architecture makes backups trivial. Everything lives in the /config volume:

# Back up the entire DokuWiki instance
docker run --rm -v dokuwiki_config:/data -v $(pwd):/backup alpine \
  tar czf /backup/dokuwiki-backup-$(date +%Y%m%d).tar.gz -C /data .

Key directories inside /config:

dokuwiki/data/pages/ — all wiki page content (plain text)
dokuwiki/data/media/ — uploaded files and images
dokuwiki/data/meta/ — page metadata (edit history, creation dates)
dokuwiki/conf/ — configuration files, ACLs, user database

To restore: extract the tarball into the named volume before starting the container.

Since everything is flat files, you can also back up DokuWiki by simply rsyncing the volume directory. See Backup Strategy for a complete approach.

Troubleshooting

install.php Returns 404 After Setup

Symptom: Trying to access install.php after the initial setup returns a 404 or forbidden error.

Fix: This is expected. DokuWiki removes install.php after the first successful setup for security. If you need to re-run the installer, create an empty install.php in the DokuWiki directory and restart the container.

Permission Denied Errors

Symptom: DokuWiki can’t save pages or upload media. Errors about “Permission denied” in the admin panel.

Fix: Check that PUID and PGID environment variables match the owner of the data files. The LinuxServer.io image sets ownership based on these values. Fix with:

docker compose exec dokuwiki chown -R abc:abc /config/dokuwiki

Plugins Won’t Install

Symptom: Extension Manager fails to download or install plugins.

Fix: Verify the container has internet access. Check DNS resolution inside the container:

docker compose exec dokuwiki nslookup download.dokuwiki.org

If DNS fails, add DNS settings to your Compose file:

    dns:
      - 1.1.1.1
      - 8.8.8.8

Slow Performance with Many Pages

Symptom: Wiki becomes slow with thousands of pages.

Fix: DokuWiki’s flat-file approach scales to tens of thousands of pages but can slow down with heavy indexing. Enable the built-in caching (it’s on by default). For very large wikis (50,000+ pages), consider Wiki.js or BookStack with a database backend.

Resource Requirements

RAM: ~80 MB idle, scales with concurrent users. 256 MB handles dozens of concurrent editors.
CPU: Minimal. PHP processes page requests on demand.
Disk: ~100 MB for the application, plus your content and media files.

DokuWiki is one of the lightest wiki options available.

Verdict

DokuWiki is the right choice when simplicity matters most. No database, no complex setup, no migration headaches. Back up your wiki by copying a folder. Restore it by pasting it back. The plugin ecosystem is massive and covers nearly every use case.

The trade-offs are real: the default syntax isn’t Markdown (though a plugin adds it), the UI looks dated compared to Wiki.js or BookStack, and the WYSIWYG editor is basic. If your team values modern UI and native Markdown, look at Wiki.js instead.

Choose DokuWiki if: you want zero database dependencies, easy backups, and a massive plugin ecosystem.

Choose Wiki.js if: you want a modern UI, Git sync, and native Markdown.

Choose MediaWiki if: you want Wikipedia-style features like structured data, extensions, and massive scalability.