due to a disruption on my previous server, I had to move in a rush to a new server.

choosing the right provider

• http://240plan.ovh.net/infos/python.cgi
• http://240plan.ovh.net/net2ftp/index.php

getting a basic MoinMoin instance running

• http://moinmo.in/via_ftp_on_vserver
• http://hg.moinmo.in/moin/1.9/raw-file/1.9.3/docs/REQUIREMENTS

getting the path of the pages on the server using the explore.py script in http://wiki.python.org/jython/HelpOnInstalling/ApacheOnLinuxFtp

setting up an empty MoinMoin instance, using:

• the following cgi-bin/index.cgi script:

   1 #!/usr/bin/python
   2
   3 import sys, os
   4
   5 sys.path.insert(0, '/homez.52/invibe/moin')
   6
   7 os.environ['FCGI_FORCE_CGI'] = 'N' # 'Y' for (slow) CGI, 'N' for FCGI
   8
   9 from MoinMoin.web.flup_frontend import CGIFrontEnd
  10 CGIFrontEnd().run()
  

• setting up the right path in xikiconfig.py :

  1     data_dir = '/homez.52/invibe/moin/data/'
  2     data_underlay_dir = '/homez.52/invibe/moin/underlay_min/'
  3     url_prefix_static = '/moin_static193'
  4     url_mappings = {'/cgi-bin/index.cgi':'/LaurentPerrinet'}
  

• note that I installed the htdocs as www/moin_static193

once functional, getting my old stuff on the new server

• do not forget to set up permissions to 755 on the site (I used their online ftp tool for that - http://240plan.ovh.net/net2ftp/index.php )

rewrite rule

• http://rabaix.net/en/articles/2007/08/31/how-to-install-django-on-ovh-net

• http://guide.ovh.com/HtaccessModRewrite

• I opted for this config in the www/.htaccess file:

  Options +FollowSymlinks
  RewriteEngine on
  RewriteRule ^LaurentPerrinet$  LaurentPerrinet/ [L]
  RewriteRule ^LaurentPerrinet(.*)$  /cgi-bin/index.cgi$1 [L]
  RewriteRule !(moin_static193|images|robots.txt|favicon.ico|cgi-bin) LaurentPerrinet  [L]
  

overall, this process was not linear and quite frustrating as there is no ssh (only a ftp) access and absolutely no simple guide and worse, no logfile from apache (you see quite often an "error 500" without any cue as what is going wrong)