canasta create
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canasta > create
canasta create
Create a new Canasta instance
Synopsis
Create a new Canasta MediaWiki instance. Generates configuration files, starts the containers, and runs the MediaWiki installer. With --skip-install, the installer is skipped and the instance is connected to an external database that already holds a MediaWiki schema.
With --database, the wiki is created from the dump instead of by the installer. Dumps that canasta export writes beside the main one for the wiki's extra databases (<stem>.<database>.sql or .sql.gz, where <stem> is the main dump's path without its .sql/.sql.gz extension) are imported too, and each database is declared for the wiki (see canasta backup databases). A file whose database name is not valid, is a MariaDB system database, or is another wiki's database is reported and skipped.
canasta create [flags]
Examples
canasta create -i mysite -w main -n example.com
canasta create -i mysite -w main -n example.com -d /path/to/dump.sql
canasta create -i mysite -w main -n localhost
canasta create -i mysite -w main -n example.com -e prod.env --skip-install
Flags
| Flag | Shorthand | Description | Default | Required | Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
--domain-name |
-n |
Domain name | ✓ | Both | |
--id |
-i |
Canasta instance ID | ✓ | Both | |
--wiki |
-w |
ID of the wiki | Unless --yamlfile |
Both | |
--access-mode |
Access mode for content PVCs (ReadWriteOnce or ReadWriteMany). Use ReadWriteMany with an RWM-capable storage class for multi-node multi-replica web pods. | Kubernetes | |||
--admin |
-a |
Initial wiki admin username | WikiSysop |
Both | |
--argocd-namespace |
Namespace for Argo CD | argocd |
Kubernetes | ||
--build-arg |
Build argument KEY=VALUE forwarded to the --build-from image builds (repeatable, e.g. --build-arg MW_VERSION=master). A user-supplied BASE_IMAGE overrides the auto-detected base. | Both | |||
--build-from |
Build from a source directory on the instance's host (with --host, an absolute path or one starting with a quoted '~' (for example '~/x')) | Both | |||
--canasta-image |
Custom Canasta image reference | Both | |||
--composer |
Path on the controller (the machine running canasta) to a custom composer.local.json | Both | |||
--database |
-d |
Path on the controller (the machine running canasta) to an existing database dump (.sql or .sql.gz). Extra-database dumps beside it (<stem>.<database>.sql or .sql.gz) are imported and declared for the wiki. | Both | ||
--docker-host |
Docker API socket on the target. Set this when the target uses rootless podman (typically unix:///run/user/<uid>/podman/podman.sock) or rootless Docker. Persisted to the instance registry so subsequent start, stop, config set, etc. inherit it. Leave unset for system Docker on /var/run/docker.sock. |
Both | |||
--envfile |
-e |
Path on the controller (the machine running canasta) to a .env file with password overrides | Both | ||
--global-settings |
-g |
Path on the controller (the machine running canasta) to a global settings file | Both | ||
--host |
-H |
Target host for the new instance (default: localhost) | Both | ||
--images |
-I |
Path on the controller (the machine running canasta) to a tar (.tar or .tar.gz) of a wiki's images directory at the hash-directory level (0/, 1/, archive/, ...). Its files are copied into the wiki's uploads (images/<wiki>/) as www-data — a placement restore, not importImages. Pairs with --database, which supplies the File: page rows; a leading images/ parent in the tar is elided. | Both | ||
--ingress-class |
Kubernetes ingress class name (e.g. nginx, traefik, alb) | Kubernetes | |||
--keep-config |
-k |
Keep config files on failure | Both | ||
--orchestrator |
-o |
Container orchestrator (k8s is an alias for kubernetes) | compose |
Both | |
--override |
-r |
File on the controller (the machine running canasta) to copy to docker-compose.override.yml | Compose | ||
--password |
-s |
Initial wiki admin password (auto-generated if not provided) | Both | ||
--path |
-p |
Canasta installation directory. Default is '.' for local installs; with --host, default is '~/canasta' on the remote and the value must be absolute (or '~'-prefixed) — relative paths are rejected because they'd otherwise be resolved against the laptop's filesystem. | . |
Both | |
--rootdbpass |
Root database password (auto-generated if not provided) | Both | |||
--site-name |
-t |
Display name of the wiki (defaults to wiki ID) | Both | ||
--skip-argocd-install |
Skip Argo CD installation (assume already present) | Kubernetes | |||
--skip-install |
Skip the MediaWiki installer (install.php) and connect to a database that already has a MediaWiki schema. Requires USE_EXTERNAL_DB=true (set via -e envfile) and cannot be combined with --database. Use this when an external database (e.g. RDS/Aurora) was provisioned separately and already holds the wiki's tables. | Both | |||
--skip-tls |
Skip automatic Let's Encrypt TLS setup | Both | |||
--staging-certs |
Use Let's Encrypt staging CA (untrusted by browsers, but avoids rate limits while testing) | Both | |||
--storage-class |
Kubernetes storage class for shared volumes (e.g. nfs, efs) | Kubernetes | |||
--tls-email |
Email for Let's Encrypt certificate notifications | Kubernetes | |||
--wiki-settings |
-l |
Path on the controller (the machine running canasta) to a per-wiki Settings.php | Both | ||
--wikidbpass |
Wiki database password (auto-generated if not provided) | Both | |||
--wikidbuser |
Database account MediaWiki connects with (default: mediawiki). The CLI creates it with access to the instance's wiki databases only. Pass root to start MediaWiki on the database administrator account; the next upgrade moves it to its own account unless CANASTA_DB_ROOT_ACCOUNT=true is set. | Both | |||
--yamlfile |
-f |
Initial wikis.yaml file, on the controller (the machine running canasta) | Both |
Global flags
| Flag | Shorthand | Description | Default | Required | Orchestrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
--help |
-h |
Show help message and exit | Both | ||
--verbose |
-v |
Enable verbose output | Both |
