10 steps - a simple guide to setup dokuwiki on nginx and ubuntu 16.04 (even on AWS EC2)

dokuwiki ubuntu 16.04

# 1. update apt    
apt-get update

# 2. install nginx and php (source https://forum.dokuwiki.org/post/52724;?unb855sess=af28c8160e97b05e634124aa83451119)
apt-get install nginx php php-fpm php7.0-xml

# 3. download dokuwiki
curl https://download.dokuwiki.org/src/dokuwiki/dokuwiki-stable.tgz -o dokuwiki.tgz
tar xvf dokuwiki.tgz
dokuwiki-2017-02-19e /var/www/dokuwiki

# 4. create an nginx conf, we'll use default for an easy setup
vim /etc/nginx/sites-available/default

# 5. add this to the file:
##### START ####
server {
  listen 80 default_server;
  listen [::]:80 default_server;
  
  client_max_body_size 4M;
  client_body_buffer_size 128k;
	
  root /var/www/dokuwiki;

  # Add index.php to the list if you are using PHP
  index doku.php

  server_name _;

  # SECURITY: this should be uncomment AFTER the INSTALLATION
  # location ~ /(data/|conf/|bin/|inc/|install.php) { deny all; }
 
  location ~* \.(js|css|png|jpg|jpeg|gif|ico)$ {
    expires 31536000s;
    add_header Pragma "public";
    add_header Cache-Control "max-age=31536000, public, must-revalidate, proxy-revalidate";
    log_not_found off;
  }
 
  location / { try_files $uri $uri/ @dokuwiki; }
 
  location @dokuwiki {
    rewrite ^/_media/(.*) /lib/exe/fetch.php?media=$1 last;
    rewrite ^/_detail/(.*) /lib/exe/detail.php?media=$1 last;
    rewrite ^/_export/([^/]+)/(.*) /doku.php?do=export_$1&id=$2 last;
    rewrite ^/(.*) /doku.php?id=$1&$args last;
  }
 
  location ~ \.php$ {
    try_files $uri $uri/ /doku.php;
    include fastcgi_params;
    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME $document_root$fastcgi_script_name;
    fastcgi_param REDIRECT_STATUS 200;
    fastcgi_pass unix:/run/php/php7.0-fpm.sock;
  }
}
    
# 6. restart nginx
service nginx restart

# 7. visit /install.php and follow the instructions

# 8. uncomment the "SECURITY" line in your nginx conf

# 9. delete install.php

# 10. review files and directory permission if a warning is shown - https://www.dokuwiki.org/security#web_access_security

# 11. visit your wiki, now it should be installed