After syncing wiki content from local to production via tar-over-SSH, DokuWiki displays the following error:

The datadir ('pages') at /app/www/public/data/pages is not found, isn't accessible or writable. You should check your config and permission settings. Or maybe you want to run the installer?

When transferring files from macOS to the Linux container via tar, the files retain the macOS user ID (UID 501) and group ID (dialout) instead of the container user (abc/users). The DokuWiki container runs as the abc user and cannot access files owned by UID 501.

Additionally, macOS creates ._ metadata files (resource forks) during tar operations, which clutter the directory.

Fix ownership immediately:

docker exec folkzone-wiki chown -R abc:users /config/dokuwiki/data/pages

Remove macOS metadata files:

docker exec folkzone-wiki find /config/dokuwiki/data/pages -name '._*' -delete

Prevent recurrence with sync script:

Use the sync-wiki.sh script which automatically handles ownership and metadata cleanup:

#!/bin/bash
WIKI_DIR="/Users/brennan/Documents/GitHub/homelab/folkzone-new/wiki-live"
SSH_KEY="$HOME/.omg-lol-keys/id_ed25519"
SSH_USER="brennan@192.168.1.65"
CONTAINER="folkzone-wiki"
CONTAINER_PATH="/config/dokuwiki/data/pages"
 
# Sync with COPYFILE_DISABLE to prevent macOS resource forks
COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 tar czf - -C "$WIKI_DIR" . | \
  ssh -i "$SSH_KEY" "$SSH_USER" "docker exec -i $CONTAINER tar xzf - -C $CONTAINER_PATH"
 
# Fix ownership
ssh -i "$SSH_KEY" "$SSH_USER" "docker exec $CONTAINER chown -R abc:users $CONTAINER_PATH"
 
# Clean up macOS metadata files
ssh -i "$SSH_KEY" "$SSH_USER" "docker exec $CONTAINER find $CONTAINER_PATH -name '._*' -delete"

Always use the sync-wiki.sh script instead of manual tar commands. The script:

1. Sets COPYFILE_DISABLE=1 to prevent macOS resource fork creation 2. Syncs content via tar 3. Automatically fixes ownership to abc:users 4. Automatically removes ._ metadata files

• Troubleshooting Index
• DokuWiki Service
• Wiki Maintenance
• Return to folkzone