How to add or improve a page

This wiki is a shared notebook for sysadmins. Every page is a plain text file in a public Git repository, and every change goes through a pull request that the site owner reviews before anything is published. There is no form to fill in and no account on this site. You need a free GitHub account and a web browser.

Before you write

1. Search first. Use the wiki search and the site search. If the topic is already covered, improve that page instead of adding a new one.
2. Pick the right kind of page. Fixes ("this broke, this worked"), tips (small time savers), experiences (what went wrong and what you learned) and ideas (things worth trying) each have a section on the wiki home page.
3. Read the Wiki rules. They are short, and they keep the wiki safe to read.

Improve an existing page

1. Open the page and click Improve this page at the bottom. GitHub opens its editor.
2. Make your change and describe it in a sentence.
3. Choose to propose the change. GitHub creates a pull request for you.

Add a new page

1. Click Add a new page at the bottom of any wiki page. GitHub opens a new file with the page template filled in.
2. Change your-page-name.md to a short name in lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens, such as nginx-502-after-upgrade.md.
3. Fill in the template, then propose the new file.

An automatic check runs on your pull request and tells you if something in the page cannot be used, such as a broken link or a missing field. Fix what it says and the check runs again.

The page format

A page is a short block of settings at the top, then the text:

---
title: A short, clear title
category: fixes
summary: One sentence that says what this page helps with.
date: 2026-10-31
author: Your name or nickname (optional)
tested_on: Ubuntu 24.04, for example (optional)
tags: disk, cleanup
---

## The problem

What you saw, with the exact error message.

## What worked

The commands, in a code block.

The settings:

What you can write

• Headings with ## and ### (the title is already the main heading)
• Paragraphs, bold with **bold**, italic with *italic*, and inline code with backticks
• Code blocks between lines of three backticks, with the language after the first three, such as bash
• Bullet lists, numbered lists (one level only), simple tables and quotes starting with >
• Links: [text](https://example.org) for the web, [[page-name]] for another wiki page, and [text](site:docs/sysadmin/rsync.html) for a page on the main TechCommune site

Not supported: pictures, raw HTML (it is shown as text), and links that are not HTTPS.

What happens next

The site owner reads your pull request, may ask for changes or edit it, and then either merges it or closes it with a reason. Merged pages are published to the wiki. Because the repository is public, your GitHub name and the commit history are public too.