finiki:Updating and upgrading
 | This article is the wiki's policy regarding MediaWiki updates and upgrades in a nutshell:
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Updating and upgrading the wiki software is the responsibility of the wiki administrator and members of the administrators group.
In theory, MediaWiki new major releases are issued every six months, and release branches continue to receive security updates for up to a year after the first release.
Minor releases, i.e. point (dot) updates, are expected every quarter.
Every second year a major release is designated as a long term support release (LTS) which becomes known as the current long-term support version. There will be a one-year overlap in LTS support with the previous version known as the legacy long-term support version.
Our policy is to utilize MediaWiki's current long-term support release (LTS).
In addition to updating or upgrading the MediaWiki software, there are some additional wiki administrative tasks, such as updating various interface affecting pages, templates and modules.
Updating
MediaWiki regularly provides point (dot) release updates, which are either:
- maintenance releases
- maintenance and security releases.
The Release notes provided for the point release will indicate whether or not security fixes are included in the release.
Policy states that maintenance and security releases are promptly updated due to the fact that security issues become widely known. Maintenance releases are updated within a few days of the release announcement.
To perform the update the best practice is to follow MediaWiki's updating the files process. Depending on the frequency of the point releases, it is not always necessary for the Installed extensions need to be updated. That is a judgement call of the wiki administrator.
Post-update wiki administrative tasks
- Confirm version numbers for MediaWiki and all extensions in use using Special:Version
- Check that all Widgets are functioning correctly using the Widget test page.
- Test the update by browsing the wiki and check that the following operations work as expected:
- Viewing page
- Editing pages
- Uploading a file (optional to test server permissions)
Upgrading
Whenever a new MediaWiki LTS version becomes available the wiki is upgraded, typically within a few weeks of the release announcement.
LTS version releases skip over a number of MediaWiki feature releases, i.e. from 1.39.x to 1.43.0. It will be necessary to review the Release notes for each of feature releases between the legacy LTS version and the current LTS version. For each of the in between releases, i.e. 1.40, 1.41 and 1.42, it is important to pay particular attention to changes that might be needed to LocalSettings.php and the new user-facing features.
To perform the upgrade the best practice is to follow MediaWiki's instructions for Upgrading while wiki stays online. All Installed extensions need to be upgraded.
Post-upgrade wiki administrative tasks
- Confirm version numbers for MediaWiki and all extensions in use using Special:Version
- Check that all Widgets are functioning correctly using the Widget test page.
- Test the upgrade by browsing the wiki and check that the following operations work as expected:
- Viewing page
- Editing pages
- Uploading a file (optional to test server permissions)
- Update the main user interface affecting pages. The wiki uses these files to maintain a "look and feel" consistent to Wikipedia. How this is accomplished is described in MediaWiki's Manual:Interface/Stylesheets. To implement use Wikipedia's Special:Export to generate an XML file containingand then import the generated XML file into the wiki using Special:Import.
MediaWiki:Common.css MediaWiki.Common.js MediaWiki:Vector.css MediaWiki:Vector-toc-beginning.css MediaWiki:Vector-2022.css MediaWiki:Vector-2022.js MediaWiki:Print.css MediaWiki:Print.js MediaWiki:Mobile.css MediaWiki:Mobile.js MediaWiki:Minerva.css MediaWiki:Minerva.js MediaWiki:Group-user.css MediaWiki:Group-user.js
- Wikipedia has been working to remove styles from MediaWiki:Common.css and friends which are to be converted to TemplateStyles. Therefore when updating these files it is good practice to review Category:Templates using TemplateStyles and/or the TemplateStyles used in finiki to ensure they are up-to-date.