= MediaWiki release notes =

Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals
setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can.

== MediaWiki 1.6.0 ==

April 5, 2006

MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
"ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.

Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature development happen
will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.

Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN


=== What's new in 1.6 ===

User interface:
* The account creation form has been separated from the user login form.
* Page protection/unprotection uses a new, expanded form

Templates:
* Categories and "what links here" now update as expected when adding or
  removing links in a template.
* Template parameters can now have default values, as {{{name|default value}}}

Uploads:
* Optional support for rasterizing SVG images to PNG for inline dislay

Feeds:
* Feed generation upgraded to Atom 1.0
* Diffs in RSS and Atom feeds are now colored for improved readability.

Database:
* MySQL 3.23.x support dropped; 4.0 or later required
* Experimental support for Unicode mode of MySQL 4.1/5.0 (moderately tested)
* Experimental Oracle support (not well tested!)

Anti-spam extension support:
* Spam blacklist extension now has support for automated cleanup:
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SpamBlacklist_extension
* Support for a captcha extension to restrict automated spam edits:
  http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ConfirmEdit_extension

Numerous bug fixes and other behind-the-scenes changes have been made;
see the file HISTORY for a complete change list.


== Compatibility ==

Older PHP 4.2 and 4.1 releases are no longer supported; PHP 4 users must
upgrade to 4.3 or later.

MediaWiki 1.6 is the last major version to support PHP 4; future versions
will require PHP 5.

MySQL 3.23.x is longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.


== Upgrading ==

Several changes to the database have been made from 1.5; these are relatively
minor but do require that the update process be run before the new code will
work properly:

* A new "templatelinks" table tracks template inclusions.
* A new "externallinks" table tracks URL links; this can be used by a
  mass spam-cleanup tool in the SpamBlacklist extension.
* A new "jobs" table stores a queue of pages to update in the background; this
  is used to update links in including pages when templates are edited.

To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
the upgrade.


If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!

See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.



=== Caveats ===

Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)


For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.


=== Online documentation ===

Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
License:

  http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation


=== Mailing list ===

A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
wikitech-l list:

  http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l

A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:

  http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce

It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.


=== IRC help ===

There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net