-2004-08-12
+2005-06-12
MediaWiki
---------
MediaWiki is the software used for Wikipedia (http://www.wikipedia.org) and the
other Wikimedia Foundation websites. Compared to other wikis, it has an
-excellent range of features and support for high-traffic websites (Wikipedia
-peaks at 380 requests per second as of August 2004). However, it is generally
-harder to install. Be sure to follow the INSTALL document closely.
+excellent range of features and support for high-traffic websites using
+multiple servers (Wikimedia sites peak in the 5000+ requests per second range
+as of November 2005).
-Installation on a Microsoft Windows system is not recommended, however it is
-possible. Documentation for installation on Windows may be found at:
+While quite usable on smaller sites, you may find you have to "roll your own"
+local documentation, and some aspects of configuration may seem overcomplicated
+because MediaWiki is primarily targeted as an in-house tool.
- http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/Running_MediaWiki_on_Windows
+See the files RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL, and UPGRADE for details on system
+requirements and installation procedure.
The MediaWiki software was written by:
* Tim Starling
* Gabriel Wicke
* Ashar Voultoiz
+ * Evan Prodromou
+ * Ævar Arnfjörð Bjarmason
+ * Niklas Laxström
* Several others
-These developers hold the copyright to this work, and it is licensed under the
-terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 (see
-http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html). Derivative works and later versions of
-the code will also be considered free software licensed under the same terms.
+The contributors hold the copyright to this work, and it is licensed
+under the terms of the GNU General Public License, version 2 or later[1]
+(see http://www.fsf.org/licenses/gpl.html). Derivative works and later
+versions of the code must be free software licensed under the same
+terms. This includes "extensions" that use MediaWiki functions or
+variables; see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.html#GPLAndPlugins
+for details.
-The newly-founded Wikimedia Foundation currently has no legal rights to the
-software, although copyright may be assigned to it at a later date. Wikimedia
-has not funded any of the development work.
+The Wikimedia Foundation currently has no legal rights to the software and has
+not funded any of the development work.
-Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are also
-released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of users
-under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.
+[1] Sections of code written exclusively by Lee Crocker or Erik Moeller are
+also released into the public domain, which does not impair the obligations of
+users under the GPL for use of the whole code or other sections thereof.
Many thanks to the Wikipedia regulars for testing and suggestions.
-The code is currently maintained at Sourceforge under the project "wikipedia",
+The official website for mediawiki is located at:
+ http://www.mediawiki.org/
+
+The code is currently maintained at SourceForge under the project "wikipedia",
module name "phase3". You can view the code in CVS there:
- http://wikipedia.sourceforge.net
+ http://cvs.sourceforge.net/viewcvs.py/wikipedia/phase3/
-Please report bugs and make feature requests in our BugZilla system:
+Please report bugs and make feature requests in our Bugzilla system:
- http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org
+ http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org
Documentation and discussion on new features may be found at:
+ http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_FAQ
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_User%27s_Guide
- http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_development
+ http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_development
+
If you are setting up your own wiki based on this software, it is highly
-recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-l:
+recommended that you subscribe to mediawiki-announce:
- http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
+ http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
The mailing list is very low volume, and is intended primarily for
announcements of new versions, bug fixes, and security issues.
-PHP
-
-The code is written in PHP. Version 4.3.2 or higher is recommended. There are
-known issues with early 4.2.x releases. Also, the Monobook skin currently does
-not work under the new PHP 5 (but you can use one of the older skins).
-
-MySQL
-
-MediaWiki requires MySQL 3.23 or later, and PHP-MySQL. Version 4.0 or later is
-strongly recommended.
-
-Operating system
-
-The code was written on and for Linux, and no attempt has been made to make it
-portable to other OSs. The math support in particular has run-time dependencies
-on things like TeTeX and GhostScript that are generally found in Linux but not
-other OSs. However, we have had reports of successful installation on Windows,
-albeit without TeX support.
+For installation and upgrade details, see the files RELEASE-NOTES, INSTALL,
+and UPGRADE.