RELEASE-NOTES

   1 = MediaWiki release notes =
   2
   3 Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals
   4 setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can.
   5
   6 == MediaWiki 1.6.0 ==
   7
   8 April 5, 2006
   9
  10 MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
  11 quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
  12 "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.
  13
  14 Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
  15 from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature development happen
  16 will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.
  17
  18 Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
  19 it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
  20
  21
  22 === What's new in 1.6 ===
  23
  24 User interface:
  25 * The account creation form has been separated from the user login form.
  26 * Page protection/unprotection uses a new, expanded form
  27
  28 Templates:
  29 * Categories and "what links here" now update as expected when adding or
  30   removing links in a template.
  31 * Template parameters can now have default values, as {{{name|default value}}}
  32
  33 Uploads:
  34 * Optional support for rasterizing SVG images to PNG for inline dislay
  35
  36 Feeds:
  37 * Feed generation upgraded to Atom 1.0
  38 * Diffs in RSS and Atom feeds are now colored for improved readability.
  39
  40 Database:
  41 * MySQL 3.23.x support dropped; 4.0 or later required
  42 * Experimental support for Unicode mode of MySQL 4.1/5.0 (moderately tested)
  43 * Experimental Oracle support (not well tested!)
  44
  45 Anti-spam extension support:
  46 * Spam blacklist extension now has support for automated cleanup:
  47   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/SpamBlacklist_extension
  48 * Support for a captcha extension to restrict automated spam edits:
  49   http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/ConfirmEdit_extension
  50
  51 Numerous bug fixes and other behind-the-scenes changes have been made;
  52 see the file HISTORY for a complete change list.
  53
  54
  55 == Compatibility ==
  56
  57 Older PHP 4.2 and 4.1 releases are no longer supported; PHP 4 users must
  58 upgrade to 4.3 or later.
  59
  60 MediaWiki 1.6 is the last major version to support PHP 4; future versions
  61 will require PHP 5.
  62
  63 MySQL 3.23.x is longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
  64 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
  65
  66
  67 == Upgrading ==
  68
  69 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.5; these are relatively
  70 minor but do require that the update process be run before the new code will
  71 work properly:
  72
  73 * A new "templatelinks" table tracks template inclusions.
  74 * A new "externallinks" table tracks URL links; this can be used by a
  75   mass spam-cleanup tool in the SpamBlacklist extension.
  76 * A new "jobs" table stores a queue of pages to update in the background; this
  77   is used to update links in including pages when templates are edited.
  78
  79 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
  80 the upgrade.
  81
  82
  83 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
  84 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
  85 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
  86
  87 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
  88
  89
  90
  91 === Caveats ===
  92
  93 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
  94 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
  95 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
  96 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
  97 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
  98
  99
 100 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 101
 102
 103 === Online documentation ===
 104
 105 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 106 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 107 License:
 108
 109   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 110
 111
 112 === Mailing list ===
 113
 114 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 115 wikitech-l list:
 116
 117   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 118
 119 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 120
 121   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 122
 123 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 124 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 125
 126
 127 === IRC help ===
 128
 129 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net