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 1.8 ==
   7
   8 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET.
   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 == Configuration changes ==
  22
  23 * None yet!
  24
  25
  26 == Major new features ==
  27
  28 * (bug 550) Allow blocks on anonymous users only.
  29
  30 == Changes since 1.7 ==
  31
  32 * (bug 6562) Removed unmaintained ParserXml.php for now
  33 * History paging overlap bug fixed
  34 * (bug 6586) Regression in "unblocked" subtitle
  35 * Don't put empty-page message into view-source when page text is blank
  36 * (bug 6587) Remove redundant "allnonarticles" message
  37 * Block improvements: Allow blocks on anonymous users only. Optionally allow
  38   or disallow account creation from blocked IP addresses. Prevent duplicate
  39   blocks. Fixed the problem of expiry and unblocking erroneously affecting
  40   multiple blocks. Fixed confusing lack of error message when a blocked user
  41   attempts to create an account. Fixed inefficiency of Special:Ipblocklist in
  42   the presence of large numbers of blocks; added indexes and implemented an
  43   indexed pager.
  44 * (bug 6448) Allow filtering of Special:Newpages according to username
  45 * (bug 6618) Improve permissions/error detection in Special:Lockdb
  46
  47 == Languages updated ==
  48
  49 * Albanian (sq)
  50 * Brazilian Portuguese (pt-br)
  51 * Catalan (ca)
  52 * English (en)
  53 * German (de)
  54 * Hebrew (he)
  55 * Hungarian (hu)
  56 * Indonesian (id)
  57 * Russian (ru)
  58 * Telugu (te)
  59
  60 == Compatibility ==
  61
  62 MediaWiki 1.8 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
  63
  64 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
  65 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
  66
  67
  68 == Upgrading ==
  69
  70 Several changes to the database have been made from 1.6:
  71
  72 * A new "langlinks" table tracks interlanguage links
  73 * A new "filearchive" table stores information on deleted files
  74 * A new "querycache_info" table stores information on query page updates
  75
  76 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
  77 the upgrade.
  78
  79 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
  80 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
  81 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
  82
  83 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
  84
  85
  86
  87 === Caveats ===
  88
  89 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
  90 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
  91 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
  92 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
  93 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
  94
  95
  96 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
  97
  98
  99 === Online documentation ===
 100
 101 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 102 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 103 License:
 104
 105   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 106
 107
 108 === Mailing list ===
 109
 110 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 111 wikitech-l list:
 112
 113   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 114
 115 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 116
 117   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 118
 119 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 120 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 121
 122
 123 === IRC help ===
 124
 125 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net