Extend documentation on maintenance scripts

diff --git a/maintenance/README b/maintenance/README
index 363d298..c9f92ee 100644 (file)
--- a/maintenance/README
+++ b/maintenance/README
@@ -1,10 +1,79 @@
-The .sql scripts in this directory are not meant to be run
-standalone, although they can be in some cases if you know
-what you're doing.  Most of the time you'll want to run the
-.php scripts from the command line.  You must run them from
-this directory, and the LocalSettings.php file in the
-directory above must point to the installation.
+== MediaWiki Maintenance ==
 
-The scripts in archives are for updating databases from
-older versions of the software.
+The .sql scripts in this directory are not intended to be run standalone,
+although this is appropriate in some cases, e.g. manual creation of blank tables
+prior to an import.
 
+Most of the PHP scripts need to be run from the command line. Prior to doing so,
+ensure that the LocalSettings.php file in the directory above points to the
+proper installation.
+
+Certain scripts will require elevated access to the database. In order to
+provide this, first create a MySQL user with "all" permissions on the wiki
+database, and then place their username and password in an AdminSettings.php
+file in the directory above. See AdminSettings.sample for specifics on this.
+
+=== Brief explanation of files ===
+
+A lot of the files in this directory are PHP scripts used to perform various
+maintenance tasks on the wiki database, e.g. rebuilding link tables, updating
+the search indices, etc. The files in the "archives" directory are used to
+upgrade the database schema when updating the software. Some schema definitions
+for alternative (as yet unsupported) database management systems are stored
+here too.
+
+The "storage" directory contains scripts and resources useful for working with
+external storage clusters, and are not likely to be particularly useful to the
+vast majority of installations. This directory does contain the compressOld
+scripts, however, which can be useful for compacting old data.
+
+=== Maintenance scripts ===
+
+As noted above, these should be run from the command line. Not all scripts are
+listed, as some are Wikimedia-specific, and some are not applicable to most
+installations.
+
+       changePassword.php
+       Reset the password of a specified user
+
+       cleanupSpam.php
+       Mass-revert insertion of linkspam
+
+       deleteOldRevisions.php
+       Erase old revisions of pages from the database
+
+       dumpBackup.php
+       Backup dump script
+
+       dumpHTML.php
+       Produce an HTML dump of a wiki
+
+       importDump.php
+       XML dump importer
+
+       nukePage.php
+       Wipe a page and all revisions from the database
+
+       reassignEdits.php
+       Reassign edits from one user to another
+
+       rebuildImages.php
+       Update image metadata records
+
+       rebuildMessages.php
+       Update the MediaWiki namespace after changing site language
+
+       rebuildtextindex.php
+       Rebuild the fulltext search indices
+
+       refreshLinks.php
+       Rebuild the link tables
+
+       removeUnusedAccounts.php
+       Remove user accounts which have made no edits
+
+       runJobs.php
+       Immediately complete all jobs in the job queue
+
+       update.php
+       Check and upgrade the database schema to the current version
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