Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:06:02 UTC
Fresh 1.11 wiki installations have interwiki.sql loaded by default. Installations upgrading to 1.11 do not get it loaded. Let's take a peek into the future. Perhaps around version 1.15. People who starting using MediaWiki after around 1.11 will be enjoying interwiki linking, while those who started earlier will be scratching their heads, even though both dutifully do regular updates. We examine the cause: This part of updaters.inc is good intentioned, function do_interwiki_update() { # Check that interwiki table exists; if it doesn't source it global $wgDatabase, $IP; if( $wgDatabase->tableExists( "interwiki" ) ) { echo "...already have interwiki table\n"; return true; } echo "Creating interwiki table: "; dbsource( archive("patch-interwiki.sql") ); echo "ok\n"; echo "Adding default interwiki definitions: "; dbsource( "$IP/maintenance/interwiki.sql" ); echo "ok\n"; } However, as this dump of the post update database shows, -- -- Table structure for table `wiki_interwiki` -- DROP TABLE IF EXISTS `wiki_interwiki`; CREATE TABLE `wiki_interwiki` ( `iw_prefix` char(32) NOT NULL, `iw_url` char(127) NOT NULL, `iw_local` tinyint(1) NOT NULL, `iw_trans` tinyint(1) NOT NULL default '0', UNIQUE KEY `iw_prefix` (`iw_prefix`) ) ENGINE=InnoDB DEFAULT CHARSET=latin1; -- -- Dumping data for table `wiki_interwiki` -- /*!40000 ALTER TABLE `wiki_interwiki` DISABLE KEYS */; LOCK TABLES `wiki_interwiki` WRITE; UNLOCK TABLES; /*!40000 ALTER TABLE `wiki_interwiki` ENABLE KEYS */; The table indeed exists, but in an empty state! People updating will always have the table, but by default empty, not nonexistent as the program assumes... except in the rare case one has removed it by hand. Yes, you don't want to trample peoples customizations, but what happens is that people see their friends can use interwiki links, but they can't even though they've done regular updates. So an update is not as good as a fresh install.
Added URL above which confirms bug.
It's my first Blocking bug. Feel free to revert it. It's just that it's a bad precedent to have updaters end up with a different database than fresh installers. Try it yourself. Updating 1.9 > 1.10 > 1.11 vs. installing 1.11 Anyway, I would sense the empty by existent table and fill it up.
P.S., when comparing 1.9 > 1.10 > 1.11 vs. 1.11 perhaps there are other database differences... perhaps add this kind of test for all new releases.
Reverted severity to normal. Doesn't block anything.
I'd probably recommend dumping the default interwiki table entirely. Anyway, the initial one is only a sample of content, and like other content (the initial Main Page) it's not going to be 'updated' overwriting the users' content. WONTFIX.
> recommend dumping the default interwiki table entirely. (People reading this should use TRUNCATE TABLE wiki_interwiki; if one DROPs it, it will only come back again, all filled up, next update.php run. And in the meantime, not having the table at all will break things...)
