Florent Georges wrote:
> Platonides wrote:
> 
>   Hi,
> 
>   Thank you for this detailed response!
> 
>>>   Is there anything I should know in particular?  The server
>>> I have to install MediaWiki on is using Ubuntu.  Is there
>>> anything wrong with its packaging of MediaWiki?
> 
>> First issue is that latest ubuntu, released on October only
>> provides mediawiki 1.13.3, while latest stable version is
>> 1.15.1.  The 1.13 branch was released in August 2008 and has
>> ended its one-year support from mediawiki developers.
> 
>   Yes, that's the traditional point in developer communities
> regarding packaging systems maintained outside the communities
> themselves.  So that's what I first checked, and on my Ubuntu
> Server 9.10 the version seems to be 1..15.0.  

My fault, I thought I was checking the version of Ubuntu 9.10 but was
instead seeing the version at 9.4. It's nice to see they updated it.


> Ok, that's neither
> the very latest one release 1.15.1, nor the latest trunk revision
> (but he, do I really want to run a trunk in production, for a
> product I am not a developer of? :-/)

1.15.1 is a bugfix over 1.15.0 so if they independently fixed their
version, it's ok I guess.

MediaWiki trunk is very stable. But I don't recommend to blindly run
it on a production site.


>   I think I haven't changed anything regarding APT on that
> server, but maybe I did, hence the difference...
> 
>> Installation of MediaWiki is done via a friendly web page on
>> both methods.
> 
>   Mmh, that's more a cons than a pro for me, as I install them
> from scripts (so we can replicate the entire environment in
> several copies: dev, test, prod, etc.)  I send an HTTP request
> from the scripts to simulate the user behind a browser, but that
> seems quite fragile to me.  Maybe I should instead save a copy of
> LocalSettings.php and simply copy it instead...

Create the database and insert there the content of
maintenance/tables.sql (read the comments at the beginning). You may
want to take care on the collation when you create the tables.

You can use (or require) a base LocalSettings and change just the dbname
and paths.


>> On the other hand, they move the mediawiki files over the
>> filesystem, so instead of having "everything in one folder",
>> it's spread in /etc/, /var/lib/mediawiki/,
>> /usr/share/doc/mediawiki/...
> 
>> Any documentation will refer to the official location, so this
>> redistribution often results in a user unable to locate its
>> files.
> 
>   From a maintenance PoV, I think this is a good thing, as this
> integrate better in the system's backups, right management, which
> partitions are in read-write or read-only, etc.  But I do not
> have any strong opinion here.

The only things to backup in MediaWiki are the database, the images/
folder and LocalSettings.php

The webserver only needs write access to images/ math/ and, if using
the web installer, config/ (which can be completely deleted after install).




>   Thanks again for those interesting thoughts.  I do not know
> exactly where, but at some point I think I've been convinced
> installing directly from a release would be the best option for
> me.
> 
>   Interestingly enough, I do not thing that's because of any of
> the above points ;-), but rather because I need to maintain
> MediaWiki for several virtual hosts on the same system, and to be
> able to install any of them from automatic scripts.  I guess that
> will be easier to control everything I need if I install
> everything myself than relying on the APT package (in particular
> the exact version I install).

That's funny. :)
Use whatever fits you better.

>   Some soft are easy to use in this kind of configuration.  For
> instance you install the SVN softs once, then create separate
> homes for repositories for different hosts.  For MediaWiki, I
> feel it is easier to install it once per host, and this is not
> possible with a system like APT.
> 
>   Thanks again, regards,

You are welcome.


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