https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4421

--- Comment #64 from Aryeh Gregor <[email protected]> 2010-04-02 
17:20:30 UTC ---
Okay, so:

1) Problem with the current system: Cannot upload a new version of a file in a
different format while preserving history.
2) Problem with the current system (not mentioned for a while): Google
apparently doesn't index image pages properly on non-Wikimedia MW installs,
because it assumes anything ending in .png/.jpeg/etc. is an image page, not an
HTML page.
3) Problem with the proposed system: Files are possible that have no extension,
or a completely misleading extension, so it's not clear what general type of
file they are (although sometimes this is unclear anyway).

There are several possible solutions I can think of.  The status quo solves (3)
but not (1) or (2).  The proposal solves (1) and (2) but not (3).  I don't see
any reason why we wouldn't want to allow the proposed changes as an option;
some wiki admins will surely prefer the option, although others may not.  It
could be disabled by default.

Another possibility is to require extensions as now, but allow upload of a new
file to an existing filename of a different type.  This would automatically
rename the file to the new appropriate extension, and would only work if that's
possible.  Reverting to an earlier file of a different type would also change
the name.  This solves (1) and (3) but not (2).  It would be a bit messy, but I
think strictly better than the status quo.

(In reply to comment #52)
> Hi Aryeh: the reason I chose to store the file extension in addition to MIME 
> is
> that both img_file_ext='jpg' or 'jpeg' are both valid values when
> img_minor_mime is 'jpeg'.  While one might be able to infer what the extension
> would be based on the preferred extension given the MIME type, it's 
> potentially
> a booby trap for devs and sysadmins down the road, who might unintentionally
> corrupt a wiki by changing the preferred file extension from one to the 
> other. 
> What may seem like a harmless switch from "jpg" to "jpeg" as the preferred
> extension would suddenly cause a lot of existing images, archive images, and
> thumbnails to break.  By storing this in the DB, changing the preferred
> extension in the configuration/code is safe, with only future updates taking 
> on
> the new preferred extension.

Why not just hardcode "jpg" as the preferred version, and never change it? 
That seems a lot simpler and less error-prone than keeping track of it.

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