https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=66155
Bug ID: 66155
Summary: Improve Special:MergeHistory and disallow history
merges from Special:Undelete
Product: MediaWiki
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: NEW
Severity: normal
Priority: Unprioritized
Component: Page editing
Assignee: [email protected]
Reporter: [email protected]
Web browser: ---
Mobile Platform: ---
MergeHistory was enabled on three small projects, apparently without code
review being done. We have not enabled MergeHistory on WMF projects in the
past, for the following reasons:
* The write query changes an unlimited number of rows, and so can cause slave
lag.
* The action is potentially extremely difficult to reverse, and so could cause
a great deal of damage to a wiki if a sysop account were compromised.
Now, it is true that the delete/undelete method for merging history has the
same two caveats, and so Special:MergeHistory is basically a nicer frontend for
the same feature. But providing a simplified frontend for a feature is a kind
of promotion, and it would be best if the backend were sensible before we did
such promotion.
Note that the fact that undeletion can merge history was accidental. The
feature was certainly not reviewed for the potential of malicious or accidental
damage before it was deployed, because the first people to discover it were
users, not developers.
I suggest:
* Deferring and throttling history merges, like what we do for user renames. Or
alternatively, limiting history merges to pages with a few thousand revisions.
* Adding an "unmerge" feature, accessible from a link on the merge log line.
Perhaps this could work by traversal of rev_parent_id starting from a rev_id
stored in log_params.
Once this is done, the mergehistory right can be given to sysops by default in
the MW core and on all WMF wikis, and then the misfeature allowing
Special:Undelete to merge histories can be removed.
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