+http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Backing_up_a_wiki provides an overview of
+the backup process. You should also refer to the documentation for your
+database management system for information on backing up a database, and to
+your operating system documentation for information on making copies of files.
+
+=== Perform the file upgrade ===
+
+Download the files for the new version of the software. These are available
+as a compressed "tar" archive from the Wikimedia Download Service
+(http://download.wikimedia.org/mediawiki).
+
+You can also obtain the new files directly from our Subversion source code
+repository, via a checkout or export operation.
+
+Replace the existing MediaWiki files with the new. You should preserve the
+LocalSettings.php file and the "extensions" and "images" directories.
+
+Depending upon your configuration, you may also need to preserve additional
+directories, including a custom upload directory ($wgUploadDirectory),
+deleted file archives, and any custom skins.
+
+=== Perform the database upgrade ===
+
+==== From the web ====
+
+If you browse to the web-based installation script (usually at
+/mw-config/index.php) from your wiki installation you can follow the script and
+upgrade your database in place.
+
+==== From the command line ====
+
+From the command line, browse to the "maintenance" directory and run the
+update.php script to check and update the schema. This will insert missing
+tables, update existing tables, and move data around as needed. In most cases,
+this is successful and nothing further needs to be done.
+
+=== Check configuration settings ===
+
+The names of configuration variables, and their default values and purposes,
+can change between release branches, e.g. $wgDisableUploads in 1.4 is replaced
+with $wgEnableUploads in later versions. When upgrading, consult the release
+notes to check for configuration changes which would alter the expected
+behaviour of MediaWiki.
+
+=== Check installed extensions ===