RELEASE-NOTES

   1 = MediaWiki release notes =
   2
   3 Security reminder: MediaWiki does not require PHP's register_globals
   4 setting since version 1.2.0. If you have it on, turn it *off* if you can.
   5
   6 == MediaWiki 1.9 ==
   7
   8 THIS IS NOT A RELEASE YET.
   9
  10 MediaWiki is now using a "continuous integration" development model with
  11 quarterly snapshot releases. The latest development code is always kept
  12 "ready to run", and in fact runs our own sites on Wikipedia.
  13
  14 Release branches will continue to receive security updates for about a year
  15 from first release, but nonessential bugfixes and feature development happen
  16 will be made on the development trunk and appear in the next quarterly release.
  17
  18 Those wishing to use the latest code instead of a branch release can obtain
  19 it from source control: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download_from_SVN
  20
  21 == Configuration changes ==
  22
  23
  24 == Major new features ==
  25
  26
  27 == Changes since 1.8 ==
  28
  29 * (bug 6835) Removing the includes/Parser.php::getTemplateArgs() function,
  30   because it seems to be unused.
  31 * (bug 7139) Increasing the visual width of the edit summary field on larger
  32   screen sizes, for the default monobook skin.
  33 * Fix PHP notice and estimates for dumpBackup.php and friends
  34 * Improved register_globals paranoia checks
  35 * (bug 7545) Fix PHP version check on install
  36 * Disable PHP exception backtrace printing unless $wgShowExceptionDetails
  37   is set. Backtraces may contain sensitive information in function call
  38   parameters.
  39 * (bug 6164) Avoid smashing Cite state if message transformation triggers
  40   during bad image list check, by skipping message transformation.
  41   This isn't a good permanent fix.
  42 * (bug 6918) Stopped borders and backgrounds from showing through floated
  43   tables in Monobook
  44 * (bug 6868) Un-hardcode section edit link style
  45 * (bug 3205) Stop right floats from stacking horizontally in non-Monobook skins
  46 * Added global $wgStyleVersion to centralize bumping CSS and JS file versions
  47   for cache-friendly style and script updating
  48 * (bug 7562) Fix non-ASCII namespaces on Windows/XAMPP servers
  49 * Friendlier check for PHP 5 in command-line scripts; it's common for parallel
  50   PHP 4 and 5 installations to interfere on the command-line.
  51 * Fix regression in autoconfirm permission check
  52 * (bug 3015) Add CSS ids to subcategory and page sections on category pages
  53 * (bug 7587) Fix erroneous id for specialpage tab, enabling informative popup
  54 * (bug 7599) Fix thumbnail purging, PHP notices on HTCP image page purge
  55 * (bug 7581) Update language name for cbk-zam
  56 * (bug 7444) Update namespace translations for Telugu (te), kept old values as
  57   alias for compatibility
  58 * (bug 4525) Move section links down visually to same level as headings
  59   (editsection links are now inside the heading elements)
  60 * Workaround for http://bugs.php.net/bug.php?id=31892 , PATH_INFO and hence
  61   URLs of the style /index.php/Main_Page were broken on some CGI installations.
  62 * (bug 7623) Validate custom HTML id's correctly in Monobook interface
  63 * (bug 2241) Fix collision of 'w' and 'd' accesskeys
  64 * (bug 5795) CSS class added to body based on page name for page-specific
  65   styling
  66 * (bug 6276) Stopped search field from getting too large in Cologne Blue
  67 * (bug 7644) User creations that are aborted by hooks shouldn't be counted
  68   against account creations per day limit
  69 * (bug 7636) Show Firefox 2 users correct accesskey prefix
  70 * (bug 6427) Block blocked IPs from using the mail password function
  71   to allow blocking of flooders
  72 * Include common.css from classic-style skins in main HTML with the bump URL
  73   FIXME: this may leave doubled rules which won't stand up to certain changes.
  74   Will want to adjust these more to eliminate the dupe @includes.
  75 * (bug 7607) Add Karakalpak (kaa) to Names.php and stub message file for linktrail
  76 * (bug 7582) Add 'tog-nolangconversion' to MessagesEn.php.
  77   This key is need for languages with variants (zh, sr, kk)
  78 * (bug 7606) MediaWiki messages for "rss" and "atom" missing
  79 * (bug 7609) Add some more '*-summary' messages to MessagesEn.php with empty
  80   strings to allow better localisation via Special:Allmessages. Mark this new
  81   messages as optional for localisation.
  82 * Fix user_newpass upgrade for prefixed tables (reported by Fyren)
  83 * (bug 7663) Include language variant switcher links on Nostalgia skin
  84 * (bug 6531) Fix PHP fatal error on installation page with bad username input.
  85 * (bug 6977) Remove 404 link for autogenerated database documentation.
  86 * (bug 7369) Allow "Show Changes" without requiring edit token.
  87 * (bug 7687) Fix movetalk box checks itself when confirming a delete and move.
  88 * (bug 7684) Obey watchcreated preference for Special:Upload watch checkbox
  89 * (bug 7686) Include id attribute on delete form confirmation button
  90 * Allow compound interwiki prefixes in $wgImportSources
  91 * (bug 7304) Added redirect table to store redirect targets.
  92 * Added querycachetwo table (similar to querycache but has two titles)
  93 * PageArchive can now return a Revision object for more convenient processing
  94   of deleted revision data
  95 * Added 'UndeleteShowRevision' hook in Special:Undelete
  96 * Error message on attempt to view invalid or missing deleted revisions
  97 * Remove unsightly "_" from namespace in Special:Allpages, Special:Prefixindex
  98 * (bug 3224) Allow minor edits by bots to skip new message notification on
  99   user talk pages. This can be disabled by adjusting the 'nominornewtalk'
 100   permission. Patch by Werdna.
 101 * (bug 7741) MATH: fixed broken syntax of underbrace etc. Fixed arrays
 102 * Fix purging for updated SVG files
 103 * (bug 7745) Add id attribute to search button in Monobook
 104 * (bug 7749) MATH: added some more LaTeX symbols, e.g. parallel, diamond, ast, ...
 105 * (bug 7304) Added code in Article.php to keep redirect table up to date.
 106 * Made special page names case-insensitive and localisable. Care has been taken
 107   to maintain backwards compatibility.
 108 * Used special page subpages in a few more places, instead of query parameters.
 109 * (bug 7758) Added wrapper span to "templates used" explanation to allow CSS
 110   styling (class="mw-templatesUsedExplanation").
 111 * Added {{#special:}} parser function, to give the local default title for
 112   special pages
 113 * (bug 7766) Remove redundant / from AJAX requests, can break some servers
 114 * Add tab links from extensions to classic-based skins (SkinTemplateTab hook)
 115   Provides better cross-skin compatibility for extensions using the modern
 116   skin hooks, such as Oversight
 117 * Moved variant language links on Cologne Blue and Nostalgia to before the
 118   login/logout link
 119 * Fix for parser tests with MySQL 5 in strict mode
 120 * Added block option "enable autoblocks"
 121 * Amend Special:Ipblocklist to note when a block has autoblock DISABLED.
 122 * (bug 7780) Fix regression in editing redirects
 123 * Add whitespace above "templates included on this page" using CSS, not
 124   hardcoded line break.
 125 * Remove entries from redirect table on article deletion
 126 * (bug 7788) Force section headers in new section links for users who have
 127   'prompt for blank edit summaries' on.
 128 * (bug 1133) Special:Emailuser: add an option to send yourself a copy your mail.
 129 * (bug 461) Allow "Categories:" link at bottom of pages to be customized via
 130   pagecategorieslink message.
 131 * Sort the list of skins in "My Preferences" -> Skins by alphabetical order.
 132 * (bug 7785) Postgres compatibility for timestamps in RC feeds
 133 * (bug 7550) Normalize user parameter normally on Special:Log
 134 * (bug 7294) Fix PATH search for diff3 on install
 135 * Various fixes related to the blocking change re: autoblocks. On inserting
 136   an IP block, the ipb_enable_autoblock field is now automagically blanked,
 137   because it doesn't make any sense for an IP. Additionally, IP blocks
 138   without the ipb_enable_autoblock option no longer show up as "autoblock
 139   disabled" on Special:Ipblocklist.
 140 * (bug 7774) MATH: aded more amstex functions
 141 * (bug 1182) MATH: fixed inconsistent rendering of upper case Greek letters in TeX
 142 * Fix regression in streaming page dump generation
 143 * (bug 7801) Add support for parser function hooks in parser tests
 144 * checkUsernames.php now uses wfDebugLog instead of hardcoded path to log
 145 * (bug 7810) Update talk namespaces for Occitan
 146 * Allow case-sensitive URLs to be used for uploading from URLs.
 147 * (bug 1109) Correct fix for compressed 304 responses when additional output
 148   buffers have been installed within the compression handler
 149
 150
 151 == Languages updated ==
 152
 153 * Bishnupriya Manipuri (bpy)
 154 * German (de)
 155 * Hebrew (he)
 156 * Indonesian (id)
 157 * Italian (it)
 158 * Kazakh (kk)
 159 * Latin (la)
 160 * Lithuanian (lt)
 161 * Occitan (oc)
 162 * Polish (pl)
 163 * Portuguese (pt)
 164 * Russian (ru)
 165 * Upper Sorbian (hsb)
 166
 167 == Compatibility ==
 168
 169 MediaWiki 1.9 requires PHP 5 (5.1 recommended). PHP 4 is no longer supported.
 170
 171 MySQL 3.23.x is no longer supported; some older hosts may need to upgrade.
 172 At this time we still recommend 4.0, but 4.1/5.0 will work fine in most cases.
 173
 174
 175 == Upgrading ==
 176
 177 Some minor database changes have been made since 1.7:
 178 * new fields and indexes on ipblocks
 179 * index change on recentchanges
 180
 181 Several changes from 1.5 and 1.6 do require updates to be run on upgrade.
 182 To ensure that these tables are filled with data, run refreshLinks.php after
 183 the upgrade.
 184
 185 If you are upgrading from MediaWiki 1.4.x or earlier, some major database
 186 changes are made, and there is a slightly higher chance that things could
 187 break. Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!
 188
 189 See the file UPGRADE for more detailed upgrade instructions.
 190
 191
 192
 193 === Caveats ===
 194
 195 Some output, particularly involving user-supplied inline HTML, may not
 196 produce 100% valid or well-formed XHTML output. Testers are welcome to
 197 set $wgMimeType = "application/xhtml+xml"; to test for remaining problem
 198 cases, but this is not recommended on live sites. (This must be set for
 199 MathML to display properly in Mozilla.)
 200
 201
 202 For notes on 1.5.x and older releases, see HISTORY.
 203
 204
 205 === Online documentation ===
 206
 207 Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is currently being
 208 built up on Meta-Wikipedia, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation
 209 License:
 210
 211   http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation
 212
 213
 214 === Mailing list ===
 215
 216 A MediaWiki-l mailing list has been set up distinct from the Wikipedia
 217 wikitech-l list:
 218
 219   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-l
 220
 221 A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:
 222
 223   http://mail.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/mediawiki-announce
 224
 225 It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're
 226 going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.
 227
 228
 229 === IRC help ===
 230
 231 There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.freenode.net