-The .sql scripts in this directory are not meant to be run
-standalone, although they can be in some cases if you know
-what you're doing. Most of the time you'll want to run the
-.php scripts from the command line. You must run them from
-this directory, and the LocalSettings.php file in the
-directory above must point to the installation.
+== MediaWiki Maintenance ==
-The scripts in archive are for updating databases from
-older versions of the software.
+The .sql scripts in this directory are not intended to be run standalone,
+although this is appropriate in some cases, e.g. manual creation of blank tables
+prior to an import.
+Most of the PHP scripts need to be run from the command line. Prior to doing so,
+ensure that the LocalSettings.php file in the directory above points to the
+proper installation.
+
+Certain scripts will require elevated access to the database. In order to
+provide this, first create a MySQL user with "all" permissions on the wiki
+database, and then set $wgDBadminuser and $wgDBadminpassword in your
+LocalSettings.php
+
+=== Brief explanation of files ===
+
+A lot of the files in this directory are PHP scripts used to perform various
+maintenance tasks on the wiki database, e.g. rebuilding link tables, updating
+the search indices, etc. The files in the "archives" directory are used to
+upgrade the database schema when updating the software. Some schema definitions
+for alternative (as yet unsupported) database management systems are stored
+here too.
+
+The "storage" directory contains scripts and resources useful for working with
+external storage clusters, and are not likely to be particularly useful to the
+vast majority of installations. This directory does contain the compressOld
+scripts, however, which can be useful for compacting old data.
+
+=== Maintenance scripts ===
+
+As noted above, these should be run from the command line. Not all scripts are
+listed, as some are Wikimedia-specific, and some are not applicable to most
+installations.
+
+ changePassword.php
+ Reset the password of a specified user
+
+ cleanupSpam.php
+ Mass-revert insertion of linkspam
+
+ createAndPromote.php
+ Create a user with administrator (and optionally, bureaucrat) permissions
+
+ deleteOldRevisions.php
+ Erase old revisions of pages from the database
+
+ dumpBackup.php
+ Backup dump script
+
+ edit.php
+ Edit a page to change its content
+
+ findhooks.php
+ Find hooks that aren't documented in docs/hooks.txt
+
+ importDump.php
+ XML dump importer
+
+ importImages.php
+ Import images into the wiki
+
+ importTextFile.php
+ Import the contents of a text file into a wiki page
+
+ moveBatch.php
+ Move a batch of pages
+
+ namespaceDupes.php
+ Check articles name to see if they conflict with new/existing namespaces
+
+ nukePage.php
+ Wipe a page and all revisions from the database
+
+ reassignEdits.php
+ Reassign edits from one user to another
+
+ rebuildImages.php
+ Update image metadata records
+
+ rebuildmessages.php
+ Update the MediaWiki namespace after changing site language
+
+ rebuildtextindex.php
+ Rebuild the fulltext search indices
+
+ refreshLinks.php
+ Rebuild the link tables
+
+ removeUnusedAccounts.php
+ Remove user accounts which have made no edits
+
+ runJobs.php
+ Immediately complete all jobs in the job queue
+
+ showCacheStats.php
+ Show all statistics stored in the cache
+
+ undelete.php
+ Undelete all revisions of a page
+
+ update.php
+ Check and upgrade the database schema to the current version
+
+ updateRestrictions.php
+ Update pages restriction to the new schema
+
+ userOptions.php
+ Change user options