Last modified: 2011-09-24 20:46:00 UTC
Brand new install and database, Copied over LocalSettings.php, logged in, clicked 'edit' on 'Main Page' and added some text and clicked Save/Change. Top of page has a warning: <b>Warning</b>: Parameter 2 to Parser::preSaveTransform() expected to be a reference, value given in <b>/var/clients/client4/web12/web/w14/includes/StubObject.php</b> on line <b>58</b><br /> Page content is: A database query syntax error has occurred. This may indicate a bug in the software. The last attempted database query was: (SQL query hidden) from within function "Revision::insertOn". MySQL returned error "1048: Column 'old_text' cannot be null (localhost)". click around to different pages seems okay for now. creating a new page works fine. edits to any page in default namespace fail. Product Version MediaWiki 1.14.1 PHP 5.3.3-7+squeeze3 (cgi-fcgi) MySQL 5.1.49-3 No extensions. I'm not sure where problems (and solutions) with older releases are documented, especially for people who are trying to do compat testing with older releases (extensions that are expected to work on older releases, like Extension:Update), so I filed here. I'd consider it FIXED once it's documented in the proper place (which could be here, I suppose, but I'd rather see a document set on running older versions). I'm going to try running 1.14.0 next and see what happens.
1.14 and 1.15 aren't maintained We recommend not using distro packages
Per my comment above, this is a request for a place to document compat testing configurations, mainly for extension authors. Not for some kind of 1.14.2 release. Considering http://s23.org/wikistats/mediawikis_html.php?sort=version_desc&th=0%20or%20good%20is%20NULL&lines=1000 This should be a real concern for extension authors, even if core support has moved on. If you don't recommend using distro packages for 1.14.X what do you recommend? Please don't close a bug before actually reading the request.
(In reply to comment #2) > Per my comment above, this is a request for a place to document compat testing > configurations, mainly for extension authors. Not for some kind of 1.14.2 > release. > > Considering > > http://s23.org/wikistats/mediawikis_html.php?sort=version_desc&th=0%20or%20good%20is%20NULL&lines=1000 > > This should be a real concern for extension authors, even if core support has > moved on. > > If you don't recommend using distro packages for 1.14.X what do you recommend? > > Please don't close a bug before actually reading the request. Don't use 1.14 at all. Use our release packages http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Download
This site is for support of the MediaWiki software. Per <http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Version_lifecycle>, 1.14 is NOT SUPPORTED, INCLUDING SECURITY FIXES. Everyone using it should use it at their own risk only. We can only advice them to upgrade. Instead of packages, which are usually broken anyway, we recommend using vanilla tarball from mediawiki.org. Please don't reopen just because you like it so.
I downloaded from http://dumps.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.14/ I don't know why you assume I used a distro package. I'm setting up a testing sandbox to make sure some of my extensions (Extension:Update and Extension:Realnames) work on older versions. The first because it's about upgrading to newer stuff from older stuff, the second because it's a corp extension and my audience is on older cores (unfortunately). I often see extension authors talk about still using a deprecated method of doing things (see SpecialPage aliasing, or ShowSearchRealnames) so that they don't alianate the user base who are not always free to upgrade core. I'd like to see documentation (which I'm willing to contribute to) about the trials and tribulations (see above) of setting up sandboxes for older non-core-supported versions. It's my extension, I SUPPORT IT. But will mediawiki and it's community help me document the process of said support? I've reoppened, renamed bug to "Create documentation on problems running older versions" and set it "enhancement" for "unspecified version" on "all platforms". Being new I don't know where to start this documentation, maybe instead of "GO AWAY" someone could say "oh great, you want to contribute, here's where you'd probably want to do that!".
If you'd be interested in writing up your notes on a page on mediawiki.org, please feel free -- it's a wiki and should allow you to get started right away. This will also get the pages indexed for search on mediawiki.org (local search) and via google etc searches on a relevant domain. But do be aware that the MediaWiki dev community doesn't traditionally put a lot of effort into maintenance of old releases beyond a couple versions of security patch releases. You'll probably find a combination of: * old bugs that are fixed in newer versions of MediaWiki * incompatibilities between old MediaWiki code and newer versions of other packages like PHP and MySQL For instance reference-related (&$foo) issues are common on newer versions of PHP, because PHP keeps changing the rules on what's an acceptable use of references. Due to historic usages from the PHP 4 era, a lot of extension hooks are common places to see this because references got used in places where, under PHP 5, they don't need to be (and now sometimes don't work). That looks like the sort of thing you're running into up above. Workarounds are basically: 1) Don't run the old versions if you can help it! 2) If you must run an old version of MediaWiki, you can either track down all those bug fixes (and still be open to whatever other bugs and security problems there are in the system)... or 3) you can downgrade the other bits of your system to match it in which case it'll more likely run... but you may be vulnerable to bugs and security problems in those other packages as well.
(In reply to comment #5) > I often see extension authors talk about still using a deprecated method of > doing things (see SpecialPage aliasing, or ShowSearchRealnames) so that they > don't alianate the user base who are not always free to upgrade core. ...you heard wrong. Using the deprecated method of SpecialPage aliasing has nothing to do with compatibility with old versions of MediaWiki. The new way of doing it was just never promoted enough for people to remember it existed, and the Translate extension used by TWN seams to have never bothered add support for the new format (which is what is used to actually add those translations).
I've started http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Extension_support with the aim of eventually having a document to help extension authors be backwards compatible. I'm still not sure where it fits in generally from the Manual, currently nothing links to it. I'd appreciate help in fleshing the page out and in figuring out where it fits in. It attempts to lay out some reasons why backwards compatability may matter from an extension point of view, and should go a long way to help extension authors actually do it. I'm hoping that it could also become a "how do I get compliant with this new version" or at least that such an effort will also be started, as what is new is eventually old. I do think some kind of not-too-all-or-nothing statement about why trying too hard for backwards compat is also horrible. Sometimes you just have to move on (the M$ lesson)
Documentation has been going well and I've started putting in "Upgrade" and "Downgrade" hints for extensions authors. Some basic stats on versions are also listed. I'll probably try to advertise it on one of our mailing lists. It still needs to be linked in from somewhere in the manual though... Closing enh request as the basic requirement is now fulfilled.
