The Signpost

Technology report

Future-proofing: HTML5 and IPv6

1.20wmf12 deployments begin on time despite turbulent 1.20wmf11 series

MediaWiki 1.19 was released in May this year, continuing a release series that started in December 2003

1.20wmf12, the 12th release to Wikimedia wikis from the 1.20 branch, was deployed to its first wikis on September 17; if things go well, it will be deployed to all wikis by September 26. Its 200 or so changes – 111 to WMF-deployed extensions plus 98 to core MediaWiki code – include support for links with mixed-case protocols (e.g. Http://example.com) and the removal of the "No higher resolution available" message on the file description pages of SVG images.

Those responsible for overseeing this latest series of deployments to Wikimedia wikis will be hoping for a smoother ride with wmf12 than wmf11, which started its deployment cycle two weeks ago and has been causing problems ever since. First it was Wikimedia Commons, where bug #40018 (describing the duplication of the "This file is from Wikimedia Commons" page) forced a temporary reversion to wmf10 on September 5. Then it was a breakage in the "blue star" (watch) facility, reported as bug #40103 and which caused a reversion to wmf10 lasting some 40 hours.

The later bug (as well as other, more minor issues) stem from the decision to update the version of jQuery packaged with MediaWiki from 1.7.2 to 1.8. However, while some problems with LiquidThreads remain, both of the major issues have since been resolved, and as a result all Wikimedia wikis were running wmf11 in time for the wmf12 series to begin in earnest.

Despite these difficulties, this series of events may serve to demonstrate the robustness of the new regular deployment schedule: the disruption caused by the deploy–revert pattern undertaken with wmf11 (a package of some 250 changes) has been far less than for almost any problematic deployment under the previous release scheme, when thousands of revisions were deployed and reverted at the same time. But inevitably the completeness of the current JavaScript regression testing regime is likely to be questioned in light of the issues experienced.

In related news, work on a release from the 1.20 branch suitable for use on external wikis (whose system administrators often do not want the disruption of fortnightly updates) resulted in two beta-releases this week (wikitech-l mailing list). Former bugmeister Mark Hershberger has taken on the role of overseeing the creation of a release based on the 1.20wmf11 branch. It will now receive only a limited number of updates to avoid introducing new bugs, ensuring the emergence of a stable product suitable for general distribution. Hershberger, who is involved with one such external wiki, reported that he is targeting an early October release date for 1.20.

In brief

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Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for several weeks.


















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