Thread:Project:Current issues/Installation guide consolidation

Manual:Installation guide has one section with a 400 words summary, but then links to a "Main installation guide" composed of 4+4 more pages. None of these pages is translatable. Can we consolidate truly important information and make it translatable? Currently one is supposed to find the following logical steps.


 * 1) Download
 * 2) * Download is the page
 * 3) * Template:DownloadMediaWiki duplicates most info
 * 4) * Download from Git is sometimes linked instead from docs
 * 5) * Manual:Installing_MediaWiki duplicates it again
 * 6) * Manual:Upgrading again
 * 7) Requirements
 * 8) * Manual:Installation requirements
 * 9) * Manual:Installation guide has a largely duplicative summary (which I've now transcluded in the former). Does the complete page really offer any additional value to users (as opposed to devs)?
 * 10) * Repeated in Manual:Upgrading
 * 11) * Actual preparation of requirements: Manual:Installing_MediaWiki takes most of the space in the guide.
 * 12) The actual installation
 * 13) * Manual:Config script is the page (marked outdated!)
 * 14) * Manual:Upgrading repeats in part
 * 15) Misc troubleshooting and alternatives if something went wrong
 * 16) * Manual:Chmod and
 * 17) * Manual:Installing_MediaWiki has some warnings and may be duplicative of Manual:Configuring file uploads
 * 18) * FAQ
 * 19) * Manual:Errors_and_Symptoms
 * 20) * Category:Installation
 * 21) Configuration
 * 22) * Manual:Configuring MediaWiki or Manual:Configuration (merge proposed)
 * 23) * A handful of pages linked from there for specific config issues like Manual:Short URL and Manual:Page customizations
 * 24) * More supposedly MediaWiki-specific server setup information, like Apache configuration, robots.txt, texvc, Comparison of extensions in distributions, ...
 * 25) * Manual:Performance tuning
 * 26) * Manual:Extensions
 * 27) * Other stuff indexed in Manual:System administration and Manual:LocalSettings.php
 * 28) Maintenance
 * 29) * Manual:Upgrading: this is what most people forget to do, but the page is largely duplicative and doesn't make a compelling case for upgrading.
 * 30) * Manual:Administrators should be redirected to relevant help pages.
 * 31) * Manual:System administration which links 10 more manual pages not mentioned above.
 * 32) Informative material
 * 33) * Manual:What is MediaWiki? (cf. the dev-oriented Principles)
 * 34) * Manual:MediaWiki feature list

The pages in bold are part of the official Template:InstallationNav (which complements Template:MediaWiki Introduction): they are supposed to be the official path and need special care and coordination.