Thread:Project:Support desk/master or LTS or current stable/reply (6)

The main reason not to use master in production is compatibility and ability to coop with regressions.

For example, it is very possible that a change will be merged in master that requires you to run a database update (in other words, if you don't run the sql update script, the wiki is broken); And that later that change is reverted and there is no way to undo the database schema change you just applied. At that point your database is screwed and irrecoverable.

Don't use master unless you're very familiar with MediaWiki, read the commit log carefully before updating, and are willing to be held responsible for dealing with any issues (e.g. don't file a bug and expect support, someone might help but there's no obligation).

Also when master changes an interface that requires an extension to make a change, it might take a few days before they make that change. So even if you use master of mediawiki-core and some extensions, those may not be compatible at this point in time.

When using stable releases (1.22 or 1.23 at the moment) you just upgrade from one release to the next using the tested and supported upgrade path. While many extensions don't update their release branches after they are made, they wouldn't have to. They are automatically branched from the master at that point in time, so it's like running master but after things have been fixed to work with any changes made in mediawiki-core.