Manual talk:Installing MediaWiki on SourceForge.net

Should this page be moved to Help:Running MediaWiki on Sourceforge.net so that the H:h template works? --Astronouth7303 19:34, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Thank you so much for this, i was already having headaches trying to configure mediawiki on SF.net.

The database host has changed
The database host has changed now, it should be mysql4-a.sourceforge.net

Only a preview
After following your advice here, I managed to get it running without errors, Only the session save_path still gives me white screens even after moving it to the top as you suggested… So without the session save_path all works well accept for trying to save edits, Time and again new articles save fine, but it keeps telling me “Remember that this is only a preview, and has not yet been saved!” and no, I am not clicking the pre-view button :) Any suggestions you might have would be very welcome,

Database name
The database name cannot be set to the project name: the database names have to be prefixed, right? (so it'd be p7654321_projectname?)

Uploading images
How does one go about uploading images to Sourceforge servers with Mediawiki? I think that needs clarification, as user contributed images are essential for a wiki. I realize uploading to the project web space is not permitted, but is uploading to tmp/persistent/project/images/ an option?
 * Yes, that helps, just create the directory and recreate the soft link. But, now I have the problem that the image is not shown, it is only linked. See also FAQ Joerg Kurt Wegner 00:00, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Enabling math under Sourceforge.net
O.k. I managed to install Wikipedia, but now I am stucked with the math environment. Has anybody already installed it. And if yes, please post a paragraph on Running MediaWiki on Sourceforge.net.

Now the problems I had: 1. Compiling the math subdirectory is not possible, since ocaml is not installed on Sourceforge.net, which runs at the moment redhat fedora 2. 2. Compiling ocaml there is not possible, since CC is not allowed on this server. 3. Installing the ocaml rpm is also not possible, since this ocaml rpm does not allow changing the directory. 4. Writing a priority support request to SF.net does at least give a direction. Installing ocaml from our site is not possible, since it is not verified and part of the standard distribution. Please use for all compiling tasks the compiler farm.

This was the moment where I quitted, since I have never used the compiler farm, and I have not time for this this week ... any help is highly appreciated. Joerg Kurt Wegner 17:59, 4 April 2006 (UTC)

rm -rf *
Does anybody actually suggest that this command is sensible? You have to 100% sure that you are in the correct directory, otherwise.... Gordo 13:03, 17 July 2006 (UTC)

Stated preference for procedure 2 is unsupported
The second procedure involving version 1.5.3 seems to have no obvious advantages over procedure 1 as far as I can see. I think that the stated preference "use this procedure!" in the headline for procedure 2 could be removed. Users can make their own mind up. In fact, if there should be a preference, then I think it should be procedure 1. Let me try and explain why: If the second procedure really is preferable, can someone please document why?--Jbrusey 00:41, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * p2 appears to be for an older, possibly less secure, possibly less featureful version of MediaWiki
 * p1 appears to be simpler and does actually work (for me - so far at least)
 * p2 involves a series of commands stated as though they were a shell script but there is considerable danger involved in not carefully checking their output at each stage. p2 could be improved by a warning to this effect (for example to check what directory you are in before issuing rm -rf *)
 * p2 is quite hard to follow and involves a number of errata. p2 could be improved by having step numbers (at least) then it would be easier to see where the errata applied.

Thanks!!!
I'm not sure if that's the right place to do it: but THANK YOU so much. I had such a hard time configuring the Wiki on SF. I found half of the tricks on my own, but I was stuck with the session stuff. OpenSource is so great...

why install in a certain way?

 * Running MediaWiki on Sourceforge.net -- How are these concerns alleviated. Can these "defaults" be changed?
 * Running MediaWiki on Sourceforge.net -- But why follow that procedure? What's the reasoning?
 * MediaWiki Installation on SourceForge and mediawiki-sf -- Why not just use this tool?

-- Sy / (talk) 14:28, 16 December 2006 (UTC)

I tried using the mediawiki-sf tool, but it complained that /usr/bin/display was not installed (a console based UI library used by the script). Maybe it has been removed or moved since the script was written, or I simply missed something. -- zzorn 18 June 2007

Race Condition in Mail Processing Function
There seems to be a race condition in the function supplied here for processing mail:
 * Select n messages to be processed, where n < 20
 * Process those messages, taking some time.
 * Update p messages where p <= 20
 * In this situation, p >= n, or more specifically: p = n + (any messages that were generated during the sending of n messages)

Unfortunately MySQL does not support transactions very well, and in the way Sourceforge allows use it's even worse... Given that the script is running hourly, so can effectively be considered to complete before any second run, this could be improved by: This would appear to get rid of the race condition (assuming there is no concurrency).
 * Update n messages to be processed to a 'processing' state where n <= 20
 * Process all messages which are in a 'processing' state
 * Update all messages in a 'processing' state to 'processed'
 * Karora 08:36, 20 January 2008 (UTC)