Manual:Installation guide

Welcome to the MediaWiki installation guide which provides instructions on how to manually install and configure MediaWiki on a web server. Note that some users may find MediaWiki software bundles and hosting services with 1-click installation and wiki farms a convenient alternative to manual installation.

The first part of this guide gives broad general instructions, while the last section contains a list of appendices that give more detailed installation notes for specific system configurations and other less common uses of the software.

Upgrade guide
If you are already running MediaWiki, see the Upgrade guide.

Quick installation guide
For experienced users, here is the quick version of the installation instructions. Most users will want to read the more detailed version, below.


 * 1) Check that your system meets the minimum requirements
 * 2) Download MediaWiki  and extract the archive to a web-accessible folder on your server.
 * 3) Point your browser to the directory where MediaWiki was extracted (e.g., http://[domain]/mediawiki/index.php). If installed on a local machine, replace [domain] with localhost. If installed on a remote server, replace [domain] with your server's domain name (eg: www.myserver.com).
 * 4) Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the process.

These instructions are deliberately brief. There is a lot that could go wrong, so if in doubt, you are advised to read the full instructions below!

Main installation guide

 * Before installation
 * Read what MediaWiki is
 * Check the MediaWiki feature list
 * Installation requirements - Check these before going any further!
 * Installing MediaWiki
 * Configuring MediaWiki
 * Initial configuration (using the configuration script)
 * Further configuration
 * Installing extensions

Alternative to manual installation
Some users may prefer to skip manual installation by using a pre-integrated MediaWiki software appliance or hosting services with 1-click installation and wiki farms.

If you are installing only for development or testing, consider using mediawiki-vagrant. You must have (and enable) hardware virtualization. Many modern computers have this, and you can check in your BIOS.

Advanced uses
The following pages give instructions about how to install/configure MediaWiki for other, less common purposes.
 * Installing from Git
 * Installing MediaWiki on a memory stick

Advanced configuration
The following pages cover some of the more advanced configuration options:
 * Advanced configuration
 * Wiki administration

MediaWiki Help
The following page explains how to get copies of MediaWiki help pages on your own wiki
 * Copying help pagesYou can obtain copies of the help system in this wiki for local use in your own wiki following these steps:
 * 1)  In a separate browser window, navigate to Special:Export (on this wiki).
 * 2)  You will see an open textbox asking you for a list of pages to export.

Installation assistance

 * FAQ: FAQ
 * IRC (#mediawiki)
 * mediawiki-l (Mailing List) is the high-traffic mailing list to ask for support.
 * MediaWiki Users (Forum) is a user-to-user MediaWiki support forum

System-specific instructions
The following pages give more detailed installation instructions aimed at specific systems. However, by and large Manual:Installing MediaWiki is more up to date, and better written than the per system docs, and as such it is recomended you first consult the main install instructions before looking at a per system installation documents.


 * FreeBSD
 * GNU/Linux
 * ALT Linux
 * Arch Linux
 * Damnsmalllinux
 * Debian
 * Fedora
 * Gentoo
 * Mandriva
 * Red Hat Enterprise Linux
 * Slackware
 * SuSE 9.3
 * Ubuntu
 * Mac OS X
 * NetWare
 * Solaris
 * Solaris 10
 * Solaris 9
 * Windows
 * Windows XP
 * Windows Server 2003
 * Windows Server 2008
 * Windows Server 2008 R2
 * Newcomers guide
 * Streamlined Guide
 * Simple Windows Apache Installation