Thread:Project:Support desk/MediaWiki and WMF?/reply

REL1_1 through REL1_18 are branches for the various versions of MediaWiki. REL1_17 and REL1_18 will continue to receive commits as they haven't been released yet. trunk is the current development branch, which will eventually be branched to REL1_19.

Because branches are not stable, it's recommended that you use the tags, which are actual MediaWiki releases. Once a tag is created, they never change. REL1_16_5 is MW 1.16.5, the most recent stable release. You could also try REL1_17_0beta1, but note that it is a beta. When 1.17 is released, a REL1_17_0 tag will be created.

wmf-deployment used to be the Wikimedia deployment branch, but the wmf branches are now used for that purpose. 1.17wmf is the branch that all Wikimedia wikis run on, including Wikipedia and this very site. You shouldn't use this branch as it's been customized for Wikimedia use. Note that MediaWiki and Wikimedia are not the same thing, despite the similar names.

phase3 is MediaWiki core. The name has historical significance, indicating that it was the third phase of the Wikipedia software. It doesn't mean much any more. All you need to know is that core is in the phase3 directory, and extensions are in the extensions directory.