Help:URL

URLs in external links
In external links, all symbols of the URL must be among: A-Z a-z 0-9 ._\/~%-+&#?!=@. If a URL contains a different character it should be converted; for example, ^ has to be written %5e, the hexadecimal ASCII value with a percent sign in front. A blank space can also be converted into an underscore.

Conversion:

"  #   $   %   &   '   *  ,   :   ;   <   >   [   ^   `   {   |   } %22 %23 %24 %25 %26 %27 %2a %2c %3a %3b %3c %3e %5b %5e %60 %7b %7c %7d

For the other characters either the code or the character can be used in internal and external links, they are equivalent. The system does a conversion when needed. E.g.

%C3%80_propos_de_M%C3%A9ta

is rendered as %C3%80_propos_de_M%C3%A9ta, almost like À propos de Méta, which leads to this page on Meta with in the address bar the URL

http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_propos_de_M%C3%A9ta

while http://meta.wikipedia.org/wiki/À_propos_de_Méta leads to the same.

URLs of pages within the projects
See en:Wikipedia:URLs; everything works the same, except that the domain names vary:


 * www.wikipedia.org
 * meta.wikipedia.org
 * wiktionary.org
 * quote.wikipedia.org
 * wikibooks.org
 * sources.wikipedia.org
 * sep11.wikipedia.org
 * test.wikipedia.org
 * xx.wikipedia.org with xx the language code, see The provisional portal of Wikipedia

In projects outside Wikimedia the "w/" in URLs like http://www.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page&action=history is sometimes not used, sometimes different, e.g.:
 * http://www.disinfopedia.org/wiki.phtml?title=Disinfopedia_Main_Page&action=history
 * http://www.wikitravel.org/wiki/wiki.phtml?title=Main_Page&action=history

The default is /wiki/wiki.phtml, with in DefaultSetting.php :

$wgScriptPath = "/wiki"; $wgScript    = "{$wgScriptPath}/wiki.phtml";

There may be other variations, compare:
 * http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver
 * http://www.wikitravel.org/en/article/Vancouver

See also MediaWiki User's Guide: Namespaces, Make non-ugly URLs, Rewrite rules.