Extension management 2018 feedback

One of MediaWiki's greatest strengths is the diverse extension ecosystem. But navigating that ecosystem and managing those extensions can be difficult and cumbersome. The goal of this RfC is to solicit requirements and feature requests for what people want MediaWiki's extension management system to do. Unless otherwise stated, the term extension applies to skins as well for simplicity.

To keep things organized, we'll split the discussion into four categories: finding extensions, installing extensions, upgrading extensions, and other for anything that doesn't fit into the first three.

For each suggestion you have, use the input box to create a new section, outlining your feature request:


 * Focus on the functionality you desire, rather than the specific implementation. For example, Be able to programatically enable/disable extensions from the command line is better than Have a bash script that can enable/disable extensions.
 * Mention any relevant details about your MediaWiki installation if it is pertinent to your request (e.g. installed on a shared host/a containerized cloud provider)
 * If there are any relevant wiki pages, Phabricator tickets, mailing list discussions, etc., please link them as well.

Underneath each proposal will be a section for endorsements (and any brief comments) and another for longer comments. The goal will be to collate the input provided here, and use it to plan future development work on improving extension management.

= Finding =
 * Current documentation to find extensions: Manual:Extensions

= Installing =
 * Current documentation to install extensions: Manual:Extensions and extension pages

= Upgrading =
 * Current documentation to upgrade extensions: Manual:Extensions and extension pages

= Other =