MediaWiki 1.38

MediaWiki 1.38 is the current stable release of MediaWiki. Consult the file for the full list of changes. It was deployed on Wikimedia Foundation wikis through incremental "wmf"-branches between September 2021 and March 2022. The 1.38.0 stable release came out in 2 June 2022. Download or checkout the   branch in Git to follow this release.

New configuration

 * (T297708)  – This setting can be used to control the maximum execution time for several expensive query pages (e.g. RecentChanges and UserContribs).
 * – This setting allows overriding browsers' automatic detection and handling of formats. It's initially used to prevent auto-linking of possible telephone numbers in wiki pages' output in Safari on iOS; this can be re-enabled if you wish, or locally extended for other browsers' quirks.
 * (T240685),  , and   – These provide configuration for a new   service with support for the   format, intended for integration with Prometheus.
 * – This setting allows inheriting permissions, both granted and revoked, from another group.
 * –  now has a   option to control for how long file metadata is cached. Additionally, the default changed from 1 hour to 4 hours.
 * – This lets you set a list of preferred skins to be listed higher in Special:Preferences.
 * EXPERIMENTAL
 * – A directory that contains site-specific configuration files. Setting this will enable multi-tenant ("wiki farm") mode, causing site-specific settings to be loaded based on information from the web request.
 * – The file extension to be used when looking up site-specific settings files in, such as ' ' or ' '.
 * – A callback function that returns the name of the wiki for the current request. This is used in multi-tenant ("wiki farm") mode to determine which settings file to load from.
 * – This replaces the environment variable.
 * (T230211)  – Force deferred updates to be run before sending a response to the client, instead of attempting to run them after sending the response.  Setting this to true is useful for end-to-end testing, to ensure that the effects of a request are visible to any subsequent requests, even if they are made immediately after the first one.  Note however that this does not ensure that database replication is complete, nor does it execute any jobs enqueued for later.
 * – Templatelinks table schema migration stage, for normalizing  and   fields.

Changed configuration

 * and  – These are now set later, so can no longer be used within   unless explicitly set in that file.
 * – This setting no longer takes ' ' as an option.
 * – This setting may now be set to  to disable size checking before scaling.  Extensions can still override its value by using the   hook.
 * – This is now deprecated, and act as always-true.
 * – This no longer supports the string value for CDB files.
 * (T292321)  – This is now deprecated; adjustments using this should be done with   instead.
 * – This is newly documented in.

Removed configuration

 * – This setting has been removed, as it was a flawed solution to the problem of locale dependence. MediaWiki will now always set a locale of   or   and works around the remaining problems of the   locale by not using  .  This follows the direction of PHP 8.0, which sets a locale of   by default instead of respecting.
 * (T293848)  – Experiment removed, originally added in 1.35.
 * – Deprecated in 1.36. We only support jQuery v3.
 * – This experimental feature has been removed. If you still need to use this feature, please see mw:Extension:CategoryExplorer.
 * – Alias for, deprecated since 1.3 (2004).

Bundled extensions

 * (T191740) The AbuseFilter extension is now bundled with MediaWiki. This is an anti-abuse feature that lets privileged users to set specific actions to be taken when actions by users, such as edits or file uploads, match certain criteria.
 * (T232948) The Math extension is now bundled with MediaWiki. This is a content feature that lets users create mathematical formulæ, written in a sub-set of LaTeX and rendered in MathML with a fallback SVG image.  By default, it will use Wikimedia's mathoid service to render each formula, but local rendering can be set up for network isolation or performance.
 * (T191743) The Minerva skin is now bundled with MediaWiki. This is a simple, light-weight, and scalable skin that is particularly optimised for mobile use, and integrates well with the MobileFrontend extension (available separately), but can also be used as a regular desktop skin.

Other changes

 * (T284921) The "auto-number headings" feature was removed following a consultation, due to performance reasons.

New operator/developer features in 1.38

 * The configuration mechanism changed substantially; you can read more about how.
 * EXPERIMENTAL: The environment variable  can be used to specify the location of the settings file.  This allows alternative settings files to be loaded depending on the environment.  Settings files may be given as PHP files like the traditional , or they may use   or   format. See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:YAML_settings_file_format
 * Added a  maintenance script – This file enables the deletion of a given user's associated email address. It can be helpful for privacy-preserving operations.
 * The description array for constructing an  now can use ' ' to disable fields on a condition easily, supported expressions are the same as ' '.
 * There is a new interface,, to allows you to mark file repos provided by an extension as supporting making API queries against the foreign file repo so that extensions like TimedMediaHandler that depend on this can stop hard-coding looking for specific class names.
 * EXPERIMENTAL Added support for an easy to configure multi-tenant ("wiki farm") mode: Settings for each site can be placed in a directory specified by .  Site detection is controlled by   and defaults to the requested host name.  For example, setting   would cause the settings for   to be loaded from " ".  WARNING: YAML files under the Web root may be accessible to browsers, please take appropriate measures to protect them from access via HTTP.
 * Running QUnit tests for an individual test suite module is possible with, where   is "MediaWiki" to run core's QUnit tests or the skin or extension name.
 * The  module now has a   Less mixin.

New external libraries

 * was promoted from development-only.

Changed external libraries

 * Updated  from v0.42.0 to v0.43.2.
 * Updated  from 2.6.11 to 3.2.23.
 * Updated  from v0.3.0 to v0.4.0.
 * Updated  from 3.2.5 to 3.2.6.
 * Updated  from 7.2.0 to 7.4.1.
 * Updated  from 1.10.9 to 1.10.11.
 * Updated  from 1.9.2 to 1.10.0.
 * Updated  from 1.1.3 to 1.1.4.
 * Updated  from 0.10.5 to 0.11.1.
 * Updated  from 1.23.1 to 1.25.0.
 * Updated  from 0.5.0 to 0.5.1.
 * Updated  from 1.4.1 to 2.0.0.
 * Updated  from 3.0.2 to 4.0.0.
 * Updated  from 2.2.4 to 2.2.6.
 * Updated  from 3.0.2 to 4.0.0.
 * Updated  from v0.14.0-a14 to v0.15.0.
 * Updated  from 1.0.7 to 1.0.8.
 * Updated  from 1.1.0 to 1.2.0.
 * Updated  from 2.0.0 to 3.0.0.
 * Updated  from 3.2.0 to 4.0.1.

Changed development-only external libraries

 * Updated  from 2.16.0 to 2.18.0.
 * Updated  from 3.5.4 to 3.5.5.
 * Updated  from 1.5.4 to 1.5.5.
 * Updated  for PHP < 7.3 from 2.10.4 to 2.13.6.
 * Updated  for PHP >= 7.3 from 3.0.0 to 3.1.5.

Removed external libraries

 * , deprecated since MW 1.28; use  instead.

Action API changes

 * New  parameter on action=delete that allows you to delete the associated talk page of a subject page.
 * (T117549) New  parameter for all API actions, for specifying language variant (akin to the existing   parameter for index.php).

Languages updated
MediaWiki supports over 400 languages. Many localisations are updated regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as changes to languages because of Phabricator reports.


 * (T292166) Updated namespace names for the Lombard language.
 * (T299201) Changed the autonym of the Angika language to अंगिका
 * (T298309) Changed the autonym of the Abkhaz language to аԥсшәа
 * (T302972) Changed the autonym of the Kirundi language to ikirundi
 * (T220303) Show numbered lists with Burmese numerals in relevant languages
 * (T291899) Added language support for Xiang Chinese (hsn).
 * (T292612) Added language support for S'gaw Karen (ksw).
 * (T293656) Added language support for Farefare (gur).
 * (T294729) Added language support for Pa'O (blk).
 * (T296286) Added language support for Skolt Sámi (sms).
 * (T296612) Added language support for Makhuwa (vmw).
 * (T296707) Added language support for Ga (gaa).
 * (T297073) Added language support for Nanai (gld).
 * (T297074) Added language support for Nawdm (nmz).
 * (T298075) Added language support for Northern Thai (nod).
 * (T298182) Added language support for Cape Verdean Creole (kea).
 * (T298385) Added language support for Nheengatu (yrl).
 * (T299329) Added language support for Fon (fon).
 * (T300474) Added language support for Nkore (nyn).
 * (T302556) Added language support for Pannonian Rusyn (rsk).