Manual:Pywikibot/selflink.py

selflink.py is a pywikipedia script which checks pages for self links, and then offers the operator a chance to do something about those redundant links. For instance, a self link to this page would be   This automatically emboldens the text, like, which is not usually desirable.

Syntax
The script is called by typing   The parameters allowed are the same as those employed by pagegenerators.py, giving you a wide variety of ways to check your wiki for self links. Consult that page for a complete list of possible parameters. Parameters are necessary for the operation of this script. If you type just  you will be given a dump of the help file informing you of the fact that you need to add a parameter.

Usage
Once the script starts searching through your pages, it will stop whenever it finds a self link and give you the opportunity to either leave it alone, change it to "proper" bold text, as in. Or you can simply unlink it, as with.

You can also chose to "unlink all", but this is unadvisable. Some editors actively choose to use a self link in the leads of articles, since it has the same net effect as "proper" bolding. Thus, choosing to "unlink all" would put the script on "automatic" and potentially deprive some articles of bold text at the beginning of some articles. Since many wikis require this in their manuals of style, running this bot on automatic could do more harm than good.

Happily, unlike most other pywikibot scripts, this one allows you to choose what should be done with each self link individually. So if you have three self links on a single page, it'll ask you what to do with each one, rather than changing the whole page at once. This allows you to embolden self links in the leads of articles, but unlink them in the infobox or body of the article.