Thread:Project:Support desk/Cleaning up externallinks table/reply (4)

Thank you for rephrasing my question.

I checked Manual:refreshLinks.php and this indeed seems to delete records in the externallinks table that refer to non-existing id's in the page table. So, I'll have to delete all unwanted pages first, and then run refreshLinks.php.

I'm aware of the fact that modifying the database directly may produce inconsistencies. But because in this case the wiki was under heavy spam attack, I think there is no other way. I couldn't find any extensions that make this kind of maintenance (deleting all unwanted spam users and all related data entries in other tables) possible.

Now, since I'm a newbie vis-à-vis PHP and MySQL, how do I run refreshLinks.php? Or rather, where do I run refreshLinks.php from? My browser? Or phpMyAdmin? Or do I need something like PuTTY to perform a SSH connection? If I try it from my browser, it says that I don't have permission to access the file on the server, although I am logged in as a bureaucrat / administrator.

Thanks again for your kind assistance.