Release notes

MediaWiki 1.42

PHP 8.1 workboard: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/php_8.1_support/ PHP 8.2 workboard: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/php_8.2_support/ PHP 8.3 workboard: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/tag/php_8.3_support/

MediaWiki 1.42.3

This is a maintenance release of the MediaWiki 1.42 branch.

Changes since MediaWiki 1.42.2

• Fix issue related to backport of AbuseFilter patch for T372998.

MediaWiki 1.42.2

This is a security and maintenance release of the MediaWiki 1.42 branch.

Changes since MediaWiki 1.42.1

• Localisation updates.
• Parser: Deprecate use of mOutput before initialization.
• (T365565) PrefixSearch: Make sure $prefix is a string.
• Clarify that $wgAllowCrossOrigin only applies to REST.
• composer.json: Add 5 more ext- to suggests.
• resources: Fix 404 Not Found for foreign Financial-Times/polyfill-library.
• ResourceLoader: Upgrade wikimedia/less.php to 4.4.1.
• SpecialExport: Prevent passing null to strtolower.

Additionally, some language support improvements which went out in 1.42.0 were not noted; they are included here for completeness:

• (T343865) Added language support for Pu–Xian Min (Simplified Han script) (cpx-hans).
• (T343865) Added language support for Pu–Xian Min (Traditional Han script) (cpx-hant).
• (T284043) Added language support for Manchu (mnc).
• (T284043) Added language support for Manchu (Mongolian script) (mnc-mong).
• Added language converter for Central Moroccan Tamazigh (zgh).

MediaWiki 1.42.1

This is a maintenance release of the MediaWiki 1.42 branch.

Changes since MediaWiki 1.42.0

• Localisation updates.
• Name the PagerTools array entries to allow hooks to unset them.

MediaWiki 1.42.0

Changes since MediaWiki 1.42.0-rc.0

• Localisation updates.
• wrapOldPasswords: Improve progress output and decrease batch size.
• (T365060) Serialization test cases: fix filename after ParserOutput namespacing.
• Use virtual domain when running update maintenance scripts.
• (T361367) ApiFeedWatchlist: Fix handling of array parameters.
• (T366130) EncryptedPassword: Store default parameters as strings.

MediaWiki 1.42.0-rc.0

Upgrading notes for 1.42

Don't forget to always back up your database before upgrading!

See the file UPGRADE for more detailed per-version upgrade instructions from the oldest supported upgrading version, MediaWiki 1.35.

Some specific notes for MediaWiki 1.42 upgrades are below:

• MediaWiki 1.42 requires PHP 8.1 or above (up from 7.4) (T359868).
• MediaWiki now requires Composer 2.x, and any related (vendor) files generated by Composer must be generated by Composer 2.x. Composer 1.x is mostly end of life by upstream, and using it will result in slower actions when downloading and installing packages. See the upstream blog post at https://blog.packagist.com/deprecating-composer-1-support/ for further information.

For notes on 1.41.x and older releases, see HISTORY.

Configuration changes for system administrators in 1.42

• Composer 1.x is no longer supported, and can no longer be used with MediaWiki.

New configuration

• $wgMicroStashType: This setting allows for control of the object cache backend for the MicroStash service.
• $wgEditRecoveryExpiry: This setting sets the number of seconds for which to keep edit recovery data after each edit is stored.
• $wgDjvuUseBoxedCommand and $wgDjvuShell: The first is a temporary flag to control whether or not to use BoxedCommand when wrapping DejaVu rendering, and the second sets the command to call if so.
• $wgConditionalUserOptions: This setting makes it possible to define which user properties have defaults varying by user, without growing the user_properties table. The typical use-case is to enable a feature only for users created after a certain date when rolling out features on large wiki farms.
• $wgGrantRiskGroups: This setting controls the risk levels for each grant, used to indicate on various UIs which grants should be considered risky. (T290790)
• $wgTempAccountCreationThrottle: This setting is like AccountCreationThrottle, but to be used for managing temporary account creations.

Changed configuration

• $wgAutoCreateTempUser: This setting (in active development), which configures automatic 'temporary' user creation on page save, has had two changes: - it now supports multiple match patterns on the 'matchPattern' key; and - it now uses a different format for deciding how to label temporary accounts; if your wiki used temporary accounts before 1.42, you will need to override the configuration value to also match the old format of *$1.
• $wgLogActionsHandlers: This setting, which configures handlers for different log actions, is now ObjectFactory compatible.
• $wgBotPasswordsCluster and $wgBotPasswordsDatabase: These settings have been deprecated; use $wgVirtualDomainsMapping['virtual-botpasswords'] instead.
• $wgMainPageIsDomainRoot: This setting is no longer considered experimental.

Removed configuration

• $wgDisableCookieCheck: Removed without deprecation.
• $wgStatsCacheType: Removed without deprecation. Set $wgMicroStashType instead.
• $wgJobSerialCommitThreshold: Removed without deprecation. Any setups using this config will perform just fine, but might be less performant.
• $wgLogoHD: Deprecated since 1.35. Use $wgLogo instead.
• $wgContentHandlerTextFallback: Deprecated since 1.37. No longer customizable.
• $wgSquidPurgeUseHostHeader: Deprecated since 1.33. No longer customizable, and always true.
• $wgAllowImageTag: Deprecated since 1.35. Instead, you can register an extension tag named <img>.
• $wgMinimalPasswordLength and $wgMaximalPasswordLength: Deprecated since 1.26. Use $wgPasswordPolicy instead.
• $wgUseMediaWikiUIEverywhere: Experimental, removed without deprecation.
• $wgHTMLFormAllowTableFormat: Experimental, removed without deprecation.
• $wgOpenSearchTemplate: Deprecated since 1.25. Instead, you can use $wgOpenSearchTemplates['application/x-suggestions+json'].
• $wgUseSameSiteLegacyCookies: Removed without deprecation.

New user-facing features in 1.42

• (T308160) filter: is now allowed in inline CSS in wikitext

New developer features in 1.42

• (T326466) MediaWikiIntegrationTestCase's database and set-up code now avoids using dynamic properties, which was causing deprecation warnings in PHP 8.2.
• (T13555) MediaWiki now includes styles that allow more accessible markup for section headings. MediaWiki's own HTML output will be changed in the future. More information: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Heading_HTML_changes
• (T193472) PHP Notice and Warning errors that are silenced (e.g. by the "@" operator, error_reporting directive, or Wikimedia\AtEase) are now logged to a new "silenced-error" channel.
• (T347347) The CLI installer accepts a "--with-developmentsettings" argument to require the DevelopmentSettings.php file at install time.
• (T350054) MediaWiki's ResourceLoader has been updated to add basic support for code-splitting (aka "tree-shaking") when using the Codex component library. A ResourceLoader module can now specify a list of "codexComponents" in its module defintion and ensure that only the code for those components gets sent to the client. More information: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Codex#Subset_of_components
• (T345185) The SessionProviderInterface now allows defining providers that are exempt from rights checks when auto creating users.

External library changes in 1.42

New external libraries

• Added mediawiki/json-codec at v2.2.1.
• Added mck89/peast at v1.16.2.

Changed external libraries

• Updated OOUI from v0.48.1 to v0.49.1.
• Updated OOjs Router from 0.3.0 to 0.5.0.
• Updated codex, codex-design-tokens and codex-icons from v1.0.0 to v1.3.6.
• Updated Vue from v3.2.37-compat to v3.3.9.
• Updated composer/semver from 3.3.2 to 3.4.0.
• Updated guzzlehttp/guzzle from 7.5.3 to 7.7.1.
• Updated monolog/monolog from 2.2.0 to 2.9.2.
• Updated pear/mail from 1.5.1 to 1.6.0.
• Updated pear/mail_mime from 1.10.11 to 1.10.12.
• Updated pear/net_smtp from 1.10.1 to 1.11.1.
• Updated psr/http-message from 1.0.1 to 1.1.
• Updated symfony/polyfill-php80 from 1.28.0 to 1.29.0.
• Updated symfony/polyfill-php81 from 1.28.0 to 1.29.0.
• Updated symfony/polyfill-php82 from 1.28.0 to 1.29.0.
• Updated symfony/polyfill-php83 from 1.28.0 to 1.29.0.
• Updated symfony/yaml from 5.4.23 to 5.4.35.
• Updated wikimedia/less.php from 4.1.1 to 4.2.1.
• Updated wikimedia/minify from 2.5.1 to 2.7.0.
• Updated wikimedia/relpath from 3.0.0 to 4.0.0.
• Updated wikimedia/remex-html from 4.0.1 to 4.1.0.
• Updated wikimedia/shellbox from 4.0.0 to 4.0.1.

Changed development-only external libraries

• Updated QUnit from v2.19.4 to v2.20.0.
• Updated composer/spdx-licenses from 1.5.7 to 1.5.8.
• Updated doctrine/dbal from 3.4.2 to 3.7.2.
• Updated doctrine/sql-formatter from 1.1.1 to 1.1.3.
• Updated grunt-banana-checker from 0.11.0 to 0.11.1.
• Updated mediawiki/mediawiki-codesniffer from 42.0.0 to 43.0.0.
• Updated mediawiki/mediawiki-phan-config from 0.13.0 to 0.14.0.
• Updated php-parallel-lint/php-parallel-lint from 1.3.2 to 1.4.0.
• Updated phpunit/phpunit from 9.5.28 to 9.6.16.
• Updated psy/psysh from ^0.11.1 to ^0.12.3.
• Updated seld/jsonlint from 1.8.3 to 1.10.1.
• Updated wikimedia/testing-access-wrapper from 2.0.0 to 3.0.0.

Action API changes in 1.42

• APIQueryTags now includes "software" in the "source" array for software generated tags. Reliance on the "extension" entries in this array is now deprecated, but they will remain for backwards compatibility.

Languages updated in 1.42

MediaWiki supports over 350 languages. Many localisations are updated regularly. Below only new and removed languages are listed, as well as changes to languages because of Phabricator reports.

• (T268143) Language variant conversion has been removed for Kazakh.
• (T352776) Updated autonym spelling for the Mon language (mnw).
• (T351874) Added language support for Komering (kge).
• (T351992) Added language support for Efik (efi).
• (T352954) Added language support for Rutul (rut).
• (T353058) Added language support for Arbëresh (aae).
• (T353307) Added language support for Guadeloupean Creole (gcf).
• (T353500) Added language support for Southeastern Kolami (nit).
• (T354519) Added language support for Tooro (ttj).
• (T354926) Added language support for Nyoro (nyo).
• (T356616) Added language support for Chinook Jargon (chn).
• (T357879) Added language support for Ibibio (ibb).

Breaking changes in 1.42

• (T340802) ResourceLoader: The targets system is no longer active; all modules will load on all platforms even if they are marked as desktop- or mobile-only in the 'targets' field, which is no longer read. As part of this, the internal methods RL\Module::setTarget() & ::getTargets(), and OutputPage::setTarget(), have been removed.
• TitleArray, deprecated since 1.41, has been removed.
• UserRightsProxy, deprecated since 1.38, has been removed.
• SiteConfiguration::getConfig(), deprecated in 1.41, has been removed.
• UserLoginCompleteHook is always called with its $direct parameter set to boolean true. The false case has been removed.
• MagicWord::load() has been marked @internal, and may change in the future without further notice.
• All classes that implemented the IDBAccessObject interface and all interfaces that extended it, no longer do that. See https://w.wiki/9DAX for more info.
• The type of the last parameter of BeforeInitializeHook::onBeforeInitialize() and MediaWikiPerformActionHook::onMediaWikiPerformAction() changed from the MediaWiki class to the new ActionEntryPoint. Relevant methods are still available on the object.
• Classes that override Maintenance::finalSetup() must now declare the $settings parameter and pass it on when calling the parent implementation. MaintenanceRunner will always provide this parameter when calling finalSetup().
• WebResponse::disableForPostSend() is no longer static.
• MediaWiki's virtualrest internal library has been removed, in favor of just using other HTTP libraries: Guzzle, MultiHttpClient or MwHttpRequest.
• Several deprecated methods have been removed from the Content interface, in favor of the respective methods in ContentHandlers. Callers should use a more narrow interface like ContentRenderer or ContentTransformer when possible. The following methods have been removed from Content: - getParserOutput() - preSaveTransform() - preloadTransform() - prepareSave()
• User::blockedFor() and AbstractBlock::getReason(), deprecated in 1.35, have been removed. Use AbstractBlock::getReasonComment() instead.
• SerializedValueContainer::newUnified(), deprecated in 1.41 has been removed.
• Use of ActorMigration for any of the following tables, deprecated since 1.34, is no longer supported: - archive - image - oldimage - filearchive - recentchanges - logging - ipblocks
• ParserOutput::setFlag() and ::getFlag(), deprecated in 1.38, were removed. You should use ::setOutputFlag() and ::getOutputFlag() instead.
• ParserOutput::getCategories(), deprecated in 1.40, has been removed. You should use ::getCategoryNames() and ::getCategorySortKey() instead.
• ParserOutput::getTOCHTML(), deprecated in 1.40, has been removed. You should use ::getTOCData() instead.
• The parser does not substitute the default category sort key at parse time; this is substituted when the category links table is updated instead. As a result {{DEFAULTSORT}} will affect all the contents of the page (not just categories added after the location of {{DEFAULTSORT}} in the article) and ParserOutput::getCategorySortKey() will return the empty string (still meaning "use the default sort key") instead of the immediate value of {{DEFAULTSORT}}. ParserOutput::getCategorySortKey() will directly reflect the category link contents, instead of having post-processing done to it (character references decoded, new lines replaced, language conversion). That post-processing is now done when the category links table is updated, and so it consistently applies even when categories are added directly via API.
• PostgresUpdater::addPgEnumValue() unused everywhere, have been removed without deprecation. Use of ENUM is highly discouraged.
• ILoadBalancer::getAnyOpenConnection() has been removed without deprecation, use ::getConnection() instead.
• The unused method CommentStore::getFields() has been removed without depreaction.
• LanguageConverter's internal properties, all deprecated in 1.35 or 1.36, have now had their deprecated property accessors dropped: - mConvRuleTitle - mUserVariant - mHeaderVariant - mMaxDepth - mVarSeparatorPattern - mLangObj - mTablesLoaded - mTables - mVariants - mMainLanguageCode - mVariantFallbacks - mFlags - mVariantNames - mDescCodeSep - mDescVarSep
• OutputPage::addParserOutputText has been marked @internal since there are no known users of it. Its old behavior has been deprecated and will change in the future without further notice.
• A some methods of ConnectionManager and SessionConsistentConnectionManager, previously deprecated, have been removed: - ::releaseConnection(), deprecated in 1.38; do not use - ::getWriteConnectionRef(), deprecated in 1.39; use getWriteConnection() - ::getReadConnectionRef(), deprecated in 1.38; use getReadConnection() - ::getLazyWriteConnectionRef(), deprecated in 1.39; use getWriteConnection() - ::getLazyReadConnectionRef(), deprecated in 1.38; use getReadConnection()
• CoreParserFunctions::mwnamespace(), deprecated in 1.39, has been removed. Use CoreParserFunctions::namespace() instead.
• Processor:: and ExtensionProcessor::getExtraAutoloaderPaths(), deprecated in 1.39, have been removed; use ::getExtractedAutoloadInfo() instead.
• MWExceptionHandler::rollbackMasterChangesAndLog(), deprecated in 1.37, has been removed. Use ::rollbackPrimaryChangesAndLog() instead.
• Passing a custom database connection to DatabaseBlockStore::insertBlock(), deprecated since 1.41, is no longer supported.
• LanguageConverterFactory::isTitleConversionDisabled(), deprecated in 1.36, has been removed. Use ::isLinkConversionDisabled() instead.
• MediaWikiIntegrationTestCase::$tablesUsed has been deprecated. The framework now detects these automatically.
• Passing an actor id to the constructor of UserIdentityValue, deprecated since 1.36, is no longer being supported.
• Support for setting dynamic property on StatusValue object has been removed. To pass your arbitrary data along the object, use StatusValue::statusData property (which is always declared).
• The global function wfReportTime(), deprecated since 1.40, has been removed.
• The skin template parameter 'reporttime', deprecated since 1.41, has been removed.
• WikiPage::getPageIsRedirectField(), deprecated since 1.41, has been removed.
• WikiPage::insertRedirect(), deprecated since 1.41, has been removed.
• Several methods in PageArchive, all deprecated in 1.38, have been removed: - ::listRevisions() - ::getRevisionRecordByTimestamp() - ::getArchivedRevisionRecord() - ::getPreviousRevisionRecord() - ::getLastRevisionId() - ::isDeleted() - ::getFileStatus() - ::getRevisionStatus()
• Database, DatabaseInstaller, DatabaseUpdater, DBPrimaryPos, ResultWrapper and SQLPlatform are no longer stable to extend. It is not possible to define database types in an extension.
• UserDef::PARAM_ALLOWED_USER_TYPES now differentiates between temporary account usernames and user accounts. Any endpoints that want temp users to be valid but were passing a name through will break. Temp users must now be explicitly allowed.
• The Hooks class, a legacy wrapper for HooksContainer, has been removed. All of its contents have been previously deprecated in 1.35 (or 1.41 for ::runner()): - ::register() - ::clear(), - ::isRegistered() - ::getHandlers() - ::run() - ::runWithoutAbort() - ::runner()
• Article::__get(), ::__set(), deprecated since 1.35, have been removed.
• Several API calls have been updated to return a 'temp' user flag: - ApiQueryImageInfo - ApiQueryLogEvents - ApiQueryRecentChanges - APIs extended from ApiQueryRevisionsBase
• Parser::getCustomDefaultSort() and ::setDefaultSort(), deprecated since 1.38, have been removed.
• UserOptionsLookup::getDefaultOptions() and ::getDefaultOption() now accept a UserIdentity, to take conditional defaults for user properties into account. When run on a wiki where conditional defaults are used, calling those methods without the UserIdentity might produce unexpected results.
• Installer-related classes have been namespaced without having aliases added. The following have been moved to MediaWiki\Installer: - CliInstaller - DatabaseInstaller - InstallDocFormatter - Installer - InstallerOverrides - InstallerSessionProvider - LocalSettingsGenerator - MysqlInstaller - PostgresInstaller - PostgresUpdater - SqliteInstaller - SqliteUpdater - WebInstaller - WebInstallerComplete - WebInstallerCopying - WebInstallerDBConnect - WebInstallerDBSettings - WebInstallerDocument - WebInstallerExistingWikis - WebInstallerInstall - WebInstallerLanguage - WebInstallerName - WebInstallerOptions - WebInstallerOutput - WebInstallerPage - WebInstallerReleaseNotes - WebInstallerRestart - WebInstallerUpgrade - WebInstallerUpgradeDoc - WebInstallerWelcome
• The file mediawiki.ui/variables.less, deprecated since 1.41, has been removed in favor of mediawiki.skin.variables.less.
• The file mediawiki.ui/utilities.less, with its three layout CSS classes, has been removed.
• The module `jquery.cookie` (deprecated as of 1.41) has been removed. Please use `mediawiki.cookie` instead
• The no-op module `es6-polyfills` (deprecated as of 1.41) has been removed.
• Log formatters (as defined in $wgLogActionsHandlers) are now created by ObjectFactory, which means their constructors must be public. Legacy log formatters using callbacks instead of class names are no longer supported.
• The old aliases for the namespaced ResourceLoader classes, deprecated since they were moved in MediaWiki 1.39, have now been dropped: - ResourceLoader – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\ResourceLoader - ResourceLoaderCircularDependencyError – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\CircularDependencyError - ResourceLoaderClientHtml – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\ClientHtml - ResourceLoaderCodexModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\CodexModule - ResourceLoaderContext – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\Context - ResourceLoaderFileModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\FileModule - ResourceLoaderFilePath – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\FilePath - ResourceLoaderForeignApiModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\ForeignApiModule - ResourceLoaderImage – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\Image - ResourceLoaderImageModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\ImageModule - ResourceLoaderLessVarFileModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\LessVarFileModule - ResourceLoaderModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\Module - ResourceLoaderMwUrlModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\MwUrlModule - ResourceLoaderOOUIFileModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\OOUIFileModule - ResourceLoaderOOUIIconPackModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\OOUIIconPackModule - ResourceLoaderOOUIImageModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\OOUIImageModule - ResourceLoaderOOUIModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\OOUIModule - ResourceLoaderSiteModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\SiteModule - ResourceLoaderSiteStylesModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\SiteStylesModule - ResourceLoaderSkinModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\SkinModule - ResourceLoaderStartUpModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\StartUpModule - ResourceLoaderUserModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\UserModule - ResourceLoaderUserOptionsModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\UserOptionsModule - ResourceLoaderUserStylesModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\UserStylesModule - ResourceLoaderWikiModule – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\WikiModule - DerivativeResourceLoaderContext – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\DerivativeContext - MessageBlobStore – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\MessageBlobStore - VueComponentParser – use MediaWiki\ResourceLoader\VueComponentParser
• (T318989) Skin::lastModified, deprecated since 1.40, has been removed.
• Composer 1.x is no longer supported, and can no longer be used with MediaWiki.
• Title::GAID_FOR_UPDATE, deprecated in 1.34, has been removed. Instead, your code should use IDBAccessObject::READ_LATEST.
• Six private Title class members, deprecated in 1.37, are now fully private; use their corresponding accessor methods: - $mTextform -> getText() - $mUrlform -> getPartialURL() - $mDbkeyform -> getDBkey() - $mNamespace -> getNamespace() - $mInterwiki -> getInterwiki() - $mFragment -> getFragment()
• Skin::bottomScripts, deprecated since 1.37, has been removed.
• Fallback index and options have been removed from DBAccessObjectUtils::getDBOptions() without deprecation.
• The deprecated class aliases for now-namespaced or renamed PHP classes that were added in or before 1.39 LTS have now been removed: - Blob -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\Blob - Block -> MediaWiki\Block\DatabaseBlock - DBAccessError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBAccessError - DBConnectionError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBConnectionError - DBError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBError - DBExpectedError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBExpectedError - DBQueryError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBQueryError - DBReadOnlyError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBReadOnlyError - DBReplicationWaitError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBReplicationWaitError - DBTransactionError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBTransactionError - DBTransactionSizeError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBTransactionSizeError - DBUnexpectedError -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBUnexpectedError - DatabaseMysqlBase -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DatabaseMySQL - DatabaseMysqli -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\DatabaseMySQL - EasyDeflate -> Deflate - Field -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\Field - IMaintainableDatabase -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\IMaintainableDatabase - LinksDeletionUpdate -> MediaWiki\Deferred\LinksUpdate\LinksDeletionUpdate - LinksUpdate -> MediaWiki\Deferred\LinksUpdate\LinksUpdate - LoadBalancer -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\LoadBalancer - LoadBalancerSingle -> Wikimedia\Rdbms\LoadBalancerSingle - RCFeedEngine -> FormattedRCFeed - RandomPage -> MediaWiki\Specials\SpecialRandomPage
• The return value of IDatabase::upsert(), deprecated since 1.33, has been removed.
• Instancing MediaWiki\Specials\SpecialRandomPage without injected services has been removed.
• SpecialPage::listed() and ::setListed(), deprecated since 1.35, have both been removed. Use ::isListed() to read, and over-ride by implementing isListed() or by sub-classing UnlistedSpecialPage.
• BlockListPager::getTotalAutoblocks() was removed.

Deprecations in 1.42

• (T273239) wfGetDB(), deprecated in 1.39, now emits deprecation warnings. Most code can migrate to MediaWikiServices::getInstance()->getConnectionProvider() ->getReplicaDatabase() or …->getPrimaryDatabase() as appropriate.
• (T166010) All PHP code in MediaWiki is slowly being moved to be in a class namespace as appropriate, so that we can use PSR-4 auto-loading, which will speed up general code loading of MediaWiki. The old global namespace class names are being left behind as deprecated aliases. In this release of MediaWiki, 1868 classes now have a namespace and 821 do not yet (69% done, up from 63% in MediaWiki 1.41.0). The following have newly been moved: - MediaWiki\Cache: - BacklinkCache - FileCacheBase - GenderCache - HTMLCacheUpdater (and fix case for consistency with HTMLFileCache) - LinkBatch - LinkCache - UserCache - MediaWiki\Context: - ContextSource - DerivativeContextSource - IContextSource - MutableContext - RequestContext - MediaWiki\Deferred: - AtomicSectionUpdate - AutoCommitUpdate - CdnCacheUpdate - DataUpdate - DeferrableCallback - DeferrableUpdate - DeferredUpdates - DeferredUpdatesScope - DeferredUpdatesScopeMediaWikiStack - DeferredUpdatesScopeStack - EnqueueableDataUpdate - HtmlFileCacheUpdate - JobQueueEnqueueUpdate - MWCallableUpdate - MergeableUpdate - MessageCacheUpdate - SearchUpdate - SendPasswordResetEmailUpdate - SiteStatsUpdate - TransactionRoundAwareUpdate - TransactionRoundDefiningUpdate - UserEditCountInfo - UserEditCountUpdate - MediaWiki\HTMLForm: - CodexHTMLForm - CollapsibleFieldsetLayout - HTMLForm - HTMLFormActionFieldLayout - HTMLFormElement - HTMLFormField - HTMLFormFieldLayout - HTMLFormFieldRequiredOptionsException - HTMLNestedFilterable - OOUIHTMLForm - VFormHTMLForm - MediaWiki\HTMLForm\Field: - HTMLApiField - HTMLAutoCompleteSelectField - HTMLButtonField - HTMLCheckField - HTMLCheckMatrix - HTMLComboboxField - HTMLDateTimeField - HTMLEditTools - HTMLExpiryField - HTMLFileField - HTMLFloatField - HTMLFormFieldCloner - HTMLFormFieldWithButton - HTMLHiddenField - HTMLInfoField - HTMLIntField - HTMLMultiSelectField - HTMLNamespacesMultiselectField - HTMLRadioField - HTMLRestrictionsField - HTMLSelectAndOtherField - HTMLSelectField - HTMLSelectLanguageField - HTMLSelectLimitField - HTMLSelectNamespace - HTMLSelectNamespaceWithButton - HTMLSelectOrOtherField - HTMLSizeFilterField - HTMLSubmitField - HTMLTagFilter - HTMLTagMultiselectField - HTMLTextAreaField - HTMLTextField - HTMLTextFieldWithButton - HTMLTimezoneField - HTMLTitleTextField - HTMLTitlesMultiselectField - HTMLToggleSwitchField - HTMLUserTextField - HTMLUsersMultiselectField - MediaWiki\Installer: - DatabaseUpdater - MysqlUpdater - MediaWiki\LinkedData: - PageDataRequestHandler - MediaWiki\Maintenance: - Version - MediaWiki\Message: - Message - MediaWiki\Parser: - Parser - ParserOutput - MediaWiki\PoolCounter: - PoolCounter - PoolCounterNull - PoolCounterRedis - PoolCounterWork - PoolCounterWorkViaCallback - PoolWorkArticleView - PoolWorkArticleViewCurrent - PoolWorkArticleViewOld - MediaWiki\Site: - CachingSiteStore - DBSiteStore - HashSiteStore - MediaWikiSite - Site - SiteExporter - SiteImporter - SiteList - SiteLookup - SiteStore - (T352284) MediaWiki\User\Options: - DefaultOptionsLookup - UserOptionsLookup - UserOptionsManager - StaticUserOptionsLookup
• Some hook classes have been moved from the generic MediaWiki\Hooks namespace to live closer to the code which uses them: - MediaWiki\Output\Hook: - AfterBuildFeedLinksHook - AfterFinalPageOutputHook - BeforePageDisplayHook - BeforePageRedirectHook - GetCacheVaryCookiesHook - LanguageLinksHook - MakeGlobalVariablesScriptHook - OutputPageAfterGetHeadLinksArrayHook - OutputPageBeforeHTMLHook - OutputPageBodyAttributesHook - OutputPageCheckLastModifiedHook - OutputPageMakeCategoryLinksHook - OutputPageParserOutputHook
• API modules using ApiBase::requirePostedParameters() must also override mustBePosted() to return true.
• Overriding MWException::getHTML(), ::getText(), ::getPageTitle(), and  ::reportHTML() in order to display custom exception messages is now deprecated. Provide the error message when constructing the Exception, or if you need a whole custom error page, use ErrorPageError instead.
• Using `new ImportReporter( … )` or `new ApiImportReporter( … )` without the $context parameter is now deprecated.
• Using `WikiImporterFactory::getWikiImporter()` without the $performer parameter is now deprecated.
• BlockManager::getUserBlock() was deprecated. Instead use BlockManager::getBlock(), which expects the caller to do ipblock-exempt checking.
• The `composer phpunit:entrypoint` entrypoint has been deprecated, along with bootstrap.integration.php and suite.xml. Run tests with `composer phpunit` instead, or simply `vendor/bin/phpunit`, which use bootstrap.php and phpunit.xml.dist.
• The global variable $wgCommandLineMode is deprecated. In most cases checks for `$wgCommandLineMode` can be replaced with `MW_ENTRY_POINT === 'cli'`.
• The global function wfUnpack is deprecated and emits deprecation warnings. Use StringUtils::unpack instead.
• BagOStuff::setNewPreparedValues() now emits deprecation warnings.
• SpecialEmailUser::getTarget() has been deprecated.
• User::isBlocked(), ::isBlockedFromCreateAccount() and ::isBlockedFrom() now emit deprecation warnings. They were deprecated since 1.34, 1.37 and 1.33 respectively.
• DatabaseBlock::newFromID() was deprecated and will emit deprecation warnings. Instead use DatabaseBlockStore::newFromID().
• DatabaseBlock::getAutoblockExpiry() was deprecated without replacement.
• MagicWord::getId() has been deprecated.
• MagicWordFactory::getSubstIDs() has been deprecated.
• Status::setMessageLocalizer is deprecated. Callers that want to control the localization of the Status object should obtain a StatusFormatter from the StatusFormatterFactory.
• Html::buttonAttributes() and Html::getTextInputAttributes() methods no longer do anything and have been deprecated.
• DatabaseBlock::doAutoblock and ::updateTimestamp are now deprecated, use DatabaseBlockStore::doAutoblock and ::updateTimestamp instead.
• The MediaWiki class has been deprecated. Type hints in hooks should be changed to refer to MediaWikiEntryPoint instead. Note that extensions should not define their own entry points and should not interfere with the state of MediaWikiEntryPoint instances.
• Various methods in ObjectCache have been deprecated and their equivalent made available in ObjectCacheFactory, use them instead: - ::getInstance() -> ObjectCacheFactory::getInstance() - ::newFromParams() -> ObjectCacheFactory::newFromParams() - ::newAnything() -> ObjectCacheFactory::newInstance( ObjectCache::getAnythingId() ) - ::getLocalServerInstance() -> ObjectCacheFactory::getLocalServerInstance() - ::clear() -> ObjectCacheFactory::clear() - In addition, the ObjectCache::$instances member has been deprecated as well.
• Vuex has been deprecated in favor of its successor, Pinia. Though deprecated, Vuex 4 will remain accessible for the foreseeable future. Pinia should be used for new projects.
• Linker::makeHeadline() has been deprecated.
• SerializedValueContainer::isUnified() has been deprecated and now emits deprecation warnings since 1.42.
• Linker::generateTOC(), Linker::tocIndent(), Linker::tocUnindent(), Linker::tocLine(), Linker::tocLineEnd(), Linker::tocList() are deprecated.
• Title::getBrokenLinksFrom() has been deprecated.
• LogFormatter subclasses now emit deprecation warnings unless they are constructed using LogFormatterFactory.
• ReplicatedBagOStuff has been deprecated since 1.42.
• The third argument to ContentRenderer::getParserOutput() now accepts a RevisionRecord or WikiRevision; passing an integer revision id has been deprecated and emits a warning.
• Passing a null value to ParserOutput::setPageProperty() has been deprecated and emits a warning; pass an empty string or use `::unsetPageProperty()` instead.
• Passing a non-string value to ParserOutput::setPageProperty() has been deprecated; use ::setNumericPageProperty() instead.
• Passing a non-scalar value to ParserOutput::setPageProperty() will emit a warning (it has never worked).
• ParserOutput::setLanguageLinks() has been deprecated.
• ParserOutput::getTimestamp() and ::setTimestamp() have been deprecated; use  ::getRevisionTimestamp() and ::setRevisionTimestamp() instead.
• ParserOutput::setText() has been deprecated; use ::setRawText() instead which matches the name of the corresponding getter, ParserOutput::getRawText().
• ParserOutput::addTemplate() will emit a deprecation warning if it is called with a non-local title, such as an interwiki link. In a future release it will throw InvalidArgumentException.
• The use of dynamic properties of Parser has been deprecated and will emit deprecation warnings.
• The following deprecated public properties of Parser will emit deprecation warnings: - Parser::$ot, deprecated since 1.35 - Parser::$mTitle, deprecated since 1.35 - Parser::$mOptions, deprecated since 1.35
• The following deprecated public properties of Parser are now marked for internal use only: - Parser::$mPPNodeCount, deprecated since 1.35 - Parser::$mHighestExpansionDepth, deprecated since 1.35
• ApiQueryBlockInfoTrait::addBlockInfoToQuery() will emit deprecation warnings and will soon stop working due to schema changes. Instead use addDeletedUserFilter() or getBlockDetailsForRows().
• UploadBase::getImageInfo was deprecated, subclasses of ApiUpload can use ApiUpload::getUploadImageInfo() instead.
• DatabaseBlockStore::updateTimestamp() is now internal and should not be called.
• The LocalisationCache helper class GlobalDependency has been deprecated, use MainConfigDependency instead.
• The module `mediawiki.icon` has been deprecated. Use the Codex mixin instead (T351681).
• ConfigRepository::class and MediaWikiServices::getConfigRepository() have been deprecated, they are unused.
• Passing a WikiPage to PageEditStash::parseAndCache() has been deprecated. Use PageUpdater instance.
• SpecialBlock::getSuggestedDurations() has been deprecated, use Language::getBlockDurations() instead.
• MediaWikiServices::getBlockErrorFormatter() has been deprecated, use MediaWikiServices::getFormatterFactory()->getBlockErrorFormatter() instead.
• DummyLinker has been deprecated. The DummyLinker parameter to the 'ImageBeforeProduceHTML' hook will become null in the future.
• Database::listViews() has been deprecated. This was previously used to filter views out of the return value of Database::listTables(). Now listTables() will not include views. MediaWiki does not use views.
• (T207621) UserMailer::rfc822Phrase(), deprecated since 1.38, now emits deprecation warnings.
• TempUserConfig::getMatchPattern() has been deprecated, use getMatchPatterns() instead.
• (T230025) Title::purgeSquid(), deprecated in 1.35, now emits warnings.
• Title::getCdnUrls(), deprecated in 1.35, now emits warnings.
• The rarely-used convenience method Xml::wrapClass() is now deprecated. Instead you can use Xml::tags('span', ['class'=>'foo'], 'bar').
• WebRequest::getCrossSiteCookie() has been deprecated due to the removal of $wgUseSameSiteLegacyCookies. It will emit deprecation warnings. Use WebRequest::getCookie().
• Using the array_merge_recursive merge strategy in extension.json and skin.json now emits deprecation warnings.
• DBAccessObjectUtils::getDBFromIndex() is now deprecated, use  ::getDBFromRecency() instead.
• Many Xml methods that are specific to HTML but not XML are deprecated: - Xml::buildForm - Xml::buildTable - Xml::buildTableRow - Xml::check - Xml::checkLabel - Xml::dateMenu - Xml::fieldset - Xml::input - Xml::inputLabel - Xml::inputLabelSep - Xml::label - Xml::languageSelector - Xml::listDropdown - Xml::listDropdownOptions - Xml::listDropdownOptionsOoui - Xml::monthSelector - Xml::option - Xml::password - Xml::radio - Xml::radioLabel - Xml::span - Xml::submitButton - Xml::textarea - Xml::attrib (only for use in HTML, not XML contexts)
• IMaintainableDatabase::truncate() has been deprecated. Use truncateTable() instead.
• TextConflictHelper->incrementStatsByUserEdits() is now deprecated. The action this function previously handled should be moved into incrementConflictStats() and incrementResolvedStats().
• SQLPlatform::getQueryVerb() is now deprecated.

Other changes in 1.42

• Gallery: Image captions are no longer wrapped in <p> tags. Skins that customize rendering for galleries may need to tweak their CSS.
• Scripts under maintenance/dev/, for quickly setup a local MediaWiki for development purposes, have been removed, see DEVELOPERS.md for alternatives.

Compatibility

MediaWiki 1.42 requires PHP 8.1.0 or later and the following PHP extensions:

• ctype
• dom
• fileinfo
• iconv
• intl
• json
• mbstring
• xml

MariaDB is the recommended database software. MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite can be used instead, but support for them is somewhat less mature.

The supported versions are:

• MariaDB 10.3 or higher
• MySQL 5.7.0 or higher
• PostgreSQL 10 or later
• SQLite 3.8.0 or later

Online documentation

Documentation for both end-users and site administrators is available on MediaWiki.org, and is covered under the GNU Free Documentation License (except for pages that explicitly state that their contents are in the public domain):

 https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Documentation

Mailing list

A mailing list is available for MediaWiki user support and discussion:

 https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-l.lists.wikimedia.org/

A low-traffic announcements-only list is also available:

 https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/mediawiki-announce.lists.wikimedia.org/

It's highly recommended that you sign up for one of these lists if you're going to run a public MediaWiki, so you can be notified of security fixes.

IRC help

There's usually someone online in #mediawiki on irc.libera.chat.