I am currently running version 1.25.3 and want to upgrade to the latest version which is 1.28.0.

Here are the steps I did:

  • Use Putty and connect to server
  • Type – cd domains
  • Type – cd domainname.com
  • Type – cd html
  • Type – wget https://releases.wikimedia.org/mediawiki/1.28/mediawiki-1.28.0.tar.gz
  • Type – tar -xvzf mediawiki-1.28.0.tar.gz
  • Type – rm mediawiki-1.28.0.tar.gz
  • rename new folder to “mediawiki” in FTP
  • copy the following files or folders from the old installation to the new installation
    • LocalSettings.php
    • images folder
      • In FTP, confirm file permission is 755 and apply recurrisevly
    • extensions folder
      • GoogleAnalytics
      • WikiBanner
      • YouTube
      • EmbedVideo
      • SimpleBatchUpload
  • Check if extensions have been updated since last upgrade
  • Backup database
  • In FTP, rename “w” to “wikiold”
  • In FTP, rename “mediawiki” to “w”
  • In SSH, open “w” folder
  • Type – cd maintenance
  • Type – php update.php
    • may need to run using “php-latest” instead of “php”
  • Test upgrade
    • login as admin and check Special Pages –> Version
    • confirm pages load
    • confirm images are visible
    • confirm embedded videos run
    • confirm ads are displayed
    • If get error message of Fatal exception of type MWException, the issue is running on Cloudflare.  Following the instructions in this blog post – MediaWiki and Cloudflare.
  • Download “wikiold” folder as a backup
  • Delete old folder
    • Type – rm –r wikiold