Talk:Version check and opt-in site reporting/Flow

Previous page history was archived for backup purposes at Talk:Version check and opt-in site reporting/LQT Archive 1 on 2015-06-25.

Was this ever done? US Federal security guideline SI-2(2) requires that software under management be able to check for updates in an automated way.

No, this has not yet been done. I've added a note to explain this to the top of the page.

• Rather than a [Check for Updates Now] button, can Special:Version (optionally) just always show if your wiki is out of date? If there's a performance concern from the HTTP request, the "tell the MediaWiki installation to set up the job to check for updates" could update a MediaWiki: message string or cache the info for Special:Version to display.
• I would like the out-of-date check to be even more obvious. Perhaps the default Main_Page could transclude {{Special:Updates/status}}
• Can the wiki introspect whether it's running a release tag and by default check for updates to that? "A dropdown will allow the user to specify if they are checking LTS versions, point release updates, or major releases" is useful, but we want the appropriate "There is a dot release for this MediaWiki version/This MediaWiki version is unsupported and does not get security updates" version check message to display by default.

I don't think the main page is the place to check for new updates. the main page is for new visitors usually. I don't think normal editors and admins use the main page so often. I'd say Special:RecentChanges would be even more appropriate :)

I propose to have some sort of periodic reminder that pops in like a notification, for sysops only (configurable through user rights):

mw.notify( 'Latest check for updates was a month ago. Can we do a very quick check for updates now? [yes/no]', { autoHide: false } );

Or even perform the check periodically and pop the message when we detect it's outdated. Note that some installations may not have access to internet (for security reasons, etc) and thus the automatic check may fail.

The check could be done on client side, though, to save this limitation.

The "Version check" part of this came up in today's "Reconnecting with the shared hosting community" IRC office hour. I created phab:T119121 "implement a version check". Some relevant bits from that meeting,

 <legoktm> I'm rather interested in how shared hosting users upgrade (if they do at all), according to wikiapiary:Statistics 68.23 % of known wikis are using unsupported versions. And if people aren't upgrading to newer versions, they're not getting newer features, which seems like less of an incentive to stick with MW.
 <legoktm> gilles: I suppose the next question is, are we doing a good job promoting our new features, and is that reaching shared hosting users? The installer has an option to subscribe to mediawiki-announce, but do shared hosting users get that option if they use a different installer?
 <gilles> ... so they probably don't even know that they're running something outdated
 <gilles> #idea find (better) ways to advertise new versions/new features to shared hosting users
 <spagewmf> For updates and support, can we built into core MediaWii a parser tag <check_for_updates> and in the default install it is on the default Main_Page?
 <Trela> spagewmf: Special:Version would be a good spot to have a "New Version Available" indicator for logged in admins.
 <cscott> spagewmf: probably Special:CheckForUpdates would be better, with default permissions only viewable by admins
 <spagewmf> cscott special page works too, and the default Main_Page can transclude {{Special:CheckForUpdates}}

Hi any update on when it will be submitted to gerrit.

Bump.

Hi Mediawiki 1.25 is almost ready to stop being developed next week will This make it into 1.25 before Tuesday or will it be added to 1.26 or add to 1.25 at a later date by back porting.

I don't know the actual development status, but i would say: definitely not in MW 1.25.

There should also be options like lts then stable and then alpha / wmf release and then when you select alpha it would ask you do you want updates from wmf or alpha.

There should also be a download link next to it so users can ether upgrade automatically or manually.

Right now, all upgrades will be manual, but these are good things to add.

Hi do you know when the updater will be released.

We're planning on having this in 1.25.

Hi what I mean do you know when it will be added for example a date or month.

See Version lifecycle for dates.

What I mean is when will the patch for using the updated be avalible in master branch

Updated = updater

Good question. We're going to be working on it ASAP, but I can't give you a date that it will be available. And, to clarify, the first round will require manual updating.

Ok thanks

Do you have a date for when the patch will be uploaded to gerrit

Hi is there a timeframe on when it will be avilible in git or gerrit.