Manual:MySQL

MediaWiki database layout

MySQL

The MySQL database engine is the most commonly-used database backends for MediaWiki. Since MySQL used to be the relational database management system used by the Wikimedia Foundation websites, it is well-supported in MediaWiki. Much of the advice for MySQL and for MariaDB apply to each other.

See Compatibility#Database for a list of supported versions.

Connecting to MySQL

 mysql -u wikiuser -p my_wiki

Change wikiuser and my_wiki to the username and database name for your wiki ($wgDBuser and $wgDBname ). When prompted, enter your password.

Example

$ mysql -u root -p my_wiki
Enter password: 
Reading table information for completion of table and column names
You can turn off this feature to get a quicker startup with -A

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 150
Server version: 5.6.24-0ubuntu2 (Ubuntu)
...

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql>.

Installation

For further information, see Manual:Installing MediaWiki#Create a database

Basically, if MySQL is installed, the installation script can create a database for you. Just supply the script with your MySQL root password (by default blank).

Warning:

Leaving the root password blank can seriously compromise the security of the MediaWiki installation. You should modify the password if you haven't already.

If you are installing MediaWiki on an ISP server, you might have to share a db with some other applications, which increases the risk of a conflict between database tables required by MediaWiki with pre-existing tables. To solve this problem you can instruct MediaWiki to use a table prefix, so that all tables of MediaWiki begin with this prefix. Alternatively, if your ISP allows, use different databases for each application that resides on the server.

Maintenance

Multiple maintenance scripts are included in the /maintenance/ directory of your MediaWiki installation. Some of these scripts are provided to refresh parts of the database as one-time operations.

Import database

For further information, see Manual:Importing XML dumps

Export database

For further information, see Manual:Backing up a wiki

External links

MySQL Reference Manual