Subversion/USERINFO file

Each MediaWiki developer has a USERINFO file in the MediaWiki Subversion repository which gives a bit of extra information about them. As well as being viewable from within the SVN repository (in the /USERINFO/ folder) these files are used to generate the list of SVN users located at http://svn.wikimedia.org/users.php.

It is the responsibility of all SVN users to create and maintain their own USERINFO file.

Creating a USERINFO file

When you are granted SVN commit access, your first action should be to create your USERINFO file, as described in this section.

Note: Instructions are for the SVN command-line client - if you use an alternative client (e.g. TortoiseSVN) then the exact details may differ, but the steps remain the same.

This example assumes an SVN username of mysterywizard:

1. Checkout the USERINFO folder to your local machine:

   svn checkout svn+ssh://mysterywizard@svn.wikimedia.org/svnroot/mediawiki/USERINFO/ USERINFO

2. Change directory to the USERINFO directory you have just created.

   cd USERINFO

3. Create a new file and fill in your details (see below). The file name should be identical to your SVN user name (in this example, the file would simply be called mysterywizard).
4. Add the new file to SVN:

   svn add mysterywizard

5. Make sure the eol-style is set on this new file (see also Subversion/auto-props)

   svn propset svn:eol-style native mysterywizard

   Note: Set this manually even if you've already setup auto-props. The USERINFO file has no extension and hence no defaults.
6. Commit your changes to the repository:

   svn commit

   , your text editor of choice will appear, enter your commit summary, e.g. "Adding my USERINFO file.", save, quit, and it will be committed.

If the commit was successful, then you're done. You can now delete the USERINFO directory that you checked out.

Contents of the USERINFO file

The contents of the file should use the following template:

name: Alan Smithee
email: mysterywiz@example.com
irc: asmith
url: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:MysteryWizard
project: Core JavaScript
since: 20100613
languages spoken: English, Dutch

The URL should ideally be to your user account on this wiki, but may be to your user account on another WMF wiki or even to your own website, if you feel that is more appropriate.

If you have previously committed to SVN under a different user name then you should also add an aliases line, as described in the next section.

fields description

At the minimum your profile should contains the following fields :

name

real name

email

your email address which may be obfuscated

url

your user page, website, blog or personal homepage (one valid url, otherwise empty)

since

the date you have been granted commit rights (format YYYYMMDD)

project

extensions you are working on, 'core' if you have commit rights to MediaWiki trunk, branches you maintain, language, 'pywikipedia' for the python wikipedia framework. Fields separated by comma ( , ).

languages spoken

any languages you understand. Might be useful for mail / chat and general communication among developers.

Some fields are optional and should be filled only when they differs from your username:

irc

nickname you are using on freenode if it differs from your name

aliases

see below

We are liberal about those fields, so feel free to add more of them. Below is a list of well known additional fields:

wiki

URL to your main userpage on one of the Wikimedia projects

twitter

your twitter account

identica

your identi.ca account

Changes to your user name

If your SVN user name changes then you should rename your USERINFO file appropriately, using an svn mv operation.

You should also add an aliases line to your USERINFO file (as part of the same commit) linking to your old user name:

 aliases: myoldname

If you have had multiple previous IDs, separate them using commas.