MediaWiki's maintenance scripts are PHP scripts that perform maintenance tasks, and are designed to be run from the command line.

See also: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Maintenance_scripts

Running Maintenance Scripts

Maintenance scripts are generally executed using the maintenance runner, calling ''php maintenance/run.php'' followed by the script's name. On most systems, the shorthand ''maintenance/run'' can also be used. For instance, to run the script that displays the MediaWiki version, use ''maintenance/run version''.

Maintenance scripts can be called by their simple name, class name, or path.

The simple name corresponds to a file in the maintenance directory:

• ''maintenance/run version'' runs the file ''maintenance/version.php''.

For the class name:

• ''maintenance/run Version'' runs the Version class (using auto-loading from

''./maintenance/version.php'').

For the path:

• ''maintenance/run ./maintenance/version.php'' runs the file

''./maintenance/version.php''.

Note that relative file paths must start with "./". Using this form allows for the use of tab-completion.

Maintenance scripts defined by extensions may also be called by giving their full class name or full relative path, such as:

• ''maintenance/run ./extension/AbuseFilter/maintenance/SearchFilters.php''
• ''maintenance/run MediaWiki.Extension.AbuseFilter.Maintenance.SearchFilters''

Note how the dot (".") can be used as a namespace separator instead of the backslash ("\").

If the extension follows the MediaWiki coding conventions for the location and namespacing of maintenance scripts, they can be invoked using the name of the extension, followed by a colon (":") and the name of the script file or class:

• ''maintenance/run AbuseFilter:SearchFilters''

For more details on using the script runner, call ''maintenance/run --help''.

For about an individual script, call ''maintenance/run <script> --help ''.

Running Maintenance Scripts before MW 1.40

The maintenance runner described above was introduced in MediaWiki 1.40. In MediaWiki version 1.39 and earlier, maintenance scripts had to be run as standalone PHP scripts, by passing the path the the script to the php interpreter. For instance:

• ''php maintenance/version.php''

This is still possible for most scripts in 1.40, but it will show a deprecation warning.

Creating Maintenance Scripts

To create a maintenance script, add a PHP file to the maintenance directory that contains a class that extends the ''Maintenance'' base class and implement the ''execute()'' method. At the end of the file, add a return statement that returns the name of the class.

For example, if your class is called ''Frobnify'', place it in a file called ''maintenance/Frobnify.php'' and at the end of the file, put the following statement: <pre> return Frobnify::class; </pre>

You can now run your script by calling ''maintenance/run Frobnify''.

With this, it will however not be possible to run Frobnify.php as a PHP command line script. ''php maintenance/Frobnify.php'' will fail with an error.

Supporting direct execution of maintenance scripts

Since MediaWiki version 1.40, invoking maintenance scripts directly is now deprecated, and will show a warning even for scripts that support it.

If you need to support direct invocation for your script, this can be achieved as follows:

At the top of the script file, place the statement: <pre> require_once DIR . '/Maintenance.php'; </pre>.

For maintenance scripts defined in extensions, this is slightly more complex: <pre> require_once getenv( 'MW_INSTALL_PATH' ) !== false ? getenv( 'MW_INSTALL_PATH' ) . '/maintenance/Maintenance.php' : DIR . '/../../../maintenance/Maintenance.php'; </pre>

Then, at the bottom of the file, replace the return statement with the following lines: <pre> $maintClass = Frobnify::class; require_once RUN_MAINTENANCE_IF_MAIN; </pre>

This will allow your script to be executed directly on the PHP command line. Note however that it will show a warning.