Version 1.2 ratified on October 1st, 2022.

Supersedes [https://www.debian.org/social_contract.1.1 Version 1.1] ratified on April 26th, 2004, and [https://www.debian.org/social_contract.1.0 Version 1.0] ratified on July 5, 1997.

Debian, the producers of the Debian system, have created the Debian Social Contract. The [[Debian_Social_Contract#The Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)|Debian Free Software Guidelines (DFSG)]] part of the contract, initially designed as a set of commitments that we agree to abide by, has been adopted by the free software community as the basis of the [https://opensource.org/docs/osd Open Source Definition].

= "Social Contract" with the Free Software Community =

== 1. Debian will remain 100% free ==

We provide the guidelines that we use to determine if a work is "free" in the document entitled ''"The Debian Free Software Guidelines"''. We promise that the Debian system and all its components will be free according to these guidelines. We will support people who create or use both free and non-free works on Debian. We will never make the system require the use of a non-free component.

== 2. We will give back to the free software community ==

When we write new components of the Debian system, we will license them in a manner consistent with the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We will make the best system we can, so that free works will be widely distributed and used. We will communicate things such as bug fixes, improvements and user requests to the ''"upstream"'' authors of works included in our system.

== 3. We will not hide problems ==

We will keep our entire bug report database open for public view at all times. Reports that people file online will promptly become visible to others.

== 4. Our priorities are our users and free software ==

We will be guided by the needs of our users and the free software community. We will place their interests first in our priorities. We will support the needs of our users for operation in many different kinds of computing environments. We will not object to non-free works that are intended to be used on Debian systems, or attempt to charge a fee to people who create or use such works. We will allow others to create distributions containing both the Debian system and other works, without any fee from us. In furtherance of these goals, we will provide an integrated system of high-quality materials with no legal restrictions that would prevent such uses of the system.

== 5. Works that do not meet our free software standards ==

We acknowledge that some of our users require the use of works that do not conform to the Debian Free Software Guidelines. We have created ''"contrib"'' and ''"non-free"'' areas in our archive for these works. The packages in these areas are not part of the Debian system, although they have been configured for use with Debian. We encourage CD manufacturers to read the licenses of the packages in these areas and determine if they can distribute the packages on their CDs. Thus, although non-free works are not a part of Debian, we support their use and provide infrastructure for non-free packages (such as our bug tracking system and mailing lists). The Debian official media may include firmware that is otherwise not part of the Debian system to enable use of Debian with hardware that requires such firmware.

----

{{:DFSG}}

MediaWiki:Common.css

2026-09-09T07:49:10Z

Mok0: Add CSS classes for various box types: info, warning, note etc.

/* CSS placed here will be applied to all skins */

:root {
--debian-red-color:#d70a53;

--debwiki-note-background-color:light-dark(aliceblue,darkslateblue);
--debwiki-note-border-color:steelblue;

--debwiki-warning-background-color:light-dark(mistyrose,darkslategray);
--debwiki-warning-border-color:var(--debian-red-color);

--debwiki-tip-background-color:light-dark(honeydew,darkslategray);
--debwiki-tip-border-color:limegreen;

--debwiki-highlight-background-color:light-dark(lemonchiffon,darkslategray);
--debwiki-highlight-border-color:gold;

}

div.debwiki-box {
margin: 0.5em 0;
padding: 0.5em 0.5em 0.5em 40px;

border: 1px solid var(--border-color-base, gainsboro);
border-left-width:0.25rem;

overflow: hidden;

background-color: var(--background-color-base, white);
color: var(--color-base, darkslategray);
}

div.debwiki-box.debwiki-box-note {
background-color:var(--debwiki-note-background-color);
border-color:var(--debwiki-note-border-color)
}

div.debwiki-box.debwiki-box-warning {
background-color:var(--debwiki-warning-background-color);
border-color:var(--debwiki-warning-border-color)
}

div.debwiki-box.debwiki-box-tip {
background-color:var(--debwiki-tip-background-color);
border-color:var(--debwiki-tip-border-color)
}

div.debwiki-box.debwiki-box-highlight {
background-color:var(--debwiki-highlight-background-color);
border-color:var(--debwiki-highlight-border-color)
}

/* Table utility classes */
table.col-1-center td:nth-child(1) { text-align: center; }
table.col-2-center td:nth-child(2) { text-align: center; }
table.col-3-center td:nth-child(3) { text-align: center; }
table.col-4-center td:nth-child(4) { text-align: center; }
table.col-5-center td:nth-child(5) { text-align: center; }
table.col-6-center td:nth-child(6) { text-align: center; }
table.col-7-center td:nth-child(7) { text-align: center; }
table.col-8-center td:nth-child(8) { text-align: center; }
table.col-9-center td:nth-child(9) { text-align: center; }
table.col-1-right td:nth-child(1) { text-align: right; }
table.col-2-right td:nth-child(2) { text-align: right; }
table.col-3-right td:nth-child(3) { text-align: right; }
table.col-4-right td:nth-child(4) { text-align: right; }
table.col-5-right td:nth-child(5) { text-align: right; }
table.col-6-right td:nth-child(6) { text-align: right; }
table.col-7-right td:nth-child(7) { text-align: right; }
table.col-8-right td:nth-child(8) { text-align: right; }
table.col-9-right td:nth-child(9) { text-align: right; }

Wiki Revamp/Content Licensing

2026-09-06T13:38:39Z

Mok0: 1 revision imported

Wiki Revamp/Other Conversations

2026-09-06T13:34:09Z

Mok0: 1 revision imported

{{MoinMarkupHeader|MoinMarkupID=0|Format=wiki|Language=en|PragmaSupplementation=0|Comments=For Translators - to have a constantly up to date translation header in you page, you can just add a line like the following (with the comment's character at the start of the line removed)
<<Include(DefaultTemplate, ,from{{=}}"^##TAG:TRANSLATION-HEADER-START",to{{=}}"^##TAG:TRANSLATION-HEADER-END")>>|MoinMarkupID2=0}}

-----
[[Category:WikiDev]]

MoinMoin 1.9 is no longer supported in Debian and MoinMoin 2.0 is still in development, so we're taking the opportunity to switch this wiki to MediaWiki. This page summarises conversations from the {{DebianList|MoinMarkupID=1|debian-wiki|mailing list|MoinMarkupID2=1}} and {{DebianIRC|MoinMarkupID=2|debian-wiki|IRC channel|MoinMarkupID2=2}}. It will always be somewhat out-of-date and incomplete.

{{MoinMarkupMacro|MoinMarkupID=3|ArgCount=1|Name=TableOfContents|3|Content=TableOfContents(3)|Output=
<div class="table-of-contents">
Contents

# [[#Debian_Bug_Links{{!}}Debian Bug Links]]
# [[#Migrating_user_accounts{{!}}Migrating user accounts]]
# [[#Boilerplate_page_headers{{!}}Boilerplate page headers]]
# [[#Translations{{!}}Translations]]
# [[#Editorial_tasks_.28e.g._CategoryProposedDeletion.29{{!}}Editorial tasks (e.g. CategoryProposedDeletion)]]
# [[#Scope{{!}}Scope]]
# [[#Milestones_and_gamification{{!}}Milestones and gamification]]
# [[#Automated_edits_with_bots{{!}}Automated edits with bots]]
# [[#Interwiki_links_vs_templates{{!}}Interwiki links vs templates]]
# [[#Automation_.28bots.2C_modules.2C_CGI_scripts_etc..29{{!}}Automation (bots, modules, CGI scripts etc.)]]
# [[#External_images{{!}}External images]]

</div>

|MoinMarkupID2=3}}
= Debian Bug Links =

The current wiki renders Debian and Ubuntu bugs specially - links get a <code>title</code> and closed bugs are struck through. For example, the following bugs should be struck through, and you should see a custom title when you hover over them: {{DebianBug|MoinMarkupID=4|399237|Debian Bug #399237|MoinMarkupID2=4}} {{LaunchpadBug|MoinMarkupID=5|1597017|Launchpad bug 1597017|MoinMarkupID2=5}}.

This is implemented by including [https://salsa.debian.org/debian/wiki.debian.org/-/blob/master/usr/htdocs/bugstatus.js bugstatus.js] in every page, which scans the HTML for appropriate links and sends requests to [https://salsa.debian.org/debian/wiki.debian.org/-/blob/master/bin/bugstatus the bugstatus script] and [https://salsa.debian.org/debian/wiki.debian.org/-/blob/master/bin/launchpad the launchpad script]. The bugstatus script in turn uses the [[DebbugsSoapInterface|Debbugs SOAP interface]], while the launchpad script uses [https://pypi.org/project/launchpadlib/ launchpadlib].

MediaWiki alternatives to this solution include:

<code>MediaWiki:Common.js</code> is a JavaScript file included on every page in a wiki. This is the most direct translation, but can be hard to manage because of the temptation to put unrelated content in the same file. [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Gadgets The Gadgets extension] is a more powerful alternative to <code>MediaWiki:Common.js</code>, and seems like the natural choice for a MediaWiki equivalent of the current implementation. [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgEnableScaryTranscluding Scary Transcluding] lets you include pages and templates from other wikis. Data is cached, with [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:$wgEnableScaryTranscluding a configurable timeout]. For example, this would let us run an internal service that generates HTML from some pre-existing Perl library, then transclude that HTML into ordinary wiki pages. It's the wrong tool for this particular job, but may be worth revisiting if other use cases pop up. [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Cargo The Cargo extension] lets MediaWiki store and query data in an internal database, which could potentially be synchronised with an external database somehow. But Cargo has a poor security reputation, and synchronising data could be awkward. [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:External_Data The External Data extension] lets MediaWiki interrogate external sources like the [[UltimateDebianDatabase|Ultimate Debian Database]]. This would let us render links server-side instead of in JavaScript, but would introduce questions around caching. Allowing the wiki to query the UDD opens up a lot of interesting possibilities, and this might be a good way to make that possible. This is the solution we currently expect to use.

See also: [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2025/07/msg00054.html DebianBug links] on the mailing list.

= Migrating user accounts =

The plan is to switch from [[MoinMoin|MoinMoin]]'s built-in user database to Salsa accounts, so people will need to [https://salsa.debian.org/users/sign_up create a Salsa account].

The suggested solution is to disable creation of new wiki accounts at some point, give people Salsa accounts with the same username as the wiki, and ask them to change their information if they want.

See also: [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2025/07/msg00073.html How to manage new Salsa accounts with the new wiki] on the mailing list.

= Boilerplate page headers =

Pages often start with some boilerplate text (e.g. translation headers). Putting a common header template on all pages would make it easier to manage that text. See [https://wiki2025.debian.org/wiki/Template:PageHeader the PageHeader template] for an initial demonstration.

This has been mentioned in passing, but no decision has been made.

= Translations =

We plan to install MediaWiki's [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate Translate Extension] to handle translation. Benefits of this extension include:

* no need to maintain a 'TAG:TRANSLATION-HEADER' block - just add <code><languages /></code> to the top of the page, and the rest is handled automatically
** see e.g. the "Languages" block at the top of [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate Translate Extension]
* provides advanced translation tools, like showing how complete a translation is and suggesting machine translations
* may be familiar to people coming here from other MediaWiki-based wikis

We could avoid the need to add <code><languages /></code> by installing MediaWiki's [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:UniversalLanguageSelector Universal Language Selector Extension] and enabling [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Extension:Translate/Configuration#:~:text=$wgTranslatePageTranslationULS wgTranslatePageTranslationULS]. To see how this works, go to {{WikiPedia|MoinMarkupID=6|Debian|Debian's Wikipedia page|MoinMarkupID2=6}} and click on the {{MoinMarkupEmbed|MoinMarkupID=7|Type=external|URL=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/load.php?modules{{=}}skins.vector.icons&image{{=}}language&variant{{=}}progressive&format{{=}}original&lang{{=}}en&skin{{=}}vector-2022&version{{=}}bayjp|Content=https://en.wikipedia.org/w/load.php?modules{{=}}skins.vector.icons&image{{=}}language&variant{{=}}progressive&format{{=}}original&lang{{=}}en&skin{{=}}vector-2022&version{{=}}bayjp|Output=<nowiki></nowiki>https://en.wikipedia.org/w/load.php?modules=skins.vector.icons&image=language&variant=progressive&format=original&lang=en&skin=vector-2022&version=bayjp<nowiki></nowiki>|MoinMarkupID2=7}} Languages button near the top of the page.

An alternative would be to write our own custom templates (see [https://wiki2025.debian.org/wiki/ExampleForTranslation ExampleForTranslation]). They would have no external dependencies and we could modify them more easily, but they'd be harder to maintain and wouldn't have as many features.

Another alternative is [https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Template:Languages OpenStreetMap's languages template]. This uses a [https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Module:Languages Lua module], so it only requires the common [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Module Scribunto] extension. It would probably produce a better result than custom templates, but doesn't provide the advanced tools in MediaWiki's solution.

We plan to include a template to link to localised versions of pages. So for example, if you're translating <code>Page1</code> and find a link to <code>Page2</code>, <code>{{ll|Page2}}</code> will update automatically when translations of <code>Page2</code> are added or removed - see [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Template:Localized_link MediaWiki's Localized link template], [https://wiki2025.debian.org/wiki/Template:ll the custom ll template], and [https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Template:LL OpenStreetMap's LL template].

See also: [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2025/08/msg00005.html Info request on new Wiki translations - any automatic handling of translation headers and translated pages?].


= Editorial tasks (e.g. CategoryProposedDeletion) =

In the current wiki, pages are added to [[DebianWiki/Administration#Current_tasks|editorial categories]] like [[CategoryProposedDeletion|CategoryProposedDeletion]], with the expectation the editorial work will be made at some future date. That editorial process is discussed in [[DebianWiki/EditorGuide|the editor guide]].

MediaWiki makes it easy to create more verbose and precise admonitions, with guidance on the page itself - see [https://wiki2025.debian.org/wiki/ExampleForProposedDeletion ExampleForProposedDeletion].

See also: [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2025/07/msg00068.html IRC summary: Issues around CategoryProposedDeletion].

= Scope =

Discussion on the scope of the wiki is ongoing, but still in early stages. Most of it is happening in ''[https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2025/08/msg00015.html aims of the wiki?]'' on the mailing list.

A draft for guidelines were published at [[MaythamAlsudany/DraftContentGuidelines|MaythamAlsudany/DraftContentGuidelines]] and is [[MaythamAlsudany/DraftContentGuidelines/Discussion|open for discussion]].

= Milestones and gamification =

By default, MediaWiki notifies you when you make round-numbered edits (1st, 10th, 100th etc.). This can be disable by going to [https://wiki2025.debian.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo event preferences] and disabling "Edit milestone", but there doesn't seem to be a way to disable this by default for new users.

= Automated edits with bots =

We don't have bots making edits to the current wiki, but some proposals for the new wiki would benefit from automated edits. [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations#Debian_Bug_Links|Debian Bug Links]] can be implemented without JavaScript, so long as editors write links as <code>{{DebianBug|NNN}}</code> instead of <code>[[DebianBug:NNN]]</code> or <code>https://bugs.debian.org/NNN</code>. That's more likely to happen if a bot fixes those links automatically. [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations#Boilerplate_page_headers|Boilerplate page headers]] (e.g. [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations#Translations|translations]]) need to be added to the top of each page. Having a bot do that is probably easier than educating each new editor that comes along. [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations#Editorial_tasks_.28e.g._CategoryProposedDeletion.29|Editorial tasks]] involve scheduling some action for a particular future date (e.g. deleting a page if nobody objects for one month). Automating those actions would give everyone more certainty about the issue, and might mean non-admin users don't need permission to delete pages themselves.

An alternative would be to encourage people to help clean up the wiki in general, rather than just focus on their little corner of it. This hasn't worked before, because doing so is less inherently rewarding, risks treading on others' toes, and is unnecessarily hard work in MoinMoin.

This hasn't had its own dedicated discussion, and no decision has been made.

= Interwiki links vs templates =

The current wiki's [[InterWikiMap|InterWikiMap]] is quite large, and [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations#Debian_Bug_Links|Debian Bug Links]] shows there's interest in pushing beyond what it's designed to handle. [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Interwiki MediaWiki interwiki links] can only be changed by editing a database table, so a direct translation would be harder to use than the current solution.

Templates are more flexible than interwiki links, and more familiar to users. So far, nobody has objected to the idea of converting interwiki links to templates.

See also [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2025/07/msg00053.html#:~:text=DebianIRC a brief mention in Re: Complex conversion issues] and [https://wiki2025.debian.org/wiki/Template:DebianIRC the example DebianIRC template].


= Automation (bots, modules, CGI scripts etc.) =

Several features of the current wiki need some kind of automation. For example, [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations#Debian_Bug_Links|Debian Bug Links]] (above) use a CGI script that updates a cache whenever a new link is added to the wiki, while the <code><<DebianDate(stable)>></code> macro is regularly updated by [https://salsa.debian.org/debian/wiki.debian.org/-/blob/master/bin/get-debian-suite-info the get-debian-suite-info bot].

See also [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2026/08/msg00035.html Bots (and automation generally) on the new wiki].

= External images =

The current wiki allows anyone to embed images from any site, and doesn't require image filenames to end with any particular extension. The former might change in the new wiki, the latter is sadly likely to change.

See also [https://lists.debian.org/debian-wiki/2026/08/msg00037.html External images on the new wiki].

-----

[[CategoryMigration|CategoryMigration]]

Wiki Development Container

2026-09-06T13:02:08Z

Mok0:

= Welcome to the Debian Development Wiki =
[[Category:WikiDev]]
== Getting started ==

Debian is converting its wiki to Mediawiki. If you are seeing this
page it means you have succesfully installed the WikiDev container
image of MediaWiki, which contains a few completely new pages (like
the one you are reading now) plus a small number Pages that are
downloaded from the old wiki, and converted on-the-fly from MoinMoin
to [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikitext Wikitext] (see the list
[[Special:AllPages|here]]). From here on, the MoinMoin wiki, still
alive at https://wiki.debian.org/, will be referred to as “the
old wiki”.

This page introduces what we're doing and how you can help.

=== How the development environment is organized ===

For the time being, during the process of developing the tools, macros
and conversions needed for the big conversion from MoinMoin to
Wikitext, we are using a few software repositories on Salsa to
maintain the tools.

There are three repositories responsible for most of the conversion
work:

==== 1. debwiki-dev-pages ====

The page you are reading can be found in the
[https://salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-pages <code>debwiki-dev-pages</code>]
repository on Salsa. It contains pages for the new wiki (this one)
''that are not in the old wiki''. It also contains several templates and
macros which on the
[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] platform is
saved as ''Pages''. In fact, everything in Mediawiki is Pages, not only
user content, but also Templates, Forms and other components used to
produce the final site. If you'd like to work with editing pages and/or
creating new content for the new wiki this is where you want to be
working.

==== 2. debwiki-dev-converter ====

The software components doing the under-the-hood conversion work
can be found in the
[https://salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-converter <code>debwiki-dev-converter</code>]
repository. Its main function is to convert Debian's old MoinMoin wiki
markup to MediaWiki XML dumps, and will be used when the time comes to
do the grand conversion. Now, we want to stress test it, find issues
and see if improvements are needed, and that is one of the purposes of
this wiki container.

At the moment the <code>debwiki-dev-converter</code> also is responsible for
converting a bunch of sample documents from the old wiki to the new
one, but this functionality will likely be separated out to its own
repository in the future ('''Andrew?'''), so we can keep the conversion
tools separate from the pages to convert. This will also make the
<code>debwiki-dev-converter</code> software generally usable for other
projects that want to do the same conversion.

If you are interested in working on the software that does the
under-the-hood conversion to Wikitext, you need to work on this
repository, and be in close contact with the maintainers.

==== 3. moinmoin_onlinereader ====

Behind the scenes is the
[https://salsa.debian.org/AndrewSayers/moinmoin_onlinereader <code>moinmoin_onlinereader</code>],
this is a software component that does an on-the-fly conversion of the Moin source to a
[https://pandoc.org/ Pandoc]
[https://pandoc.org/using-the-pandoc-api.html Abstract Syntax Tree]
(AST) from the live <code>wiki.debian.org</code> site. The
<code>moinmoin_onlinereader</code> library logs in to the wiki and
asks <code>Pandoc</code> to parse the rendered HTML and render it as
wikitext. When the online reader logs into the Debian wiki, it is
using your credentials, that you used to get this container running.

Unless you are interested in this part of the migration process, this
component is unlikely to be of interest to you.

=== How to work on these repositories ===

The workflow for working with all of the above git repositories is the
typical <code>git</code> workflow used in most open source projects, but we
detail it here in case you need a reminder.

You need an account on [https://salsa.debian.org/ Salsa]. Once logged
on, you can make a ''fork'' of the repository you want to work on.
Clone your fork to your computer and switch to a branch, optimally
named something relevant in relation to the work you want to do.

When done with your work, push the branch back to your repo fork on
Salsa, and then write and submit a Merge Request (MR). Remember that
your description must enable the maintainer to quickly review what
your MR is all about, so be descriptive. Also, remember that ''atomic
merge requests'' are much better than huge ones, and more likely to be
accepted quickly and without a lot of back-and-forth with the
maintainer. Be aware that a MR is like a PR on other platforms like
Github, but it also adds a merge commit to the repo when it's accepted.

Finally, please be aware that it can take up to a few days for your
merge request to get through manual review, so be patient!

== Join us on Internet Relay Chat ==

If you'd like a real-time chat with developers and contributors to the
new wiki, we have an IRC channel on OFTC named `#debian-wiki`, and try
to have a presence there. You are encourged to join. Use any IRC
client of your choice, or click this link: {{DebianIRC|debian-wiki}},
which will open an IRC client in your browser.

== Keeping this development container up-to-date ==

To remind you, when you created this development wiki you pulled an image from
upstream using <code>podman</code>, like this:

<pre>
podman pull registry.salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-container:latest
</pre>

At the moment, the content of this wiki is generated by the conversion
system described above when upstream builds the container from the
<code>Dockerfile</code>. The build process quite simply clones the development
repos onto the image, so when you create the <code>podman</code> container these
are already embedded in the image.

So in order to see updates that have happened, you need to pull a new
image regularly. Be aware that old images are not deleted by pulling
new ones, so you still have access to older ones if you so wish, or
you can remove them using the <code>podman</code> utility (or for example
<code>cockpit</code> if you are using that).

Just to remind you, this is how the container (i.e. the running
instance of the image) is created:

<pre>
podman run --rm -i \
-p 8080:80 \
--name=debwiki-dev-environment \
debwiki-dev-environment:latest \
<your-MOINMOIN_SESSION_443_ROOT-value>
</pre>

A detailed description is available in the
[https://salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-environment/-/blob/main/README.md|README]
file of the <code>debwiki-dev-environment</code> repo. But then again you
probably know all about that since you got here.

Now the wiki can be viewed on http://localhost:8080/, like you are
doing right now.

== Links ==

These pages are from the old wiki imported to this container image,
and perhaps of interest to the development work, especially focusing
on translating files from MoinMoin system to Mediawiki.

* The Original Introduction to the [[Wiki Revamp|WikiRewamp Project]]
* Other [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations|Conversations]]
* Log of the [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/MassEditLog|MassEdit]]
* [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/Recommendations|Recommendations]]
* A [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/TestPage|Testpage]] with a variety of Wikitext code.

Wiki Development Container

2026-09-06T13:01:34Z

Mok0: Created page with " = Welcome to the Debian Development Wiki = == Getting started == Debian is converting its wiki to Mediawiki. If you are seeing this page it means you have succesfully installed the WikiDev container image of MediaWiki, which contains a few completely new pages (like the one you are reading now) plus a small number Pages that are downloaded from the old wiki, and converted on-the-fly from MoinMoin to [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikitext Wikitext] (see the list Sp..."

= Welcome to the Debian Development Wiki =

== Getting started ==

Debian is converting its wiki to Mediawiki. If you are seeing this
page it means you have succesfully installed the WikiDev container
image of MediaWiki, which contains a few completely new pages (like
the one you are reading now) plus a small number Pages that are
downloaded from the old wiki, and converted on-the-fly from MoinMoin
to [https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikitext Wikitext] (see the list
[[Special:AllPages|here]]). From here on, the MoinMoin wiki, still
alive at https://wiki.debian.org/, will be referred to as “the
old wiki”.

This page introduces what we're doing and how you can help.

=== How the development environment is organized ===

For the time being, during the process of developing the tools, macros
and conversions needed for the big conversion from MoinMoin to
Wikitext, we are using a few software repositories on Salsa to
maintain the tools.

There are three repositories responsible for most of the conversion
work:

==== 1. debwiki-dev-pages ====

The page you are reading can be found in the
[https://salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-pages <code>debwiki-dev-pages</code>]
repository on Salsa. It contains pages for the new wiki (this one)
''that are not in the old wiki''. It also contains several templates and
macros which on the
[https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/MediaWiki MediaWiki] platform is
saved as ''Pages''. In fact, everything in Mediawiki is Pages, not only
user content, but also Templates, Forms and other components used to
produce the final site. If you'd like to work with editing pages and/or
creating new content for the new wiki this is where you want to be
working.

==== 2. debwiki-dev-converter ====

The software components doing the under-the-hood conversion work
can be found in the
[https://salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-converter <code>debwiki-dev-converter</code>]
repository. Its main function is to convert Debian's old MoinMoin wiki
markup to MediaWiki XML dumps, and will be used when the time comes to
do the grand conversion. Now, we want to stress test it, find issues
and see if improvements are needed, and that is one of the purposes of
this wiki container.

At the moment the <code>debwiki-dev-converter</code> also is responsible for
converting a bunch of sample documents from the old wiki to the new
one, but this functionality will likely be separated out to its own
repository in the future ('''Andrew?'''), so we can keep the conversion
tools separate from the pages to convert. This will also make the
<code>debwiki-dev-converter</code> software generally usable for other
projects that want to do the same conversion.

If you are interested in working on the software that does the
under-the-hood conversion to Wikitext, you need to work on this
repository, and be in close contact with the maintainers.

==== 3. moinmoin_onlinereader ====

Behind the scenes is the
[https://salsa.debian.org/AndrewSayers/moinmoin_onlinereader <code>moinmoin_onlinereader</code>],
this is a software component that does an on-the-fly conversion of the Moin source to a
[https://pandoc.org/ Pandoc]
[https://pandoc.org/using-the-pandoc-api.html Abstract Syntax Tree]
(AST) from the live <code>wiki.debian.org</code> site. The
<code>moinmoin_onlinereader</code> library logs in to the wiki and
asks <code>Pandoc</code> to parse the rendered HTML and render it as
wikitext. When the online reader logs into the Debian wiki, it is
using your credentials, that you used to get this container running.

Unless you are interested in this part of the migration process, this
component is unlikely to be of interest to you.

=== How to work on these repositories ===

The workflow for working with all of the above git repositories is the
typical <code>git</code> workflow used in most open source projects, but we
detail it here in case you need a reminder.

You need an account on [https://salsa.debian.org/ Salsa]. Once logged
on, you can make a ''fork'' of the repository you want to work on.
Clone your fork to your computer and switch to a branch, optimally
named something relevant in relation to the work you want to do.

When done with your work, push the branch back to your repo fork on
Salsa, and then write and submit a Merge Request (MR). Remember that
your description must enable the maintainer to quickly review what
your MR is all about, so be descriptive. Also, remember that ''atomic
merge requests'' are much better than huge ones, and more likely to be
accepted quickly and without a lot of back-and-forth with the
maintainer. Be aware that a MR is like a PR on other platforms like
Github, but it also adds a merge commit to the repo when it's accepted.

Finally, please be aware that it can take up to a few days for your
merge request to get through manual review, so be patient!

== Join us on Internet Relay Chat ==

If you'd like a real-time chat with developers and contributors to the
new wiki, we have an IRC channel on OFTC named `#debian-wiki`, and try
to have a presence there. You are encourged to join. Use any IRC
client of your choice, or click this link: {{DebianIRC|debian-wiki}},
which will open an IRC client in your browser.

== Keeping this development container up-to-date ==

To remind you, when you created this development wiki you pulled an image from
upstream using <code>podman</code>, like this:

<pre>
podman pull registry.salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-container:latest
</pre>

At the moment, the content of this wiki is generated by the conversion
system described above when upstream builds the container from the
<code>Dockerfile</code>. The build process quite simply clones the development
repos onto the image, so when you create the <code>podman</code> container these
are already embedded in the image.

So in order to see updates that have happened, you need to pull a new
image regularly. Be aware that old images are not deleted by pulling
new ones, so you still have access to older ones if you so wish, or
you can remove them using the <code>podman</code> utility (or for example
<code>cockpit</code> if you are using that).

Just to remind you, this is how the container (i.e. the running
instance of the image) is created:

<pre>
podman run --rm -i \
-p 8080:80 \
--name=debwiki-dev-environment \
debwiki-dev-environment:latest \
<your-MOINMOIN_SESSION_443_ROOT-value>
</pre>

A detailed description is available in the
[https://salsa.debian.org/wiki-team/debwiki-dev-environment/-/blob/main/README.md|README]
file of the <code>debwiki-dev-environment</code> repo. But then again you
probably know all about that since you got here.

Now the wiki can be viewed on http://localhost:8080/, like you are
doing right now.

== Links ==

These pages are from the old wiki imported to this container image,
and perhaps of interest to the development work, especially focusing
on translating files from MoinMoin system to Mediawiki.

* The Original Introduction to the [[Wiki Revamp|WikiRewamp Project]]
* Other [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/OtherConversations|Conversations]]
* Log of the [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/MassEditLog|MassEdit]]
* [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/Recommendations|Recommendations]]
* A [[DebianWiki/WikiRevamp/TestPage|Testpage]] with a variety of Wikitext code.

Wiki Revamp

2026-09-06T12:54:11Z

Mok0:

Category:WikiDev

2026-09-06T12:53:08Z

Mok0: Created page with "Pages concerning the migration of the current Debian wiki to MediaWiki."

Pages concerning the migration of the current Debian wiki to MediaWiki.

Wiki Revamp

2026-09-06T12:51:55Z

Mok0: 1 revision imported