Bug 1718580

Are you following the README.RPM instructions and using the 'mw-createinstance' script to initialize your instance?

It also has instructions to point your Apache config to the '$IP' directory. Are you following those instructions?

I started out by doing an upgrade from a working installation (so I used mw-updateallinstances).

When that didn't work, I tried (among many things) reinitializing my instance from scratch: I generated a new LocalSettings.php from scratch, merging in settings from the original that weren't addressed by the mw-config helper/installer.

So I've done it both ways.

As for pointing my apache config at the $IP directory...  I didn't make the wiki a DocumentRoot, but I do have an "Alias /wiki /srv/.../wiki" directive.  Is that no longer sufficient?  That is one option described in the template /etc/httpd/conf.d/mediawiki.conf for setting up a mediawiki instance.

Looks like upstream *reverted* a change to support sym-linked includes...
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/rMW3aa0b0567ff64ecb74df7534c8812c78c323df7c

The relevant snippet from includes.WebStart.php, version 1.31.0:

# Full path to working directory.
# Makes it possible to for example to have effective exclude path in apc.
# __DIR__ breaks symlinked includes, but realpath() returns false
# if we don't have permissions on parent directories.
$IP = getenv( 'MW_INSTALL_PATH' );
if ( $IP === false ) {
	$IP = realpath( '.' ) ?: dirname( __DIR__ );
}

Tried modifying my installation to match the old way but it breaks eveything else! index.php is not the only entry point.

Is there a way to set the MW_INSTALL_PATH environment variable from a .user.ini file or apache configuration that will work with php-fpm?
That might avoid the path resolution issues.

I, too, had a working install that after an update keeps wanting me to set up LocalSettings.php. I just did a fresh install on a VM and it still doesn't work.

So, I actually looked at this earlier, and you can set MW_INSTALL_PATH to fix this.
Example httpd config: https://infrastructure.fedoraproject.org/cgit/ansible.git/tree/roles/mediawiki/templates/mediawiki-app.conf.j2#n23 .

After some messing about I have a working wiki!
As suggested by the fedinfra ansible role I have changed my httpd mediawiki.conf to:

# Short URL support.
Alias "/wiki" "/document root/w/index.php"

<Directory "document root/w">
# Work around mediawiki symlink issues.
  SetEnv MW_INSTALL_PATH "document root/w"
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

# Upload directory.
<Directory " /document root/w/images">
  Options FollowSymLinks
  AllowOverride FileInfo
</Directory>

Adjust "document root" to suit.
Should still support multiple instances so long as MW_INSTALL_PATH is configured correctly in each (same as /etc/mediawiki/instances).

Tested with a PHP debug file to call phpinfo()...
MW_INSTALL_PATH shows up in the _$_SEVER environment and it looks like the mdiawiki code is happy with that.
No need to change the PHP-FPM pool configuration. Still works *without* clear_env = no.

Probably best to regenerate LocalSettings.php - skins have been dropped etc. since mediawiki-1.29.3, my last working setup.
Leaving my old one in place threw even more errors.
Delete or rename your LocalSettings.php and start a new installation; /mw-config/index.php...

Following DaveG's response, my mediawiki.conf looks like:

<Directory /var/www/html/wiki/foo>
    SetEnv MW_INSTALL_PATH "/var/www/html/wiki/foo"
    AllowOverride None
    Require all granted
</Directory>

And it works for access but the mw-config/index.php script to upgrade the database still tries to look for LocalSettings.php in /usr/share/mediawiki. One can still fill out the forms and it will upgrade the db but the expected behavior is to discover the local setup and prompt to upgrade.

Steps to reproduce:
1. clear site cookies in test browser
2. access http://site/wiki/foo/mw-config/
3. choose language and you are prompted with steps for a new setup
4. copy LocalSettings.php to /usr/share/mediawiki
5. clear site cookies in test browser
6. access http://site/wiki/foo/mw-config/
7. choose language and you are promoted for the upgrade key

fwiw, command line "fix" for above:

cd /usr/share/mediawiki/maintenance/; export MW_INSTALL_PATH=/var/www/html/wiki/foo; php update.php

I'll update the examples and documentation to include the environment setting.