How can I install Mediawiki extensions from the command line?

Question

I'm trying to automate Wikimedia installation using Ansible and the Wikimedia command-line install script.

I noticed the current version includes script parameters for installing extensions. From the script help command:

$ php maintenance/install.php --help

CLI-based MediaWiki installation and configuration.
Default options are indicated in parentheses.

Usage: php install.php [--conf|--confpath|--dbgroupdefault|--dbname|--dbpass|--dbpassfile|--dbpath|--dbport|--dbprefix|-
-dbschema|--dbserver|--dbtype|--dbuser|--env-checks|--extensions|--globals|--help|--installdbpass|--installdbuser|--lang
|--memory-limit|--mwdebug|--pass|--passfile|--profiler|--quiet|--scriptpath|--server|--skins|--wiki|--with-extensions] [
name] <admin>

...

Script specific parameters:
    --extensions: Comma-separated list of extensions to install
    --with-extensions: Detect and include extensions

However, I am unable to find any other information on how best to use these parameters. Neither the Wikimedia manual pages on the install.php script or Extensions documents them:

• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Install.php
• https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Extensions

Can someone point me to more details documentation on these parameters or provide an example of how to use them?

I am planning to do some trial and error and will answer this question myself if I figure out how they work before anyone else answers. But I know extension installation can get complicated and usually involves making config file updates so I hope I could find some existing documentation to guide me.

Answer 1

Short Answer

These extension parameters simply add a line to the LocalSettings.php file, if the named extension is found in the extensions directory, to load the extension at runtime.

Long Answer

I played with this a little. I tested the --with-extensions which, per the help docs, will detect and include extensions. What this appears to mean is that it will scan the extensions directory and install any extensions it find there.

I ran the following command:

php maintenance/install.php --with-extensions --dbserver="localhost" --dbname=foo --dbuser=foo --dbpass=foo --server="https://wiki.foo.localhost" --script path=/mediawiki -en --pass=foo "My Wiki Name" "Admin"

It produced the following block in my LocalSettings.php config file listing the default packages included with the current version of the Mediawiki core:

# Enabled extensions. Most of the extensions are enabled by adding
# wfLoadExtensions('ExtensionName');
# to LocalSettings.php. Check specific extension documentation for more details.
# The following extensions were automatically enabled:
wfLoadExtension( 'CategoryTree' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Cite' );
wfLoadExtension( 'CiteThisPage' );
wfLoadExtension( 'CodeEditor' );
wfLoadExtension( 'ConfirmEdit' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Gadgets' );
wfLoadExtension( 'ImageMap' );
wfLoadExtension( 'InputBox' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Interwiki' );
wfLoadExtension( 'LocalisationUpdate' );
wfLoadExtension( 'MultimediaViewer' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Nuke' );
wfLoadExtension( 'OATHAuth' );
wfLoadExtension( 'ParserFunctions' );
wfLoadExtension( 'PdfHandler' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Poem' );
wfLoadExtension( 'Renameuser' );
wfLoadExtension( 'ReplaceText' );
wfLoadExtension( 'SpamBlacklist' );
wfLoadExtension( 'SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi' );
wfLoadExtension( 'TitleBlacklist' );
wfLoadExtension( 'WikiEditor' );

The complexity of this parameter, probably wisely, goes no further than that.

I tried running this command to see if the --extensions=GoogleLogin parameter would auto-magically install the GoogleLogin extension. It did not. Rather it reported this error:

Could not find the registration file for the extension "GoogleLogin"

So if you're looking for a more full-featured Composer-like extension package-manager, this is not it.

When I downloaded the GoogleLogin extension and placed it in the extensions directory and ran the --with-extensions parameter and it did include it in the config file extensions block.

Without explicitly testing it, I concluded the --extensions parameters operates the same way as --with-extensions except that it will rewrite to the LocalSettings.php config file only those extensions explicitly specified and found in the extensions directory.