Re: [Wikitech-l] dealing with deletions

Jonathan Walther wrote: Currently, the previous history is only restored if it is restored from the deleted pages archive via Special:Undelete. If a new page was since created with the title, the old revisions are simply integrated into the existing history (generally at the end -- but if the new page was renamed from an older title, it's possible that the histories could intermix when presented sorted by date). Here's a diagram of what exists in what tables over the lifetime of such an event: Page creation: rev A -> cur Later edit: rev B -> cur rev A -> old Deletion rev B -> archive (hidden) rev A -> archive (hidden) New creation with same title: rev C -> cur rev B -- archive (hidden) rev A -- archive (hidden) Later edit: rev D -> cur rev C -> old rev B -- archive (hidden) rev A -- archive (hidden) Restoration of deleted revisions: rev D -- cur rev C -- old rev B -> old rev A -> old Since deletions are usually done to suppress vandalism or unusuable text due to copyright infringement, there would be little use in automatically restoring such revisions. -- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)