Unable to upgrade to 1.38.2 from 1.36.4 - MediaWiki-l

4 Jul 2022


      Hi Everyone,
We are trying to upgrade our Mediawiki from 1.36.4 to 1.38.2. After
unpacking 1.38 to /var/www/html/w, and while running update.php, we
encounter:
# /var/www/html/w# php /var/www/html/w/maintenance/update.php --quick
PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught Exception: Unable to open file
/ParserFunctions/extension.json:
filemtime(): stat failed for /ParserFunctions/extension.json in
/var/www/html/w/includes/
registration/ExtensionRegistry.php:182
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/html/w/includes/GlobalFunctions.php(52): ExtensionRegistry->queue()
#1 /var/www/html/w/LocalSettings.php(206): wfLoadExtension()
#2 /var/www/html/w/includes/Setup.php(204): require_once('/var/www/html/w...')
#3 /var/www/html/w/maintenance/doMaintenance.php(96):
require_once('/var/www/html/w...')
#4 /var/www/html/w/maintenance/update.php(264):
require_once('/var/www/html/w...')
#5 {main}
 thrown in /var/www/html/w/includes/registration/ExtensionRegistry.php
on line 182
After we commented out every offending line in LocalSettings.php
(which included most (all?) added-on extensions, like ParserFunctions,
GlobalFunctions, Gadgets, Admin, SimpleMathJax, EmailInvite), we are
still left with:
# /var/www/html/w# php /var/www/html/w/maintenance/update.php --quick
PHP Fatal error:  Uncaught FatalError: $wgBaseDirectory must not be
modified in settings f
iles! Use the MW_INSTALL_PATH environment variable to override the
installation root direc
tory. in /var/www/html/w/includes/Setup.php:237
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/html/w/maintenance/doMaintenance.php(96): require_once()
#1 /var/www/html/w/maintenance/update.php(264):
require_once('/var/www/html/w...')
#2 {main}
 thrown in /var/www/html/w/includes/Setup.php on line 237
Fatal error: Uncaught FatalError: $wgBaseDirectory must not be
modified in settings files!
Use the MW_INSTALL_PATH environment variable to override the
installation root directory.
in /var/www/html/w/includes/Setup.php:237
Stack trace:
#0 /var/www/html/w/maintenance/doMaintenance.php(96): require_once()
#1 /var/www/html/w/maintenance/update.php(264):
require_once('/var/www/html/w...')
#2 {main}
 thrown in /var/www/html/w/includes/Setup.php on line 237
We are not setting $IP in our LocalSettings.php (as others have
suggested is a problem).
We are left to wonder... why doesn't this stuff just work? If we are
forced to upgrade on Mediawiki's cadence, the least you could do is
ensure there's an upgrade path.
We are really struggling with the upgrade problems. Any help would be
greatly appreciated.
Jeff