Thanks. I had checked that, and it's not defined twice.

-------- Original Message -------- (Zoran Dori, 11/11/2025 12.32)

Hello, I suggest checking if `MW_INSTALL_PATH` is defined twice in your `LocalSettings.php`. This could be causing the warning you’re seeing.

Best regards, Zoran

уто, 11. нов 2025. у 12:18 MI mi.lists@alma.ch је написао/ла:

Since I upgraded mediawiki from v. 1.35 to v. 1.39, I get this
error when running a script to purge the cache.

The command producing the error is

    echo "Main_Page" | php /usr/share/mediawiki/maintenance/purgeList.php

The full error is

    PHP Warning:  Constant MW_INSTALL_PATH already defined in /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php on line 25

Indeed I have this on lines 21 to 25 in LocalSettings.php:

    # We define this to allow the configuration file to be explicitly.
    # located in /etc/mediawiki.
    # Change this if you are setting up multisite wikis on your server.
    define('MW_INSTALL_PATH','/docs/www-wiki');

I had this through many MW versions over the years, and I don't
think I can remove it.

How can I get rid of this error? (The purge script runs every
night from crontab, so I get a mail every day with this "error".
And of course I don't want to just suppress any errors by
redirecting stderr)

Thanks,

MI


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Hello!

FWIW: In my setup I have to defined the install path as well. I do this by providing each Wiki instance with a snippet of Apache configuration:

Alias /wiki1 /data/mediawiki/instances/wiki1 <Directory /data/mediawiki/instances/wiki1> SetEnv MW_INSTALL_PATH /data/mediawiki/instances/wiki1 </Directory>

The directory /data/mediawiki/instances/wiki1 contains mostly symlinks to a common installation directory of the MediaWiki release. Only LocalSettings.php is not a symlink. Without the definition of MW_INSTALL_PATH, "wiki1" would search for LocalSettings.php in the wrong directory. So in my case setting MW_INSTALL_PATH is a necessity.

Joern

Am 11.11.2025 um 18:05 schrieb Thomas Eugene Bishop:

According to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:LocalSettings.php https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:LocalSettings.php , "The $IP (install path) variable holds the local file path to the base installation of your wiki. Since MediaWiki 1.18, the system sets $IP automatically. Setting $IP manually in LocalSettings.php is no longer needed. $IP will default to the current working directory and can be used without the need to manually define it. Attempting to set $IP (or MW_INSTALL_PATH) in LocalSettings.php may produce unexpected results.”

Maybe it would work simply to remove the line with MW_INSTALL_PATH from LocalSettings.php.

Good luck!

Tom

...

On Nov 11, 2025, at 7:22 AM, MI mi.lists@alma.ch wrote:

Thanks. I had checked that, and it's not defined twice.

-------- Original Message -------- (Zoran Dori, 11/11/2025 12.32)

...

Hello, I suggest checking if `MW_INSTALL_PATH` is defined twice in your `LocalSettings.php`. This could be causing the warning you’re seeing.

Best regards, Zoran

уто, 11. нов 2025. у 12:18 MI mi.lists@alma.ch је написао/ла:

Since I upgraded mediawiki from v. 1.35 to v. 1.39, I get this
error when running a script to purge the cache.

The command producing the error is

    echo "Main_Page" | php /usr/share/mediawiki/maintenance/purgeList.php

The full error is

    PHP Warning:  Constant MW_INSTALL_PATH already defined in /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php on line 25

Indeed I have this on lines 21 to 25 in LocalSettings.php:

    # We define this to allow the configuration file to be explicitly.
    # located in /etc/mediawiki.
    # Change this if you are setting up multisite wikis on your server.
    define('MW_INSTALL_PATH','/docs/www-wiki');

I had this through many MW versions over the years, and I don't
think I can remove it.

How can I get rid of this error? (The purge script runs every
night from crontab, so I get a mail every day with this "error".
And of course I don't want to just suppress any errors by
redirecting stderr)

Thanks,

MI


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To unsubscribe send an email to mediawiki-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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l.lists.wikimedia.org/

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Wenlin Institute, Inc. SPC (a Social Purpose Corporation) 文林研究所社会目的公司 Software for Learning Chinese E-mail: wenlin@wenlin.com     Web: https://wenlin.com https://wenlin.com Telephone: 1-877-4-WENLIN (1-877-493-6546) ☯Unity in Diversity☮

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Indeed, the wiki actually works fine after simply removing the |define('MW_INSTALL_PATH'| line. And the |purgeList.php| command doesn't complain anymore.

Thank you!

MI

-------- Original Message -------- (Thomas Eugene Bishop, 11/11/2025 18.05)

According to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:LocalSettings.php%C2%A0, "The $IP (install path) variable holds the local file path to the base installation of your wiki. Since MediaWiki 1.18, the system sets $IP automatically. Setting $IP manually in LocalSettings.php is no longer needed. $IP will default to the current working directory and can be used without the need to manually define it. Attempting to set $IP (or MW_INSTALL_PATH) in LocalSettings.php may produce unexpected results.”

Maybe it would work simply to remove the line with MW_INSTALL_PATH from LocalSettings.php.

Good luck!

Tom

...

On Nov 11, 2025, at 7:22 AM, MI mi.lists@alma.ch wrote:

Thanks. I had checked that, and it's not defined twice.

-------- Original Message -------- (Zoran Dori, 11/11/2025 12.32)

...

Hello, I suggest checking if `MW_INSTALL_PATH` is defined twice in your `LocalSettings.php`. This could be causing the warning you’re seeing.

Best regards, Zoran

уто, 11. нов 2025. у 12:18 MI mi.lists@alma.ch је написао/ла:

Since I upgraded mediawiki from v. 1.35 to v. 1.39, I get this
error when running a script to purge the cache.

The command producing the error is

    echo "Main_Page" | php /usr/share/mediawiki/maintenance/purgeList.php

The full error is

    PHP Warning:  Constant MW_INSTALL_PATH already defined in /etc/mediawiki/LocalSettings.php on line 25

Indeed I have this on lines 21 to 25 in LocalSettings.php:

    # We define this to allow the configuration file to be explicitly.
    # located in /etc/mediawiki.
    # Change this if you are setting up multisite wikis on your server.
    define('MW_INSTALL_PATH','/docs/www-wiki');

I had this through many MW versions over the years, and I don't
think I can remove it.

How can I get rid of this error? (The purge script runs every
night from crontab, so I get a mail every day with this "error".
And of course I don't want to just suppress any errors by
redirecting stderr)

Thanks,

MI


_______________________________________________
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To unsubscribe send an email to
mediawiki-l-leave@lists.wikimedia.org
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Wenlin Institute, Inc. SPC (a Social Purpose Corporation) 文林研究所社会目的公司 Software for Learning Chinese E-mail: wenlin@wenlin.com     Web: https://wenlin.com Telephone: 1-877-4-WENLIN (1-877-493-6546) ☯Unity in Diversity☮

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