[Mediawiki-l] using XML page export to upgrade

[Platonides]

Alex Le Bek wrote:
> I am moving a wiki from one server to another and would like to upgrade at
> the same time (from mediawiki-1.9.3 to mediawiki-1.10.1). Can this be done
> by using the special page Export to XML of the old site and then using the
> special page Import facility on 1.10.1 or will there be problems with the
> XML tagging? (Would the HTML markup be fully preserved also?)
> 
> If the move+upgrade can't be done like this I assume I have to upgrade the
> 1.9.3 wiki version first, then mysqldump it before importing into the new
> database.
> 
> Thanks
> Alex

You can happily import pages exported on previous versions. But keep in 
mind that Special:Export doesn't export *everything*. Notably the users, 
logs, deleted pages... and other information which can be recreated 
(page links, categories...). You're better upgrading and moving dbs.
If you still want to go that way, instead of the Special pages, use the 
scripts on maintenance to do the same (using mwdumper instead of the 
import script is much faster, but you'll need to populate the links at 
another stop).