Help:Editing

Guidelines

Starting a page

There are 2 ways to start a new page:

1. Type the URL into the address bar. For example: http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/New_page
2. Create a [[New page]] link on an existing page, then click the link.

New pages should be assigned at least one catgeory. If it's a top-level page, it should also be added to Tutorials and Howtos, or if it concerns Alpine development, to Developer Documentation. Pages added to the latter index should include one of the categories Package Manager, ACF, or Development.

Temporary pages

If you wish to create a temporary page, please use a subpage of your User namespace. For example: User:Hillary/Temporary page. This helps to keep the main namespace tidy and prevents the pages from turning up in normal searches (the User namespace is not searched by default). To experiment with markup, use Sandbox.

Moving/renaming pages

• If the move might be controversial, propose it first and try to resolve any disagrements on the discussion page.
• The new name must either not exist as a page, or exist as a redirect page with only 1 entry in its page history.
• Use the "What links here" link in the sidebar, and be sure to update all links to internal page targets. If this isn't done, double redirects are created. (That's where a redirect leads to a redirect, and in such cases only the first redirect is followed automatically.)
• In the default wiki skin, the link to Move pages (and also to Watch them) is in the popup menu between "View history" and the Search box.
• Always move the discussion page, too, unless you have a very good reason for not doing so.

Deleting pages

Only administrators can delete pages. Other users should instead use {{Delete}} to propose the page for deletion. (Don't clear the page's content except where it's obviously spam.)

Inline elements

• ''italic'' or use <i> or <em> or {font-style:italic} in a style attribute
• '''bold''' or use <b> or <strong> or {font-weight:bold} in a style attribute

• <small> or use {font-size:smaller} in a style attribute
• <big> or use {font-size:larger} in a style attribute (invalid in HTML5)
• <sup> or use {vertical-align:super} in a style attribute
• <sub> or use {vertical-align:sub} in a style attribute

• <font> is deprecated; use {font-size:10pt; color:red; font-family:"Courier"} in a style attribute
• <span style="color:gray">
• <span style="color:white; background:red">
• <u> or use <ins> or {text-decoration:underline} in a style attribute (<u> is valid in HTML5 but not HTML4/strict; <ins> can also be a block element)
• <s> or use <del> or {text-decoration:line-through} in a style attribute (<s> is valid in HTML5 but not HTML4/strict; <del> can also be a block element)

• <code> uses {font-family:monospace;} (<tt> is invalid in HTML5)

  markup and → entities are still honored

  See also below

• <kbd> and <samp>
• <var> and <dfn>
• <cite>
• <q>

• {{Hint|term|explanation}}
• {{Path|/a/path/name}}
• {{Key| Ctrl}}+{{Key| C}}

• Here is one line, followed by <br />
  and another line.

• Here is <!-- a comment -->.

• HTML Entities

Links

Here is [[Wiki pagetitle|a wiki page]]: a wiki page. Text immediately suffixing the link will be incorporated into the link text; separate with <nowiki /> to suppress.

Here is {{Pkg|gtk+2.0}}: gtk+2.0.

Here is an Alpine Issue link {{Issue|279}}: #279. The issue's description can be included as an optional second argument.

Here is [http://www.example.org/ an external link]: an external link. If no link text is supplied: [1]. Omit brackets for http://www.example.org/ (use <nowiki> to suppress).

[mailto:info@example.org?Subject=URL%20Encoded%20Subject&body=Body%20Text info].

In Talk pages, -- ~~~~ gives a signature and timestamp: -- Dubiousjim 10:00, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Headings

An article with 4 or more headings automatically creates a table of contents. You can force a table of contents (or fine-tune its placement) by inserting __TOC__. You can suppress the table of contents by inserting __NOTOC__.

Start headings at level 2, and don't skip levels.

== Heading2 ==

will produce:

Heading2

=== Heading3 ===

will produce:

Heading3

==== Heading4 ====

will produce:

Heading4

{{Delete|Message.}}

will produce:

This material is proposed for deletion ... Message. (Discuss) Make sure no other pages link here and check the page's history before deleting.

{{Obsolete|Alternate message.}}

will produce:

This material is obsolete ... Alternate message. (Discuss)

{{Merge|Page to merge with|Additional message.}}

will produce:

This material is proposed for merging ... It should be merged with Page to merge with. Additional message. (Discuss)

{{Move|New page name|Reason.}}

will produce:

This page is proposed for moving ... It should be renamed to New page name. Reason. (Discuss)

{{Draft|Alternate message.}}

will produce:

This material is work-in-progress ... Alternate message. (Last edited by Dubiousjim on 30 {{{05}}} 2017.)

{{Expand|Alternate message.}}

will produce:

This material needs expanding ... Alternate message.

{{Style|Alternate message.}}

will produce:

This material needs wiki syntax or style improvements ... Alternate message.

Block elements

Lists

# Here is a numbered list item.
## Doubly-numbered
#* Numbered and bulleted.

* Here is a bulleted list item.
** Doubly-bulleted
*# Bulleted and numbered.
*# Another item.

will produce:

1. Here is a numbered list item.
   1. Doubly-numbered
   • Numbered and bulleted.

• Here is a bulleted list item.
  • Doubly-bulleted
  1. Bulleted and numbered.
  2. Another item.

Blank lines, or non-bulleted/numbered lines, end the lists. You can also code a list manually, which gives you more flexibility with multi-line entries and styling:

<ol start=2>
<li>Ordered list item
<li value=4>Another item
<li type="disc"><p>A third item</p><p>Next line</p>
</ol>

and similarly for <ul>. Closing </li> tags are permitted but not necessary.

Each of these:

;item: Body text

{{Define|item|Body text}}

<dl>
<dt>item
<dd>Body text
</dl>

will produce:

item

Body text

The second markup option also wraps a <span id="item"> around the block. Note that with the third option, you shouldn't use closing </dt> or </dd> tags.

Indenting unstyled text

: Simply indented text (on left side only).

<blockquote>This is a blockquote.
It collapses whitespace, and indents on both sides.</blockquote>

will produce:

Simply indented text (on left side only).

This is a blockquote. It collapses whitespace, and indents on both sides.

Displaying code

Inline code

Use <code> for styling, and <nowiki> to suppress markup. If you use both, they must appear in that order. <nowiki> converts → entities and collapses whitespace (even multiple \ns), but ignores all '''wiki''' and <span style="color:green">HTML</span> [[markup]].

User input

{{Cmd|a <var>command</var> to try}}

This is a block-level equivalent for the inline HTML element <kbd>. Note that wiki markup is still honored in the command text; but whitespace is not collapsed. See below for how to escape some special characters.

Command output; or shell sessions that intermix prompts, user input, and command output; or segments of files

Use space-indented blocks or <pre>:

 Every line
 begins with '''a space'''.

<pre>
Lines aren't
indented with '''a space.'''
</pre>

 <nowiki>Only first
line begins with '''a space'''.</nowiki>

will produce:

Every line
begins with a space.

Lines aren't
indented with '''a space.'''

Only first
line begins with '''a space'''.

All of these render as styled blocks, in monospace, and don't collapse whitespace. They are block-level equivalents for the inline HTML elements <samp> or <code>.

All of these markup options convert → entities. The first also processes '''wiki''' and <span style="color:green">HTML</span> [[markup]]. The second and the third don't; and they give equivalent presentations. With the third option, lines after the first should not be space-prefixed; the block will extend to the closing </nowiki>.

File contents

{{Cat|/path/to/file|body '''text''' <br /> more
Second line.}}

will produce:

Contents of /path/to/file

body '''text''' <br /> more Second line.

Note that wiki and HTML markup in the file contents aren't converted, though entities still are. You must escape characters as follows:

= not inside [[..]] use &#61; or {{=}}

| not inside [[..]] use &#124; or {{!}}

{{ use &#123; twice or {{lb}}

}} use &#125; twice or {{rb}}

unmatched [[ use &#91; twice

unmatched ]] use &#93; twice

# at start of line use &#35;

* at start of line use &#42;

As an alternative to all of these escapes, you could instead wrap the body in <nowiki> tags.

Block-level code with no additional styling

<p style="white-space:pre; font-family:monospace;">One line.
Second line.
</p>

will produce:

One line. Second line.

This would be the behavior of HTML's <pre> without any styling. To wrap to screen width, use {white-space:pre-wrap} in a style attribute.

Message Boxes

Warning: {{Warning|Write your Warning here.}}

Note: {{Note|Write your Note here.}}

Tip: {{Tip|Write your Tip here.}}

Todo: {{Todo|Write your Todo here.}}

Heading: {{Box|Heading:|Body}}

Heading: {{Box|Heading:|Body then border-color then background-color|#DF0000|#FFDFDF}}

Tables

This material needs expanding ... Please feel free to help us complete it.

Simple table

{| cellpadding="5" border="1" class="wikitable"
|- 
! Row 1
! Row 2
! Row 3
|-
| 1.1
| 1.2
| 1.3
|-
| 2.1
| 2.2
| 2.3
|}

Row 1	Row 2	Row 3
1.1	1.2	1.3
2.1	2.2	2.3

Advanced table

{|  border="1" style="width:75%; height:200px"  <!-- align=right makes table float -->
|+ The table's caption
|-
! width=100px | columnlabel 1
! columnlabel 2 !! columnlabel 3
|-
! rowlabel1
| Cell 1 || Cell 2 || Cell 3
|- style="height:100px; background:none" <!-- or style="background:transparent" -->
| align=right style="width:200px" | Cell A 
| style="background:red; color:white" | Cell B
| colspan=2 align=center | Cell C
|- valign=top <!-- have to be applied to every row, default is valign=middle; or use style="vertical-align:top;" -->
| rowspan=2 Cell D
| ...
|}

The table's caption

columnlabel 1	columnlabel 2	columnlabel 3
rowlabel1	Cell 1	Cell 2	Cell 3
Cell A	Cell B	Cell C
rowspan=2 Cell D	...

See also:

• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Tables
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Table

Images

This material needs expanding ... Please feel free to help us complete it.

[[File:Alpinelinux 01.png|right|thumb|100px|Caption text]]

will produce:

Caption text

Options can appear in any order:

• Caption text defaults to filename; to wholly suppress, use <span title=""></span>
• alt=text
• Size can be [width][xheight]px
• page=number, for PDF images
• rendered inline, Caption shows as hover text: frameless, and/or border
  • rendered inline, on separate line: none
  • Valign for inline images, defaults to middle: middle|baseline|sub|super|top|text-top|bottom|text-bottom
  • Text flow can be stopped by placing {{Clear}} before the text that should start below the floating image
  • link=URL|pagetitle|blank, only for inline images
• rendered floating, defaults to right align, Caption displayed below image: thumb, thumb=alternate filename, frame (ignores size options)
  • rendered floating, defaults to thumb: left|right|center

To instead link to the file, you need to add a colon: File:Alpinelinux 01.png.

See also:

• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Images_and_other_uploaded_files
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Image_page
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Extended_image_syntax
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Images
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Managing_files
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Navigational_image

Other

Create HRs like this:

----

Every page should be assigned at least one Category, by placing the following at the bottom of the page:

[[Category:Category name]]

To link to a Category page, without adding the linking page to the category: [[:Category:Not in this category]]

A redirect page should contain only:

#REDIRECT [[pagename]]

See also

• Help:Template
• MediaWiki's User Manual
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting
• http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:HTML_in_wikitext
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:HTML_in_wikitext
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Wiki_markup

There may be small divergences, but in general, ours seems to be just a standard MediaWiki installation.