Help:Editing

An edit can contribute whole new paragraphs or pages of information, or it can be as simple as fixing a typo or a spelling mistake. Make sure you are always aiming to do something which improves the contents of the wiki.

Before editing or creating pages refer Wiki etiquette, Help:Reading and Help:Style pages for an overview of the common conventions followed in Alpine Linux wiki.

Tip: To experiment with editing, please use the sandbox. For a quick overview of wiki markup, see Help:Cheatsheet.

For additional reference, use the help pages of MediaWiki and Wikipedia, as this wiki is also powered by MediaWiki.

Steps to edit wiki

1. Click the Edit page tab at the top of the page. Make changes to the text. When you need to use some type of formatting, such as for new headings or bolding of text, you do this using wiki syntax or the buttons in the edit toolbar above the editing zone.
2. Before you save a change, you must enter a short note in the Summary box describing your changes.
3. Mark the edit as minor by checking the This is a minor edit box if the edit is fixing a typo or a spelling mistake.
4. It's a good idea to use the Show preview button to see what your change will look like, before you save it. It's good to get into the habit of eliminating mistakes in your own work, by using a preview before saving, rather than saving, then having to do another edit just to make one or more minor corrections.
5. Another option is the Show changes button which allows you to see the differences between the current version and the edited version.
6. Click the Save Changes button to save changes. If unsatisfied, click Cancel instead and redo again.

Creating pages

Note: Pay proper attention to name your page as it appears as Title or Heading1 of the page and changing the page name in Wiki is not trivial. Users new to Wiki are advised to use Temporary pages.

Starting a page

There are 2 ways to start a new page:

1. Create a [[Title for new page]] link on an existing page and click save. Open the page again and click on the red colored Title for new page link to take you to the edit page of the new page. (Recommended)
2. Type the URL for new page with proper [[Title for new page]] into the address bar. For example: http://wiki.alpinelinux.org/wiki/Title_for_new_page.

In both the above cases, simply type your text in the new page, save and the new page will be created. New pages should be assigned at least one catgeory. Tutorials should also be added to Tutorials and Howtos, or if it concerns Alpine development, to Developer Documentation.

Temporary pages

If you wish to create a temporary page, please use a subpage of your User namespace. For example: User:Username/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).

Moving or 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.)

Formatting

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

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. First-level headings are not allowed, their formatting is reserved for the article title.

== Heading2 ==

=== Heading3 ===

==== Heading4 ====

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

: 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.

Tables

Tables may be created in wiki pages. As a general rule, it is best to avoid using a table unless you need one as table markup often complicates page editing.

Simple table

In wikitext editor, place the caret where you want to insert a table. Then, in the toolbar, press “Advanced”, then choose Table button. A dialog opens.

From the dialog, you can choose whether to enable a table header row, to stylize the table with border and to make the table sortable. A preview example is displayed. You can also set row and column counts you need. Then, press “Insert” button.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Optional Caption text
|-
! Header 1 !! Header 2 !! Header 3
|-
| 1.1 || 1.2 || 1.3
|-
| 2.1 || 2.2 || 2.3
|-
| 3.1 || 3.2 || 3.3
|}

Optional Caption text

Header 1	Header 2	Header 3
1.1	1.2	1.3
2.1	2.2	2.3
3.1	3.2	3.3

Advanced table

You can add HTML attributes to tables. CSS style attributes can be added with or without other HTML attributes. Table alignment is achieved by using CSS. For more information, refer official mediawiki guide on tables:

{|  border="1" style="width:75%; height:200px"  <!-- align=right makes table float -->
|+ The table's caption
|-
! width=100px | Advanced Table !! columnlabel 1
! columnlabel 2 !! columnlabel 3
|-
! rowlabel1
| Cell 1.1 || Cell 1.2 || Cell 1.3
|- style="height:100px; background:none" <!-- or style="background:transparent" -->
! align=right style="width:200px" | rowlabel2
| style="background:red; color:white" | Cell 2.1
| colspan=2 align=center | Cell 2.2 & 2.3 
|- valign=top <!-- have to be applied to every row, default is valign=middle; or use style="vertical-align:top;" -->
! rowspan=2 | rowlabel 3 & 4 
| Cell 3.1 || Cell 3.2 || Cell 3.3
|-
| Cell 4.1 || Cell 4.2 || Cell 4.3
|}

The table's caption

Advanced Table	columnlabel 1	columnlabel 2	columnlabel 3
rowlabel1	Cell 1.1	Cell 1.2	Cell 1.3
rowlabel2	Cell 2.1	Cell 2.2 & 2.3
rowlabel 3 & 4	Cell 3.1	Cell 3.2	Cell 3.3
	Cell 4.1	Cell 4.2	Cell 4.3

Images

Basic example is given below. For more information, refer official mediawiki guide on Images

[[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.

Signature

Main article: Help:Signature

In Talk pages, sign and date your posts. Adding --~~~~ gives a signature and timestamp: --Dubiousjim 10:00, 4 March 2012 (UTC)

Other elements

Create HRs like this:

----

----

Links

Links are used to reference pages within this wiki, other Alpine Linux websites, or external websites.

Internal links

A valid Internal link or wikilink [[Kernels|Linux Kernel wiki page]] will produce:Linux Kernel wiki page.

When you preview or save your changes, you will see a link that can be followed to the target page. If the page exists the link is displayed in blue (like the word "Linux Kernel wiki page" above); if the page does not exist, the link appears red. Following such a "redlink" to a missing page (whether or not it is actually red) will usually enable the user to create the page.

Special links

For official packages in Repositories:

Using {{Pkg|gtk+2.0}} will produce: gtk+2.0.

For existing Issues in aports:

Using {{Issue|279}} will produce: #279. The issue's description can be included as an optional second argument.

For existing Merge Requests in aports:

Using {{MR|73024|Description}} will produce: !73024. Description. Here the MR's description has been included as an optional second argument.

External links

Link to an external website [http://www.example.org/ an external link] will produce: an external link.

If no link text is supplied [http://www.example.org/] will produce: [1]. To avoid this, omit brackets and use http://www.example.org/ to produce: http://www.example.org/.

For displaying an external URL without hyperlink use <nowiki>http://www.example.org/</nowiki> to produce http://www.example.org.

Categories

Categories provide automatic indexes that are useful as tables of contents. These tags create links at the bottom of the page that take you to the list of all pages in that category, which makes it easy to browse related articles.

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

Always us one of the existing category from among the list of categories in this Wiki before creating a new category. To refer an existing category in your wiki page, for example to link Category:kernel use [[:Category:kernel]]

Redirect

A redirect page should contain only:

#REDIRECT [[pagename]]

Transclusion

When same content needs to be included in multiple page, use transclusion. This helps when updating same content in multiple documents without having to edit those documents separately.

To include a page (e.g. "Daily driver guide"), a colon (:) must be added in front of the name: {{:Daily driver guide}}

Refer to the list of transcluded pages in wiki.

Templates

Templates are standard wiki pages whose content is designed to be transcluded inside other pages. Help:Template page provides information about designing templates. Templates can be inserted into an article to aid in formatting content.

Refer full list of templates defined in this Wiki.

The following Message box templates provide additional emphasis to the reader.

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}}

The following Message box templates contain a specific message about a specific issue with a page or section in Wiki.

{{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 Ikke on 10 {{{01}}} 2025.)

{{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.

See also

• How to write a HOWTO
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Wiki_markup
• http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Formatting
• MediaWiki's User Manual
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:HTML_in_wikitext