Contributing to the Mercurial Wiki

Unlike some wikis, this wiki is not intended for interactive discussion - please use the mailing lists for questions.

This page is to introduce you to contributing to the Mercurial wiki. For more basic help, see HelpOnEditing and SyntaxReference. For more extensive contributions, please see our style guide and cleanup guide.

1. Some first help on wiki editing

You should be aware that your IP address is logged and publicly viewable when you edit a page (even if you are logged in).

Just about all pages on this wiki are editable by you! If you spot a typo, factual error, or other problem, you can fix it yourself immediately.

To edit a page, simply click the 'Edit' link on the upper left of most pages. If you haven't logged in, you'll need to log in or create an account first, by clicking the 'Login' link at the top of the page. You can later subscribe to page changes and set wiki preferences with your account.

Also consider periodically checking the RecentChanges page, where you can set bookmarks for the changes you have seen if you have a login.

Basic help about editing the wiki is shown below the edit window when you edit any page. More info can be found at HelpOnEditing, SyntaxReference and WikiStyleGuide.

Links to other wiki pages can be created like this:

[[UnderstandingMercurial|some basic Mercurial concepts]]

which looks like this: some basic Mercurial concepts. You can omit the link text:

[[UnderstandingMercurial]]

which makes the link look like this: UnderstandingMercurial

Words in 'camel case' (like this: UnderstandingMercurial) are linked too (UnderstandingMercurial) without using the [[..]], but using descriptive text is generally preferred.

2. Creating new pages

Before creating a new page, first search for similar content using FindPage. Then see the wiki style guide for some guidelines on naming and creating new pages.

The easiest way to create a new page is to first insert a link to that new page on an existing page, then click the link and you will get a list of templates for new pages. You can also start a new page by entering the name of the new page in the "Go To Page" input field on the bottom of FindPage. Test edits can be made in the WikiSandBox. You should also consider creating a page matching your account name to tell other wiki users and editors who you are and how to reach you. See CategoryHomepage for examples.

2.1. Creating a homepage

Please only create a homepage if you have contributed content to this wiki and would like to publish your contact details for other wiki users. Homepages should concern themselves only with a person's Mercurial-related activity: general homepage hosting is widely available on the Internet, and it is not this site's purpose to offer such services.

Please use the HomepageTemplate when creating your homepage so that it belongs to CategoryHomepage.

3. Helping out more

Mercurial is a creation of volunteers like you. If you'd like to help improve the wiki, start by checking RecentChanges to see all recent changes to the wiki and review them for spam and make additional improvements. Visit WikiCleanup for further ideas.

4. See also

• The wiki style guide

• Our wiki clean-up project

CategoryWiki