Difference between pages "Web-server-stack" and "Help:Funtoo Editing Guidelines"

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'''Thanks for your potential interest in contribution the the Funtoo wiki!'''
__NOTOC__
== Types of Edits ==


== Pre-install considerations ==
Before we get started, let's review what changes are okay to make, and what changes are not okay:
Ssl [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wildcard_certificate wild card certificates] can use the same certificate to cover several subdomain names.  As in https://wiki.funtoo.org https://www.funtoo.org https://forums.funtoo.org can all use the same certificate.  https://funtoo.org would not be covered under the wildcard, so [[User:Threesixes|Threesixes]] ([[User talk:Threesixes|talk]]) suggests using http://domain.tld as a http navigation splash page directory.  All that is required to setup a ca signed ssl certificate is an email on the server.  https://www.startssl.com offers free ssl ca certificates, though there are several other certificate [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Certificate_authority#Providers providers].  Some web applications have http hard coded into the css style sheets urls instead of using relative urls, so they need to be changed to https or relative if you lose your styles.


=== Email Servers ===
{{TableStart}}
* {{Package|mail-mta/postfix}}
<tr class="active"><th>Type of Change</th><th>Okay?</th></tr>
* {{Package|mail-mta/ssmtp}}
<tr><td>Grammar/spelling fixes</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
* {{Package|mail-mta/exim}}
<tr><td>New wiki content</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
* {{Package|mail-mta/sendmail}}
<tr><td>New package information</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
* {{Package|mail-mta/nullmailer}}
<tr><td>Adding to existing article</td><td>Maybe -- see below</td></tr>
<tr><td>Adding missing/incomplete information</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr><td>Making corrections</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr class="danger"><td>Adding work-arounds to problems experienced</td><td>No - open bug first on [http://bugs.funtoo.org bug tracker].</td></tr>
{{TableEnd}}


=== FTP Servers ===
{{fancyimportant|Note that if you experience some problem with Funtoo Linux, during installation or otherwise, the proper course of action is to not add a work-around to our documentation, but to ''open a bug on our bug tracker.'' This is important because the problem you experienced may be a legitimate bug and the solution may be to fix the bug rather than add a work-around to our documentation. We may end up fixing a bug, making a documentation fix, or possibly both.}}
It is common practice to use FTP servers to host files for downloading.


* {{Package|net-ftp/vsftpd}}
== Basics ==
* {{Package|net-ftp/proftpd}}
* {{Package|net-ftp/pure-ftpd}}
* {{Package|net-ftp/qshare}}


== Webserver ==
Here is a list of basic wiki information that you will need to know to get started:
Web servers come in several varieties.  The most common stack is known as LAMP which stands for linux apache mysql php.  [[User:Threesixes|Threesixes]] ([[User talk:Threesixes|talk]]) suggests setting up the web server stack by selecting the database first, then scripting language second, and web server 3rd.


=== Databases ===
* First, to perform edits on the wiki, you must {{CreateAccount}} and log in.
* {{Package|dev-db/mysql}}
* You can create a new page by navigating to http://www.funtoo.org/New_Page_Name. Underscores are the equivalent of spaces. Then select "Create" under the "Actions" menu.
maria is a drop in replacement for mysql
* Whether creating a new page or editing an existing page by clicking "Edit", you will be presented with Web-based text editor that allows you to modify the ''wikitext'' of the page. The wikitext is rendered to produce the document you see when you view the page normally.
* {{Package|dev-db/mariadb}}
* This wiki uses the [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:Approved_Revs ApprovedRevs Extension], which means that any changes you make to a page will need to be approved by an Editor before they are displayed. Editors can visit the [[Special:ApprovedRevs]] page to approve edits made on pages (click "Pages whose approved revision is not their latest" or "Unapproved pages".)
percona is a drop in replacement for mysql
* Until your edits are approved, you can continue to edit the page and your changes will be displayed in the page's History -- click "History" under the "Actions" menu to view the page's history. You will see that the approved version of a page has a star next to it.
* {{Package|dev-db/percona-server}}
* Another fun thing you can do is click on your name under the "Account" menu once you have logged in. This will bring you to your "User" page. Then click "Create with Form" unde the "Actions" menu and enter your geographic and other information. This will allow you to be displayed on our [[Usermap]] and will also allow your full name to be displayed on [[:Category:Ebuilds|Ebuild pages]] for which you are an author. It's generally a good idea to do this.
* {{Package|dev-db/postgresql-server}}
* {{Package|dev-db/sqlite}}


=== Languages ===
{{fancytip|The following sections document how to use wikitext and Funtoo templates on the Funtoo wiki.}}
* {{Package|dev-lang/php}}
* {{Package|dev-lang/perl}}
* {{Package|dev-lang/python}}


=== Web Servers ===
== Paragraphs ==
* {{Package|www-servers/apache}}
* {{Package|www-servers/cherokee}}
* {{Package|www-servers/nginx}}
* {{Package|www-servers/tengine}}
* {{Package|www-servers/lighttpd}}


To create a new paragraph, insert a blank line between two lines of text. If a blank line doesn't exist between two lines of wikitext, they will be combined into a single flowing paragraph.


=== Reverse Proxies & load balancing ===
If you leave leading whitespace at the beginning of a line, MediaWiki will render it as pre-formatted text. Beware of this. Here's an example:
Reverse proxies are useful, they cache static data, and shuck out cached pages rather than hitting the web server. Several web servers have this functionality built in.
* {{Package|www-servers/varnish}}
* {{Package|net-proxy/squid}}


== Post install ==
foobar
There are several considerations to take into account with a web server install, such as setting up an email server, setting up a firewall, firewalling web applications, and dynamically firewalling attackers.


=== Firewalls ===
This can rear its ugly head when specifying template parameters, so you will get this:
* {{Package|net-firewall/nftables}}
* {{Package|net-firewall/iptables}}
* {{Package|net-firewall/firewalld}}
* {{Package|net-firewall/ufw}}


=== Dynamic Firewalling ===
{{fancynote| ugh!}}
* {{Package|app-admin/sshguard}}
* {{Package|net-analyzer/fail2ban}}


=== Benchmarking ===
...instead of this:
It's a good idea to benchmark your system, server, & websites. There are several tools to assist you in doing this.


* http://yslow.org/
{{fancynote|This looks much better!}}
* http://getfirebug.com/
 
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/sysbench}}
== Page and Section Capitalization ==
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/phoronix-test-suite}}
 
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/iozone}}
In general, capitalize all words in page names and section heading except:
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/piozone}}
* Articles: a, an, the
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/siege}}
* Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, or, for, nor, etc.
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/ramspeed}}
* Prepositions (fewer than five letters): on, at, to, from, by, etc.
* {{Package|app-benchmarks/jmeter}}
 
== Document Hierarchy ==
 
Use section headings to create a document hierarchy for your page. These will define the table of contents that appears at the top of the wiki page. Create chapters, sections and sub-sections as follows:
 
<pre>= Page Title =
 
== Chapter Title ==
 
=== Section Title ===
 
==== SubSection Title ====
 
</pre>
 
== Links ==
 
Internal links to other wiki pages can be specified as <tt><nowiki>[[pagename]]</nowiki></tt>. To specify an alternate name for the link, use <tt><nowiki>[[pagename|my link name]]</nowiki></tt>.
 
For external links, use <tt><nowiki>[http://funtoo.org my link]</nowiki></tt> to specify a URL. If you want the URL to appear in the wikitext, you can specify it without brackets: http://forums.funtoo.org.
 
== Lists ==
 
MediaWiki supports a number of list formats:
 
* Unordered List
* Unordered Item 2
** Unordered sub-item
 
# Ordered List
# Ordered Item 2
## Ordered sub-item
 
;Term: This is called a "definition list". It is used when defining various terms.
 
If you need to quote a portion of text from another site, use <tt><nowiki><blockquote></nowiki></tt> as follows:
 
<blockquote>
Wikipedia (ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdiə/ or wɪkiˈpiːdiə/ wik-i-pee-dee-ə) is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free-access, free content Internet encyclopedia that is supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Volunteers worldwide collaboratively write Wikipedia's 30 million articles in 287 languages, including over 4.5 million in the English Wikipedia. Anyone who can access the site can edit almost any of its articles, which on the Internet comprise[4] the largest and most popular general reference work.[5][6][7][8][9] In February 2014, The New York Times reported that Wikipedia is ranked fifth globally among all websites stating, "With 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors a month..., Wikipedia trails just Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and Google, the largest with 1.2 billion unique visitors."[10]
</blockquote>
 
== Literal Text and HTML Symbols ==
 
Here is wikitext for the section above, which I am displaying by placing the literal wikitext between a &#60;pre&#62; and &#60;/pre&#62; tag. If you want to disable wikitext processing for an inline span of text, use &#60;nowiki&#62; and &#60;/nowiki&#62;. If you want to print out a tag literally, use &amp;#60; and &amp;#62; (In the wikitext, I used &amp;amp;#60; and &amp;amp;#62 to display these!)
 
<pre>
* Unordered List
* Unordered Item 2
** Unordered sub-item
 
# Ordered List
# Ordered Item 2
## Ordered sub-item
 
;Term: This is called a "definition list". It is used when defining various terms.
 
If you need to quote a portion of text from another site, use <tt><nowiki><blockquote></nowiki></tt> as follows:
 
<blockquote>
Wikipedia (ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdiə/ or wɪkiˈpiːdiə/ wik-i-pee-dee-ə) is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free-access,
free content Internet encyclopedia that is supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Volunteers
worldwide collaboratively write Wikipedia's 30 million articles in 287 languages, including over 4.5 million in the
English Wikipedia. Anyone who can access the site can edit almost any of its articles, which on the Internet
comprise[4] the largest and most popular general reference work.[5][6][7][8][9] In February 2014, The New York
Times reported that Wikipedia is ranked fifth globally among all websites stating, "With 18 billion page views
and nearly 500 million unique visitors a month..., Wikipedia trails just Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and Google,
the largest with 1.2 billion unique visitors."[10]
</blockquote>
</pre>
 
== Linking to Packages ==
 
To link to a package page, use the <code>Package</code> template:
 
<pre><nowiki>
{{Package|sys-apps/portage}}
</nowiki></pre>
 
This template will create a link to the official wiki page for sys-apps/portage, and render using the official "English" page name, as follows:
 
{{Package|sys-apps/portage}}
 
If you specify a yet-to-be-documented ebuild, it will render like this (which is okay -- it will encourage people to document it):
 
{{Package|sys-foo/undocumented-ebuild}}
 
== Tables ==
 
Instead of using traditional MediaWiki table wikitext, use the following format:
 
<pre>
{{TableStart}}
<tr class="info"><th>Header 1</th><th>Header 2</th></tr>
<tr><td>Value 1</td><td>Value 2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Value 3</td><td>Value 4</td></tr>
{{TableEnd}}
</pre>
 
This wil render as follows:
 
{{TableStart}}
<tr class="info"><th>Header 1</th><th>Header 2</th></tr>
<tr><td>Value 1</td><td>Value 2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Value 3</td><td>Value 4</td></tr>
{{TableEnd}}
 
{{fancytip|This table syntax has an added benefit of creating a responsive table that renders properly on mobile devices.}}
 
It is possible to use the following CSS classes with <code>tr</code> (rows) and <code>td/th</code> elements to color them as desired:
 
{{TableStart}}
<tr class="active"><td>Class Name</td></tr>
<tr class="success"><td>success</td></tr>
<tr class="info"><td>info</td></tr>
<tr class="warning"><td>warning</td></tr>
<tr class="active"><td>active</td></tr>
<tr class="danger"><td>danger</td></tr>
{{TableEnd}}
 
== Displaying Source Code ==
 
To display source code, use the <tt>&#60;syntaxhighlight&#62;</tt> tag, which has the ability to perform syntax highlighting on the source code for easier reading:
<pre>
<syntaxhighlight lang="python">
import system
</syntaxhighlight>
</pre>
 
This will produce the following output:
 
<syntaxhighlight lang="python">
import system
</syntaxhighlight>
 
Alternatively, if you need a caption, use can use the file template, specifying a <tt>lang=</tt> parameter:
 
<pre>
{{file|name=foobar|lang=python|desc=foobarosity|body=
import system
}}
</pre>
 
This will produce:
 
{{file|name=foobar|lang=python|desc=foobarosity|body=
import system
}}
 
{{fancyimportant|If you need to display the pipe ("{{!}}") character within the body of a file template, replace each "{{!}}" with <nowiki>{{!}}</nowiki> -- otherwise your file contents will not display properly. This is necessary because <nowiki>{{file}}</nowiki> is a template and the "{{!}}" character is used as a delimiter for arguments to the template.}}
 
Note that the language should be specified in the <tt>lang</tt> attribute. For a list of supported languages, see [http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:SyntaxHighlight_GeSHi#Supported_languages this list].
 
== Displaying Text File Contents ==
 
For displaying the contents of non-programming language text files (like config files), you have two options. You can enclose your lines within <tt>&#60;pre&#62;</tt> tags, or use the new [[Template:File|file template]]. The file template is used like so:
 
<pre>
{{file|name=/etc/foo.conf|desc=My foo.conf file|body=
# /etc/host.conf:
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/src/patchsets/glibc/extra/etc/host.conf,v 1.1 2006/09/29
}}
</pre>
 
This will produce:
 
{{file|name=/etc/foo.conf|desc=My foo.conf file|body=
# /etc/host.conf:
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/src/patchsets/glibc/extra/etc/host.conf,v 1.1 2006/09/29
}}
 
== Console ==
To display console output, use the <tt>&#60;console&#62;</tt> tag:
 
For a root console:
<pre>
<console>
###i## run a command as root
</console>
</pre>
Produces:
<console>
###i## run a command as root
</console>
 
For a non-root console:
<pre>
<console>
$ ##i##run a command as user
</console>
</pre>
Produces:
<console>
$ ##i##run a command as user
</console>
 
{{fancyimportant|1=
Note that we use a <tt>#</tt> prompt for <tt>root</tt> and a <tt>$</tt> prompt to denote a non-root user.}}
 
{{Fancyimportant|The <tt>##i##</tt> text tags the rest of the line as being ''user input'' ("i" is for "input"). It is then highlighted in a noticeable color so it stands out from text that is not typed in by the user.}}
 
If you need to end highlighting of user input prior to the end of a line, use <code>##!i##</code> to mark the end of the highlighted area.
 
The following special character sequences are also available:
* <code>##g##</code> - Green
* <code>##y##</code> - Yellow
* <code>##bl##</code> - Blue
* <code>##r##</code> - Red
* <code>##b##</code> - Bold
 
Please use the above coloring options sparingly. It is sometimes nice to use them to get wiki console output to match the colors that are displayed on a Linux console. Also note that for every color above, there is a matching <code>##!(colorcode)##</code> option to turn color off prior to end of line.
 
Here is an example of its use:<console>
# ##i##bluetoothctl
[##g##NEW##!g##] Controller 00:02:72:C9:62:65 antec [default]
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl###power on
Changing power on succeeded
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### ##i##agent on
Agent registered
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### ##i##scan on
Discovery started
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### ##i##devices
Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Logitech K760
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### ##i##pair 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
Attempting to pair with 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
[##y##CHG##!y##] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Connected: yes
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: ##i##4##!i##54358
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: ##i##45##!i##4358
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: ##i##454##!i##358
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: ##i##4543##!i##58
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: ##i##45435##!i##8
##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: ##i##454358##!i##
[##y##CHG##!y##] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Paired: yes
Pairing successful
[##y##CHG##!y##] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Connected: no
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### ##i##connect 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
Attempting to connect to 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
[##y##CHG##!y##] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Connected: yes
Connection successful
##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### ##i##quit
[##r##DEL##!r##] Controller 00:02:72:C9:62:65 antec [default]
#
</console>
 
== Informational Messages ==
Notes, warnings, tips, and important templates can be used for informational messages that need to be offset from the regular text flow:
 
<pre>{{note|this is a note}}</pre>
{{note|this is a note}}
 
<pre>{{important|this is important}}</pre>
{{important|this is important}}
 
<pre>{{warning|this is a warning}}</pre>
{{warning|this is a warning}}
 
<pre>{{tip|this is a tip}}</pre>
{{ftip|this is a tip}}
 
Note that these templates used to be called <code>fancynote</code>, <code>fancytip</code>, etc. The "fancy" names have been deprecated but will still be supported for the forseeable future.
 
== Kernelop ==
To display kernel configuration options, we encourage you to use the <tt>kernelop</tt> template. To use the <tt>kernelop</tt> template, create an entry similar to the following example:
<pre>
{{kernelop|title=foo,bar|desc=
kernel options pasted from "make menuconfig"
}}
</pre>
 
{{fancynote|Kernelop is colored blue to slightly resemble the blueish background from <tt>make menuconfig</tt>.}}
 
Adding this entry will give you the following output:
{{kernelop|title=foo,bar|desc=
kernel options
}}
 
Here's a more concrete example:
{{kernelop|title=File systems|desc=
<M> Second extended fs support         
[ ]  Ext2 extended attributes         
[ ]  Ext2 execute in place support   
<M> Ext3 journalling file system support
}}
 
Examples of usage:
* [[Package:AMD Catalyst Video Drivers]]
* [[Package:ACPI Daemon]]
* [[Microcode]]
 
 
== Marking Pages as Needing Updates ==
 
If you find outdated wiki content, but you don't have the time or ability to update it, add one of the following templates to the wikitext of the page. This will add the page to the [[:Category:Needs Updates|Needs Updates Category]] so we can identify pages that need updating:
 
<pre>
{{PageNeedsUpdates}}
{{SectionNeedsUpdates}}
</pre>
 
 
Examples of usage:
* [[UEFI Install Guide]]
* [[Package:MediaWiki]]
* [[Clang]]
 
== Inline Code ==
 
To emphasize filenames, commands, and other technical jargon when they appear inline in a paragraph, use the <tt>&#60;code&#62;</tt> element. Follow the example below:
 
<pre>
The <code>/etc/fstab</code> file is an important one. Another important file is <code>/boot/grub/grub.cfg</code>.
</pre>
 
This example produces the following output:
 
The <code>/etc/fstab</code> file is an important one. Another important file is <code>/boot/grub/grub.cfg</code>.
 
{{fancyimportant|1=
The &#60;tt&#62; tag has been deprecated for the purpose of tagging inline code, to conform with HTML5.}}
 
== YouTube Videos (Screencasts, etc.) ==
 
Screencasting is an easy method to explain complex tasks. Take for instance <code>youtu.be/5KDei5mBfSg</code> and chop off the id and insert it into the following syntax to produce a video example.
 
<pre>{{#widget:YouTube16x9|id=5KDei5mBfSg}}</pre>
{{#widget:YouTube16x9|id=5KDei5mBfSg}}
 
Most YouTube videos are in 16x9 format and should use the <code>YouTube16x9</code> widget. There is also a <code>YouTube4x3</code> widget for videos with a 4x3 aspect ratio.
{{note|These YouTube widgets have been updated to be mobile-friendly.}}
 
[[Category:Wiki Development]]

Revision as of 04:59, September 26, 2014

Thanks for your potential interest in contribution the the Funtoo wiki!

Types of Edits

Before we get started, let's review what changes are okay to make, and what changes are not okay:

Type of ChangeOkay?
Grammar/spelling fixesYes
New wiki contentYes
New package informationYes
Adding to existing articleMaybe -- see below
Adding missing/incomplete informationYes
Making correctionsYes
Adding work-arounds to problems experiencedNo - open bug first on bug tracker.
   Important

Note that if you experience some problem with Funtoo Linux, during installation or otherwise, the proper course of action is to not add a work-around to our documentation, but to open a bug on our bug tracker. This is important because the problem you experienced may be a legitimate bug and the solution may be to fix the bug rather than add a work-around to our documentation. We may end up fixing a bug, making a documentation fix, or possibly both.

Basics

Here is a list of basic wiki information that you will need to know to get started:

  • First, to perform edits on the wiki, you must Create a Funtoo account and log in.
  • You can create a new page by navigating to http://www.funtoo.org/New_Page_Name. Underscores are the equivalent of spaces. Then select "Create" under the "Actions" menu.
  • Whether creating a new page or editing an existing page by clicking "Edit", you will be presented with Web-based text editor that allows you to modify the wikitext of the page. The wikitext is rendered to produce the document you see when you view the page normally.
  • This wiki uses the ApprovedRevs Extension, which means that any changes you make to a page will need to be approved by an Editor before they are displayed. Editors can visit the Special:ApprovedRevs page to approve edits made on pages (click "Pages whose approved revision is not their latest" or "Unapproved pages".)
  • Until your edits are approved, you can continue to edit the page and your changes will be displayed in the page's History -- click "History" under the "Actions" menu to view the page's history. You will see that the approved version of a page has a star next to it.
  • Another fun thing you can do is click on your name under the "Account" menu once you have logged in. This will bring you to your "User" page. Then click "Create with Form" unde the "Actions" menu and enter your geographic and other information. This will allow you to be displayed on our Usermap and will also allow your full name to be displayed on Ebuild pages for which you are an author. It's generally a good idea to do this.
   Tip

The following sections document how to use wikitext and Funtoo templates on the Funtoo wiki.

Paragraphs

To create a new paragraph, insert a blank line between two lines of text. If a blank line doesn't exist between two lines of wikitext, they will be combined into a single flowing paragraph.

If you leave leading whitespace at the beginning of a line, MediaWiki will render it as pre-formatted text. Beware of this. Here's an example:

foobar

This can rear its ugly head when specifying template parameters, so you will get this:

   Note
ugh!

...instead of this:

   Note

This looks much better!

Page and Section Capitalization

In general, capitalize all words in page names and section heading except:

  • Articles: a, an, the
  • Coordinating Conjunctions: and, but, or, for, nor, etc.
  • Prepositions (fewer than five letters): on, at, to, from, by, etc.

Document Hierarchy

Use section headings to create a document hierarchy for your page. These will define the table of contents that appears at the top of the wiki page. Create chapters, sections and sub-sections as follows:

= Page Title =

== Chapter Title ==

=== Section Title ===

==== SubSection Title ====

Links

Internal links to other wiki pages can be specified as [[pagename]]. To specify an alternate name for the link, use [[pagename|my link name]].

For external links, use [http://funtoo.org my link] to specify a URL. If you want the URL to appear in the wikitext, you can specify it without brackets: http://forums.funtoo.org.

Lists

MediaWiki supports a number of list formats:

  • Unordered List
  • Unordered Item 2
    • Unordered sub-item
  1. Ordered List
  2. Ordered Item 2
    1. Ordered sub-item
Term
This is called a "definition list". It is used when defining various terms.

If you need to quote a portion of text from another site, use <blockquote> as follows:

Wikipedia (ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdiə/ or wɪkiˈpiːdiə/ wik-i-pee-dee-ə) is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free-access, free content Internet encyclopedia that is supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Volunteers worldwide collaboratively write Wikipedia's 30 million articles in 287 languages, including over 4.5 million in the English Wikipedia. Anyone who can access the site can edit almost any of its articles, which on the Internet comprise[4] the largest and most popular general reference work.[5][6][7][8][9] In February 2014, The New York Times reported that Wikipedia is ranked fifth globally among all websites stating, "With 18 billion page views and nearly 500 million unique visitors a month..., Wikipedia trails just Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and Google, the largest with 1.2 billion unique visitors."[10]

Literal Text and HTML Symbols

Here is wikitext for the section above, which I am displaying by placing the literal wikitext between a <pre> and </pre> tag. If you want to disable wikitext processing for an inline span of text, use <nowiki> and </nowiki>. If you want to print out a tag literally, use &#60; and &#62; (In the wikitext, I used &amp;#60; and &amp;#62 to display these!)

* Unordered List
* Unordered Item 2
** Unordered sub-item

# Ordered List
# Ordered Item 2
## Ordered sub-item

;Term: This is called a "definition list". It is used when defining various terms.

If you need to quote a portion of text from another site, use <tt><blockquote></tt> as follows:

<blockquote>
Wikipedia (ˌwɪkɨˈpiːdiə/ or wɪkiˈpiːdiə/ wik-i-pee-dee-ə) is a collaboratively edited, multilingual, free-access, 
free content Internet encyclopedia that is supported and hosted by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Volunteers
worldwide collaboratively write Wikipedia's 30 million articles in 287 languages, including over 4.5 million in the 
English Wikipedia. Anyone who can access the site can edit almost any of its articles, which on the Internet 
comprise[4] the largest and most popular general reference work.[5][6][7][8][9] In February 2014, The New York 
Times reported that Wikipedia is ranked fifth globally among all websites stating, "With 18 billion page views 
and nearly 500 million unique visitors a month..., Wikipedia trails just Yahoo, Facebook, Microsoft and Google, 
the largest with 1.2 billion unique visitors."[10]
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Linking to Packages

To link to a package page, use the Package template:

{{Package|sys-apps/portage}}

This template will create a link to the official wiki page for sys-apps/portage, and render using the official "English" page name, as follows:

sys-apps/portage

If you specify a yet-to-be-documented ebuild, it will render like this (which is okay -- it will encourage people to document it):

No results

Tables

Instead of using traditional MediaWiki table wikitext, use the following format:

{{TableStart}}
<tr class="info"><th>Header 1</th><th>Header 2</th></tr>
<tr><td>Value 1</td><td>Value 2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Value 3</td><td>Value 4</td></tr>
{{TableEnd}}

This wil render as follows:

Header 1Header 2
Value 1Value 2
Value 3Value 4
   Tip

This table syntax has an added benefit of creating a responsive table that renders properly on mobile devices.

It is possible to use the following CSS classes with tr (rows) and td/th elements to color them as desired:

Class Name
success
info
warning
active
danger

Displaying Source Code

To display source code, use the <syntaxhighlight> tag, which has the ability to perform syntax highlighting on the source code for easier reading:

<syntaxhighlight lang="python">
import system
</syntaxhighlight>

This will produce the following output:

import system

Alternatively, if you need a caption, use can use the file template, specifying a lang= parameter:

{{file|name=foobar|lang=python|desc=foobarosity|body=
import system
}}

This will produce:

   foobar (python source code) - foobarosity
import system
   Important

If you need to display the pipe ("|") character within the body of a file template, replace each "|" with {{!}} -- otherwise your file contents will not display properly. This is necessary because {{file}} is a template and the "|" character is used as a delimiter for arguments to the template.

Note that the language should be specified in the lang attribute. For a list of supported languages, see this list.

Displaying Text File Contents

For displaying the contents of non-programming language text files (like config files), you have two options. You can enclose your lines within <pre> tags, or use the new file template. The file template is used like so:

{{file|name=/etc/foo.conf|desc=My foo.conf file|body=
# /etc/host.conf:
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/src/patchsets/glibc/extra/etc/host.conf,v 1.1 2006/09/29
}}

This will produce:

   /etc/foo.conf - My foo.conf file
# /etc/host.conf:
# $Header: /var/cvsroot/gentoo/src/patchsets/glibc/extra/etc/host.conf,v 1.1 2006/09/29

Console

To display console output, use the <console> tag:

For a root console:

<console>
###i## run a command as root
</console>

Produces:

root # run a command as root

For a non-root console:

<console>
$ ##i##run a command as user
</console>

Produces:

user $ run a command as user
   Important

Note that we use a # prompt for root and a $ prompt to denote a non-root user.

   Important

The ##i## text tags the rest of the line as being user input ("i" is for "input"). It is then highlighted in a noticeable color so it stands out from text that is not typed in by the user.

If you need to end highlighting of user input prior to the end of a line, use ##!i## to mark the end of the highlighted area.

The following special character sequences are also available:

  • ##g## - Green
  • ##y## - Yellow
  • ##bl## - Blue
  • ##r## - Red
  • ##b## - Bold

Please use the above coloring options sparingly. It is sometimes nice to use them to get wiki console output to match the colors that are displayed on a Linux console. Also note that for every color above, there is a matching ##!(colorcode)## option to turn color off prior to end of line.

Here is an example of its use:

root # bluetoothctl 
[NEW] Controller 00:02:72:C9:62:65 antec [default]
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl###power on
Changing power on succeeded
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### agent on
Agent registered
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### scan on
Discovery started
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### devices
Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Logitech K760
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### pair 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
Attempting to pair with 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
[CHG] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Connected: yes
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
root ##r##[agent]##!r## Passkey: 454358
[CHG] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Paired: yes
Pairing successful
[CHG] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Connected: no
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### connect 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
Attempting to connect to 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75
[CHG] Device 00:1F:20:3D:1E:75 Connected: yes
Connection successful
root ##bl##[bluetooth]##!bl### quit
[DEL] Controller 00:02:72:C9:62:65 antec [default]
root #

Informational Messages

Notes, warnings, tips, and important templates can be used for informational messages that need to be offset from the regular text flow:

{{note|this is a note}}
   Note

this is a note

{{important|this is important}}
   Important

this is important

{{warning|this is a warning}}
   Warning

this is a warning

{{tip|this is a tip}}

Template:Ftip

Note that these templates used to be called fancynote, fancytip, etc. The "fancy" names have been deprecated but will still be supported for the forseeable future.

Kernelop

To display kernel configuration options, we encourage you to use the kernelop template. To use the kernelop template, create an entry similar to the following example:

{{kernelop|title=foo,bar|desc=
kernel options pasted from "make menuconfig"
}} 
   Note

Kernelop is colored blue to slightly resemble the blueish background from make menuconfig.

Adding this entry will give you the following output: Under foo-->bar:

kernel options

Here's a more concrete example: Under File systems:

<M> Second extended fs support          
[ ]   Ext2 extended attributes          
[ ]   Ext2 execute in place support     
<M> Ext3 journalling file system support

Examples of usage:


Marking Pages as Needing Updates

If you find outdated wiki content, but you don't have the time or ability to update it, add one of the following templates to the wikitext of the page. This will add the page to the Needs Updates Category so we can identify pages that need updating:

{{PageNeedsUpdates}}
{{SectionNeedsUpdates}}


Examples of usage:

Inline Code

To emphasize filenames, commands, and other technical jargon when they appear inline in a paragraph, use the <code> element. Follow the example below:

The <code>/etc/fstab</code> file is an important one. Another important file is <code>/boot/grub/grub.cfg</code>.

This example produces the following output:

The /etc/fstab file is an important one. Another important file is /boot/grub/grub.cfg.

   Important

The <tt> tag has been deprecated for the purpose of tagging inline code, to conform with HTML5.

YouTube Videos (Screencasts, etc.)

Screencasting is an easy method to explain complex tasks. Take for instance youtu.be/5KDei5mBfSg and chop off the id and insert it into the following syntax to produce a video example.

{{#widget:YouTube16x9|id=5KDei5mBfSg}}

Most YouTube videos are in 16x9 format and should use the YouTube16x9 widget. There is also a YouTube4x3 widget for videos with a 4x3 aspect ratio.

   Note

These YouTube widgets have been updated to be mobile-friendly.