Help:Redirects

Redirects are Article description::used to forward users from one page name to another.

Redirection is useful if a particular article can be referred to by multiple names (e.g. KVM →‎ QEMU), or has alternative punctuation (e.g. X.org →‎ Xorg), capitalization (e.g. Qemu →‎ QEMU) or spellings. Redirects are also used when moving a page.

Creating a redirect
To start a new redirect, create a page with the name that should be redirected from (see Help:Starting a new page). It is also possible to use an existing page, that will then become inactive, by going to that page and using the "edit" tab at the top, and replacing the page contents with the redirect.

A redirect consists of the following code, at the very first text position of the Edit window for the page:


 * 1) REDIRECT pagename

pagename is the name of the destination page. The word "redirect" is not case-sensitive, but there must be no space before the "#" symbol. Any text before the code will invalidate the redirect. Any text or regular content code after the redirect code will be ignored (and should be deleted from an existing page).

To put or keep the current page name listed in a Category, the usual tag for that category is entered (or kept) on a line after the redirect code entry.

Please use the 'preview' button below the Edit window (or +) to check that the destination page name is correct, i.e. it leads to the intended page. The preview page will not look or act like the resulting redirect page, it will show a list, with the destination page in blue:

 Redirect page ↳ 

If the pagename it is not a valid page, it will show in red. Until there is a valid destination page, the redirect should not be saved.

Viewing and editing a redirect
After making a redirect for a page, the redirect page will no longer be accessible directly through its name (or by any link using that name). After following a redirect, a notice will be shown near the top of the destination page to indicate that a redirection has occurred. This notice includes an active link which will lead to the actual redirect page.

By accessing the actual redirect page through this link, the redirect may be edited just like any wiki page, like when the redirect was first created (see previous section). The history of the redirect page will be accessible, and the discussion page may be used to talk about the redirect itself with other editors.

Use this link if the redirect must be corrected, removed, or have an edit reverted.

Deleting a redirect
There's generally no need to delete redirects. They do not occupy a significant amount of database space. If a page name is vaguely meaningful, there's no harm (and some benefit) in having it as a redirect to the more relevant or current page.

If a redirect must really be removed - e.g. if the page name is offensive, or to discourage people from referring to a concept by an erroneous or obsolete name - then go to the redirect page as mentioned above, and follow the procedures at Help:Deleting a page.

Double redirects
A double redirect is a page redirecting to a page which is itself a redirect, and it will not work. Instead, people will be presented with a view of the next redirect page. This is a deliberate restriction, partly to prevent infinite loops, and partly to keep things simple and show up when a redirect is not pointing to an actual destination page.

Look out for double redirects, and eliminate them by changing them to be one-step redirects instead. This will often be needed after a significant page move. Use the "what links here" toolbox link to find double redirects to a particular page, or use Special:DoubleRedirects to find them throughout the whole wiki.

A redirect to a page in the "category" namespace
To prevent a page that redirects to a category from appearing in the category, precede the word "Category" with a colon:
 * 1) REDIRECT Category:Glossary