Help:Contents
Contributor's guide — Guidelines — Fixing errors howto
Editing pages — Talk pages — Formatting
Code of conduct — Wiki project page — About Gentoo wiki — Wiki FAQ
Help improve the documentation! — Contributing to Gentoo
Spot a mistake, an omission? Please help out by correcting it! See the what to do when noticing an error on the wiki page about how to fix things, or how to flag an issue at least.
The wiki help pages provide useful information about using the Gentoo wiki (as opposed to documentation for Gentoo itself, which the Wiki contains).
These pages are resources for both readers, on wiki usage and on finding relevant information, and for contributors, with explanations of how to add content correctly.
The Gentoo project needs help from its users - see the help improve Gentoo by getting involved with documentation! page about how anyone can help out. Check out the contributor's guide: making quick changes to the wiki is easy, even for a newcomer!
The Wiki project page has more information about how the Wiki is run. See also the Gentoo wiki FAQ, and the about Gentoo wiki page.
Gentoo developers can check out Developer Central for help on procedures involved in working as a Gentoo dev.
For people looking for help using Gentoo Linux, the main Gentoo Wiki page and the Handbook are the principal online sources for Gentoo documentation. This "help pages" section is only about displaying and editing the documentation, not about actually using the documentation contents.
For those looking for help from the community for a particular issue, after having checked all the documentation, see the support page.
All contributions must comply with the copyright policy and with the AI policy. Be sure to understand the contribution requirements, and please follow the code of conduct when engaging in all wiki activity.
The wiki project aims to maintain a respectful, constructive environment - please be polite and considerate of other users. All wiki edits should be made in the spirit of moving the project towards the common goals. Documentation and discourse should be objective and rooted in fact. The project is consensus-based - please listen to the admins, devs, and other editors.
Reading and browsing the wiki
Reading the Wiki should be somewhat self-evident, it works much like most standard websites. More detailed information is provided here for more advanced use:
- What to do when noticing an error on the wiki
- Navigation - explanation of site layout and functionality when reading pages
- Searching - about the search functionality
- Special pages - pages generated by the wiki
- Watchlist - get informed of changes to articles of interest
- Tracking changes - see the history of how articles were written
User pages and preferences
Create a wiki user account to edit pages or communicate with other wiki users. A user account has a preferences page that can change the parameters of how the site is shown and behaves for that user. Each account has a user page to communicate to other wiki users, with a talk page. User subpages can be used as a staging area for wiki work.
- Preferences - personalize elements of the wiki
- Special account modifications - moving, deleting, renaming accounts, etc.
Editing
In case of any issues with creating an account, please get in touch on #gentoo-wiki (webchat) on IRC. Please be patient and stay connected to the channel, replies can take a long time. If a solution cannot be found in IRC, try sending an email to wiki@gentoo.org.
For small corrections, such as typos, fixing or adding links, etc., please just create an account and make the change!
Once logged in, it only takes a few clicks to make a change: click the "Edit source" (or "Edit") button at the top of a page, make changes (edits) to the text, add a brief summary of the edit, and click the "Save page" button! Don't worry too much about making mistakes: everything is backed up, and changes will be checked by an editor soon after they are made.
The Gentoo project needs help from its users - see the help improve Gentoo by getting involved with documentation! page about how anyone can help out.
The contributor's guide is invaluable when getting into editing wiki pages, for anything more than a simple correction. It explains wiki fundamentals, goals and general workings - all the basic information to start editing articles. At the very least, check out the getting started section.
Please read the official Gentoo wiki guidelines before making anything more than the most basic changes. The guidelines explain how to properly write and lay out pages, to create well formed articles, while maintaining a coherent style across the wiki.
Please come join us on IRC on the #gentoo-wiki (webchat) channel, if looking to edit the wiki! (The web chat should work well for anyone not wanting to set up an IRC client.) This is where the contributors come to chat about the wiki and what is currently happening. Questions, comments, or suggestions welcome! The channel can be quiet sometimes, but everyone will try to answer any questions the best they can!
There are plenty of areas that need work, check out the todo category, and common wiki tasks to help out. Editing the wiki is a really great way to contribute to Gentoo! It really does help other users, and it is easy to get started with. Remember that there are also other ways to contribute to Gentoo.
Others in the community can be thanked for their contributions via the "Thank" link, found on an article's Revision history page (click More→History, then find the "Thank" link next to the specific revision).
Essential editing topics
These pages are essential reading for anyone getting into editing the wiki:
- Contributor's guide - complete primer on wiki editing
- Editing pages - basic article editing procedure
- Formatting - how to use wiki markup
- Links - how to link between articles
- Protected pages - about pages that don't allow all users to change them
- Wiki FAQ - frequently asked questions about wiki usage
Check out the wiki project page for information about how the wiki project is organized, contact info, roadmap, with information on using the wiki, renaming or deleting accounts, etc.
Discussing wiki content and edits and asking for help
Participants are asked to abide by the rules in the Code of Conduct.
Talk pages are an important tool to communicate with other users, suggest corrections, or additions to wiki articles.
Please read about signatures before writing in talk pages.
Remember that these pages are for discussing wiki content, management, editing, and related subjects only. In case of issues using Gentoo, see the support page.
User talk pages can be used to communicate directly with other wiki users.
For more dynamic communication, come join the #gentoo-wiki (webchat) IRC channel. Be aware that the channel can be slow sometimes though - participants are from around the world so people are in different time-zones.
Basic editing topics
These topics are important to know when making any substantial edits:
- Official Gentoo wiki guidelines - how articles should be laid out
- Tables - how to format content in tabular form
- User page - pages about wiki users
Further editing topics
- Namespaces - about the different wiki "sections" called namespaces
- Subpages - how to hierarchically organize pages
- Starting a new page - how to go about creating a new page for the wiki
- Blueprints - use these examples as guides for article layout
- Images - how to integrate images into articles
- Managing files - how to upload and manage files and images
- Categories - about categories and how to categorize pages
- Moving (renaming) a page - procedures for moving a page from one name to another
- Redirects - redirect pages to other pages
- Deleting a page - procedures for removing a page
Templates
Templates help layout standard or repetitive elements. See the help page on Templates about what templates are and how to use them on the wiki.
The Template sandbox and test cases page provides information on the various subsidiary pages that must be created to support any new template.
List of templates on the wiki: All templates.
Template categories:
- Embedded Pages - templates that add blocks of text to a page
- Formatting templates - used in article's body to format information in a standard way
- InfoBox templates - generally used in {{InfoBox stack}} to provide specific information about an article
- License templates - mark uploaded files with the appropriate licence
- Maintenance templates - provide information on the status or quality of articles, etc.
- Templates for templates - generally only used when creating templates
Advanced editing topics
- Transclusion - including contents from one page to another
- External searches - linking to search engine queries
- Magic words - tags associated with a return value or function
- Semantic MediaWiki - storing or querying information attached to wiki pages
- Bots - about programs to perform automatic actions on the wiki
- Patrolled edits - marking edits as reviewed, not really used on this wiki
For experiments and to try things out, the sandbox page may be used.
Translating wiki articles
See the Help:Translating page on how to request a translator account and how to properly translate wiki articles.
The process is slightly different from editing pages, as it uses the MediaWiki Translate extension.
See also
- Category:Gentoo Wiki — how to use the wiki, and information and resources for editors.
- Gentoo_Wiki:Contributor's_guide — help anyone quickly get started with simple edits
External resources
- Help:Contents at meta.wikimedia.org