Have no usages onwiki in the MediaWiki namespace, but they do in User :/

Detaching from parent task T122754 because this is not gonna happen in this release cycle.

wikibits.js only contains deprecation markers. There is nothing left. This is really about the removal of that library in general. However we're not ready for that yet:

• Deprecation (2011; MediaWiki 1.17)
• Announce deprecation (October 2013)
• Deprecation warnings (MediaWiki 1.23)

Normally the next step would be removal. However we need an additional phase in our case because this module is loaded by default. Adding a blocker on T35836: Set $wgIncludeLegacyJavaScript = false by default (part of MediaWiki 1.27) which will ride the deployment train a few weeks from now. After that, people will have the option to temporary restore any breakage they find by adding an explicit dependency as stop-gap measure. Then (closer to when we'll cut the 1.28 branch in September 2016) we can remove the library.

Change 282506 had a related patch set uploaded (by Krinkle):
[WIP] wikibits: Remove methods deprecated since 1.17 and 1.18

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/282506

Change 282506 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/core@master] wikibits: Remove methods deprecated since 1.17 and 1.18

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/282506

Note that this change has two side effects I think, which are causing a lot of errors since deploy:

1: some variables that were silently failing are now hard failing, because the variable is no longer defined, yet still referenced.
2: mediawiki.util dependency was dropped, exposing a lot more user scripts that were not actively ensuring their dependency on mediawiki.util.

In T122755#3220618, @TheDJ wrote:

2: mediawiki.util dependency was dropped, exposing a lot more user scripts that were not actively ensuring their dependency on mediawiki.util.

Just to make sure: does MediaWiki:Common.js need the same fix as user scripts do, if it uses mw.util without calling mw.loader.using first? (I'm asking because when I hear "user scripts" I think of scripts located under [[User:..., but not [[MediaWiki:...) Many sites might still be using mw.util in Common.js in that way.

I hope this fix is what is supposed to be done: https://ja.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:Common.js&diff=63936276&oldid=62869164

@whym yes, that also goes for MediaWiki:Common.js

The list at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader/Legacy_JavaScript#wikibits.js should be updated to reflect what has been removed.

mw.util is probably used in a now-broken way in hundreds of gadgets and common.js. Someone please mwgrep the wikis to see the affected ns8 pages at least. Then we can notify the local administrators and hopefully the global interface editors can help as well.

(If we don't get some speed at fixing this breakage, a revert may be in order.)

I have to agree. I think I fixed about 50 scripts now, just on en.wp. I assume this means that many thousands of users outside of en.wp now experience JS loading problems.

I have requested global editinterface rights at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Steward_requests/Global_permissions#Global_editinterface_for_Nirmos

I'm seeing many projects in script error and I'd like to fix that.

Continuing this conversation at T164242.

By the way, why is mediawiki.util still listed in https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader/Core_modules#mediawiki.util which claims it's supposed to be always present?

In T122755#3313357, @Nemo_bis wrote:

By the way, why is mediawiki.util still listed in https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/ResourceLoader/Core_modules#mediawiki.util which claims it's supposed to be always present?

Where does it say that?

The "Core modules" page intends to document all modules that ship with the MediaWiki core software, e.g. All available modules, or all modules that can be loaded. Not a single one of those modules can be assumed to be present by default. This has not changed.

ResourceLoader documentation consistently states that code/scripts/gadgets must always declare dependencies on what they need or use. Either through a "dependencies" list (like for extensions and gadgets) or through wrapping with mw.loader.using.

If something else on the page, or something else enabled by the user, happens to already provide that module, ResourceLoader knows to not load the same module twice.

Where does it say that?

Indeed it doesn't. I misread this sentence at the beginning:

The modules jquery and mediawiki together form the base environment ("startup") and are present always.