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<languages />
{{PD Help Page}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Pages on a MediaWiki wiki are grouped into collections called “'''namespaces'''” which differentiate between the purpose of the pages at a high level. Pages in certain namespaces can also have special properties or behave differently when they interact with other pages.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Namespaces are indicated in page titles by prefixing the page name with <code><nowiki><namespace>:</nowiki></code>, so the prefix <code>{{NAMESPACE}}:</code> in this page's title (<code>{{FULLPAGENAME}}</code>) indicates that this page is in the <code>{{NAMESPACE}}</code> namespace. Each namespace is identified by a number and a name, which can be translated and can also have some aliases.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
A page whose name is ''not'' prefixed by a namespace lies in the [[#blank-ns|mainspace]]. Note, however, that colons and prefixes can also appear in page titles ''without'' indicating a namespace: the page <code>Foo:{{PAGENAME}}</code> is a page located in the mainspace because the namespace “Foo” does not exist. Similarly the page <code>{{NAMESPACE}}:Foo:{{PAGENAME}}</code> is in the “{{NAMESPACE}}” namespace.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
== Standard namespaces ==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The standard MediaWiki installation has sixteen namespaces that can contain user-generated content; there are also two special namespaces that contain pages created “on the fly” by the MediaWiki software. The standard namespaces are organized in pairs, with each pair containing a “subject namespace” and a “discussion namespace.” The namespaces are numbered from zero such that all subject namespaces have even indices and all talk namespaces have odd indices.
</div>

{{Anchor|ns-media}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Media ====
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This namespace is used for direct linking to media files: the link <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>[[Media:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg]]<nowiki>]]</nowiki></code> links to just the image rather than the image description page, which would be <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>[[:File:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg|:{{ns:6}}:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg]]<nowiki>]]</nowiki></code>.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Special ====
</div>
{{main|Help:Special pages}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This namespace is used to group [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Special pages|special pages]], reports and interfaces that are generated “on demand” by MediaWiki and that are not directly editable. It is not possible to create pages in this namespace except by modifying or extending the MediaWiki software.
</div>

==== {{int|blanknamespace}} ====

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The namespace that has no prefix separated by a colon. Commonly called the “main namespace” or “mainspace”. This namespace typically contains the bulk of the {{ll|Manual:$wgContentNamespaces|content pages}} in a wiki. This namespace generally has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Talk ====
</div>
{{main|Help:Talk pages}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The “{{ns:1}}” namespace is the discussion namespace attached to the mainspace. It has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== User ====
</div>
{{main|Help:User page}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Each user has a corresponding page in the “{{ns:2}}” namespace, which is linked to from edit histories, watchlists, recent changes, etc.; wherever an individual user is uniquely identified.
</div>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">This page and subpages of it can be used by users to record information about themselves or to test and draft new content.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Pages of the form {{tmpl|0=<code>{{ns:2}}:''$1''/Foo'''.js'''</code>|UserName}} or {{tmpl|0=<code>{{ns:2}}:''$1''/Foo'''.css'''</code>|UserName}} can only be edited by the user themselves or by [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Sysops and permissions|interface administrators]] (or administrators before MediaWiki 1.32).</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== User talk ====
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">This namespace is the talkspace associated with the “{{ns:2}}” namespace.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Pages in this namespace are mainly used to leave messages for particular users or inform them of discussions that may be of interest to them.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">To facilitate this, when a page {{tmpl|0=<code>{{ns:3}}:$1</code>|UserName}} is edited, whenever the user UserName loads a page, a notice is displayed at the top of the page informing them of the edit:</span>

<div class="usermessage plainlinks" style="margin: 1em 0;">
{{int|new-messages-from-users
|2=[[{{ns:3}}:UserName|<span style="color:#002bb8">{{int|new-messages-link-plural|1}}</span>]]
|3=[{{fullurl:{{ns:3}}:UserName|diff=cur}} <span style="color:#002bb8">{{int|new-messages-diff-link-plural|1}}</span>]
|4=1}}
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This notice continues to appear until the user loads their user talk page to read the message.
</div>
{{Admin tip|1=<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Extensions like {{ll|Extension:Echo|nsp=0}} may override this behavior.</span>}}

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Project ====
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">This namespace is normally used for meta-discussions related to the operation and development of the wiki.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">It automatically redirects the user to a namespace labeled after the wiki's name, example:</span>
<nowiki>[[Project:Licenses]] → [[Wikipedia:Licenses]].</nowiki>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Because this namespace's name changes from wiki to wiki, you may want to simply look at the 5th entry in any dropdown containing a list of all namespaces.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The project namespace will be listed immediately after the User talk namespace.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">On some wiki farms, the name <code>Meta</code> may be used for this namespace.</span>
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Project talk ====
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated project pages. It has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== File ====
</div>
{{main|Help:Images}}
[[Image:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg|right]]

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The “{{ns:6}}” namespace is used to store metadata for images, videos, sound files and other media accessed via the “{{ns:-2}}” namespace.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Each file has a corresponding page in the “{{ns:6}}” namespace, which is often used to hold licensing data.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Linking ''directly'' to a page in this namespace instead includes the media file inline in the page: <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>{{ns:6}}<nowiki>:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg|right]]</nowiki></code> produces the image to the right.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">See {{ll|Help:Images}} for more details of this link syntax.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To create an [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Links|internal link]] to the file page, you need to add a colon to the front of the namespace: <code><nowiki>[[:</nowiki>{{ns:6}}<nowiki>:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg|right]]</nowiki></code> produces [[:{{ns:6}}:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg]].
The standard MediaWiki installation has alias “Image” for “{{ns:6}}” namespace – See [[#ns-aliases|Namespace aliases]].
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
For linking media files directly, bypassing the description page, see [[#ns-media|Media namespace]].
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated media files. It has no special properties.
</div>

==== MediaWiki ====
{{main|Help:System message}}
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The “{{ns:8}}” namespace is used to [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:System message#Overriding messages on-wiki|hold system messages]] and other important content.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">For instance, the page [[{{ns:8}}:Edit]] (or [[{{ns:8}}:Vector-view-edit]] in the default “Vector” skin) contains the text that fills the “{{int|Edit}}” tab at the top of every page.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">If that page exists, it overrides the default content, which is “Edit.” Similarly, [[{{ns:8}}:Common.css]] is the system message that holds the [[w:Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] code that is loaded for all users for each page.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">It has the special property that the entire namespace can only be edited by users with the <code>(editinterface)</code> user right.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Since MediaWiki 1.32, JavaScript and CSS pages needs also <code>editinterface</code> and (respectively) <code>editsitejs</code> or <code>editsitecss</code> rights to edit.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== MediaWiki talk ====
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated system messages. It has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Template ====
</div>
{{main|Help:Templates}}
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The “{{ns:10}}” namespace is used to hold [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Templates|templates]], blocks of text or wikicode that are intended to be transcluded into several other pages.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">To facilitate this it has the special property that it is the ''default'' namespace for transclusions: the wikicode <code><nowiki>{{Foo}}</nowiki></code> is equivalent to <code><nowiki>{{</nowiki>'''{{ns:10}}:'''<nowiki>Foo}}</nowiki></code>.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Template talk ====
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated template pages. It has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Help ====
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The “{{ns:12}}” namespace is usually used to hold help files, instructions and “how-to” guides. It has no special properties.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">See [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents|Help namespace content]].</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated help pages. It has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Category ====
</div>
{{main|Help:Categories}}
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The “{{ns:14}}” namespace contains [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Categories|categories]], dynamic lists of other pages.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">To facilitate this, linking ''directly'' to a category page does not output an inline link, but instead includes the page into the associated category page.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">So the code <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>{{ns:14}}<nowiki>:Help]]</nowiki></code> causes a category link to appear at the bottom of the page (at the bottom in the box marked “{{int|Pagecategories}}”).</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Clicking on that link takes you to the category page, where this page is visible in the category list.</span>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">To create an inline link to a category page, you need to add a colon to the front of the namespace: <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>:{{ns:14}}:Help<nowiki>]]</nowiki></code> produces [[:{{ns:14}}:Help]].</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">See {{ll|Help:Categories}} for more details on category link syntax.</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==== Category talk ====
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
This is a talk namespace that is normally used for discussions related to the associated category pages. It has no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Localisation==
</div>

{| class="wikitable" width="0" style="float:{{dir|{{pagelang}}|left|right}}; margin-{{dir|{{pagelang}}|right|left}}:0.7em;"
|-
!{{hl2}}|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Number</span>
!{{hl2}}|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Canonical name</span>
!{{hl2}}|<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Localized name</span>
|-
| -2 || Media          || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Media</span>          
|-
| -1 || Special        || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Special</span>        
|-
|  0 || (Main)          || {{ns:0}}
|-
|  1 || Talk           || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Talk</span>           
|-
|  2 || User           || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">User</span>           
|-
|  3 || User talk      || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">User talk</span>   
|-
|  4 || Project        || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Project</span>        
|-
|  5 || Project talk   || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Project talk</span>
|-
|  6 || File           || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">File</span>           
|-
|  7 || File talk      || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">File talk</span>  
|-
|  8 || MediaWiki      || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">MediaWiki</span>      
|-
|  9 || MediaWiki talk || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">MediaWiki talk</span> 
|-
| 10 || Template       || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Template</span>       
|-
| 11 || Template talk  || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Template talk</span>
|-
| 12 || Help           || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Help</span>           
|-
| 13 || Help talk      || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Help talk</span> 
|-
| 14 || Category       || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Category</span>       
|-
| 15 || Category talk  || <span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Category talk</span>
|}

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Namespace names and aliases can be localized by developers.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">To request the localization of namespace names, please [https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/maniphest/task/create/?projects=MediaWiki-Internationalization file a MediaWiki internationalization task] at {{ll|Phabricator}}.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">In the description of the task, you should provide translations of all the namespaces in the table to the right, as well as any additional namespaces on your wiki (such as "Module" or "Gadget").</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
If the site's language is Chinese, then namespace names are translated only when the content is converted and there is no <code>__<nowiki/>NOTITLECONVERT__</code> or <code>__<nowiki/>NOTC__</code> or [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Magic words|magic words]] on a page.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
===Renaming namespaces===
</div>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">Namespace names can be translated into languages other than English and individual namespaces can be renamed, as set by a wiki's system admins (using [[Namespace manager]]).</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">These names are known as the 'localized' namespace names.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">However, all namespaces have a 'canonical name', the original English name which will work on any installation of MediaWiki.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">So linking to [[User:Foo]] will always locate the user page for the user foo, whether the wiki is in French (where the localized name would be [[:Utilisateur:Foo]]), Russian ([[:Участник:Foo]]), or Hindi ([[:सदस्य:Foo]]).</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The canonical namespace names are given in the table to the right along with their localized names on this wiki.
</div>

{{Anchor|ns-aliases}}
<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Custom namespaces==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
===Namespace aliases===
</div>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">On some wikis there are also namespace ''aliases'': alternative names that will also be resolved to the localised names.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">For instance, a wiki might define "T" as an alias for {{ns:10}}, such that typing [[T:Foo]] is equivalent to [[{{ns:10}}:Foo]], saving a few characters and seconds.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">An actual example would be on the [[wikipedia:|English Wikipedia]], where "WP" is an alias for {{ns:4}}, which is the namespace "Wikipedia".</span>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
By default, "Image" is an alias for {{ns:6}}, so <code><nowiki>[[Image:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg]]</nowiki></code> is equivalent to <code><nowiki>[[</nowiki>{{ns:6}}<nowiki>:MediaWiki-2020-logo.svg]]</nowiki></code>.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
===Extra namespaces===
</div>

:''<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">See {{ll|Extension default namespaces}} for a list of namespaces used by various extensions, and {{ll|Manual:Using custom namespaces}} for information on how to set up extra namespaces on a wiki.</span>''

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
Some wikis may wish to organize their content in ways that do not fit into this standard set of namespaces.  A wiki may define additional namespaces to facilitate this; these namespaces behave exactly like normal namespaces, and generally have indices greater than or equal to 100.  These custom namespaces generally have no special properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
==Identifying the namespace of a page==
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
There are a number of ways by which the namespace of a particular page can be identified:
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
;Magic words
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The [[Special:MyLanguage/Help:Magic word|magic word]] <code><nowiki>{{NAMESPACE}}</nowiki></code> returns the value of the namespace the page is in.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
To refer to another namespace, use {{tmpl|0=<code>{{((}}ns:<$1>{{))}}</code>|name}} (e.g. <code><nowiki>{{ns:Project}}</nowiki></code>), or <code><nowiki>{{SUBJECTSPACE}}</nowiki></code> / <code><nowiki>{{TALKSPACE}}</nowiki></code> to refer to the namespace paired with the current one.
</div>

;JavaScript

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The JavaScript variable <code>wgCanonicalNamespace</code> contains the full namespace name.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The variable <code>wgNamespaceNumber</code> contains the numerical index of the namespace.</span>

<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">The {{tag|body|open}} tag of the HTML page output is given two CSS classes that vary by namespace: A class <code>ns-#</code>, where # is the index of the namespace, and <code>ns-XXX</code>, where XXX is "<code>subject</code>" for all {{ll|Manual:Namespace#Subject and talk namespaces|subject namespaces}}, "<code>special</code>" for pages in the {{ns:-1}} namespace, and "<code>talk</code>" for {{ll|Manual:Namespace#Subject and talk namespaces|talk namespaces}}.</span>
<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">So CSS code such as the following can be used to change the appearance of an object based on its namespace:</span>

<syntaxhighlight lang="css">
.ns-subject a {   /* Almost all links on subject pages to be green. */
    color: #0f0;
}
.ns-talk a {      /* Links on talk pages to be blue. */
    color: #00f;
}
.ns-3 a {         /* and links on user talk pages to be red */
    color: #f00;
}
</syntaxhighlight>

==Listing namespaces==
:''<span lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">See {{ll|Extension default namespaces}} for a list of namespaces used by various MediaWiki extensions.</span>''

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
The special page [[Special:NamespaceInfo]] provides a table with information about the namespaces used on a wiki, including the ID, canonical name, local name, description, and properties.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
You can also get a complete list of all namespace names of a MediaWiki installation from the Search results page ''Advanced'' tab, or from any ''recent changes'' page such as contributions or watchlist in its options box, in a drop-down list.
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
For the system properties of each namespace, use the MediaWiki {{ll|API:Main page|API}}:
</div>

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
;API
</div>
{{ApiEx
| site=www.mediawiki.org
| p1=action=query
| p2=meta=siteinfo
| p3=siprop=namespaces
| p4=formatversion=2
}}

<div lang="en" dir="ltr" class="mw-content-ltr">
== See also ==
</div>
* {{ll|Manual:Namespace}}
* {{ll|Manual:Using custom namespaces}}
* {{ll|Manual:$wgNamespacesToBeSearchedDefault}}

[[Category:Help{{#translation:}}|Namespaces]]
[[Category:Namespace{{#translation:}}|Namespaces]]