This is my first post and I need help in removing the index.php from my MediaWiki URL so that I will have a clean short URL.

I installed MediaWiki in the root directory of my domain and my URL appears as webmasterworld.com/index.php/Larry_Page. What I want is webmasterworld.com/Larry_Page just like Wikipedia website.

(Note: webmasterworld.com & webmasterworldcom in this post are just examples as I don't want to be accused of trying to promote my website here.)

I followed the manual as instructed at [mediawiki.org...] by using the root access solution.

I tried the root access solution on my server and it was working fine but I do not want the word "wiki" to appear in the URL. What shall I do?

The manual says:

If you put the wiki installation in a subdirectory such as /w, use $wgScriptPath = "/w" as appropriate.

If you put the files (such as index.php) in the root, you can use $wgScriptPath = "" in LocalSettings.php.

2. In LocalSettings.php, set the following:

$wgArticlePath = "/wiki/$1";

Remember, the virtual directory for the wiki article space should never, ever overlap or hide real files. In particular it should never, ever overlap your base installation directory or the root directory. It can be a virtual subdirectory, such as /wiki. (For example: do not try to rewrite "/wiki/Article" to "/wiki/index.php?title=Article).

3. Set up the following alias in your Apache httpd.conf. It can be in a <VirtualHost> section, or in "Aliases" section, or in your general site config. In this alias, the prefix /filesystem/path/to/my/site represents the path you installed to — the directory where MediaWiki's index.php lives. Replace the prefix as appropriate for your actual file system path.

#These must come last, and in this order!
Alias /wiki "/filesystem/path/to/my/site/index.php"
Alias /index.php "/filesystem/path/to/my/site/index.php"
For example:

Alias /wiki "c:/apache/www/w/index.php"
Alias /index.php "c:/apache/www/w/index.php"
After making modifications to httpd.conf, you might have to restart Apache to apply the changes

I followed the instruction and it was working but with the word "wiki" in the url but I don't want that word wiki in the url as I installed Mediawiki in the root directory of my domain.

This is what I did:

I added this code to my LocalSettings.php file::

$wgScript = "$wgScriptPath/index.php";

$wgArticlePath = "/wiki/$1";

I added this code to my httpd.conf file

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName mwusers.com
ServerAlias [url]www.webmasterworld.com[/url]
DocumentRoot /var/www/webmasterworldcom

#These must come last, and in this order!
Alias /wiki "/var/www/webmasterworldcom/index.php"
Alias /index.php "/var/www/webmasterworld.com/index.php"
</VirtualHost>

I installed my MediaWiki in the root directory called webmasterworldcom

But when I tried to delete the word "wiki" from the above codes, my website is not working. This is what I did:

I added this code to my LocalSettings.php

$wgScript = "$wgScriptPath/index.php";

$wgArticlePath = "/$1";

I added this code in my httpd.conf in between the VirtualHost tag:

<VirtualHost *>
ServerName mwusers.com
ServerAlias [url]www.mwusers.com[/url]
DocumentRoot /var/www/mwuserscom

#These must come last, and in this order!
Alias / "/var/www/mwuserscom/index.php"
Alias /index.php "/var/www/mwuserscom/index.php"
</VirtualHost>

What mistakes did I make? Is my "Alias / "/var/www/mwuserscom/index.php"" line to make the word "wiki" disappears correct?

What shall I do to make my URL appear as

webmasterworld.com/Larry_Page instead of mwusers.com/wiki/Larry_Page?

Many thanks in advance for your help.