Allow searching for short terms in mediawiki

When you set up mediawiki by default, you cannot search for words shorter than 4 letters. To change this, edit /etc/my.cnf.

In the section

[mysqld]

add a line

ft_min_word_len=1

Then

• restart mysql

/etc/init.d mysql restart

• recreate mediawiki's search index

mysql 
use wikidb;
REPAIR TABLE searchindex QUICK;

See also

http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:FAQ#.E2.80.A6is_a_search_for_a_short_keyword_giving_no_hits.3F