See also T352914: Investigate: Which extensions save IP addresses.
As part of the efforts to replace IP actors with temporary users, we should only store IP addresses in the CheckUser tables.
This is to investigate:
| Where IP addresses are saved | What they're used for | What we should do |
|---|---|---|
| recentchanges.rc_ip, if $wgPutIPInRC is true. This is the case in WMF production, including for registered users. (Verified by querying the DB.) | Was originally used instead of CheckUser but not any more. Rows are purged after $wgRCMaxAge, which is 30 days in WMF production. | Check with Legal whether this is OK. Check if we technically need this still. |
| ip_changes table | Only for IP actors. Used to make querying IP ranges more efficient. Won't be written to for temp account actors. | No action needed. |
| user_newtalk.user_ip | Only for IP actors. Won't be written to for temp accounts. | No action needed. |
| actor.actor_name | Only for IP actors. IP won't be recorded for temp accounts. | No action needed. |
| ipblocks table | Which IP addresses are blocked. This is expected to stay the same: IP addresses are blocked; blocked IP addresses are visible to everyone; IP blocks linked to user account blocks are autoblocks; autoblock IP targets are hidden from everyone in the UI; autoblock IP targets are stored in the ipblocks table, and a reference to the user block they originate from is stored, so the IP can be linked to the user via the ipblocks table; autoblocks only last for as long as $wgAutoblockExpiry, which is 1 day in WMF production. | Check with Legal whether this is OK. |
Next steps