:Help:Permanent link
{{information page|H:PERL|H:PLINK|WP:PERMLINK}}
A permanent link (or permalink) is a link to a specific version of a Wikipedia page. Normal internal links always lead to the current version of a page, but the permalink leads to the text as it was at that point in time; the text does not include any edits made since. Unlike what the name suggests, the permalink does not show exactly the same page, though; only the main text is guaranteed to be retained. Certain elements still update dynamically like pictures,The most obvious differences are if images that existed at the time are subsequently deleted. They would be shown as red links, and inevitably the layout of the article would suffer. templates such as infoboxes with text and images placed in the page's right-top corner, as well as any content transcluded from other pages. In other words, the permalink displays what the article would look like today if someone reverted to the revision in question.
File:View history - Create permalink - February 2025.png
A permalink can be made by clicking '{{int:Permalink}}' in the sidebar's toolbox or by accessing a prior revision of a page from its page history tab. Both of these will display that version and the page's URL can be used as the target of the permalink.
Wikilink
oldid is the revision number in the URL of a permanent link; for example, {{Xtn|1=[https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&oldid=402359171 https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Help_desk&oldid=402359171]}}, which is thus equivalent to
The normal rules for wikilinks apply: such as regarding section names, interwiki prefixes, and pipes (as further explained in the table below). Wikilinks work in edit summaries, unlike URLs. A wikilink only works in Wikipedia, and some other wikis if it has the right interwiki prefix. Here are some examples showing how to wikilink from a Wikipedia page, to a specific version of a page. Note the oldid part of the permanent link, and write your own wikitext:
| class="wikitable" |
| Link to
! Wikitext ! Result to reader |
|---|
| any page, in any namespace in Wikipedia: |
| a section of any page at Wikipedia: Note the section title is appended to the revision ID. See {{Section link|Help:Section|Section linking}}. |
| any page in a sister project: Note the use of prefix codes wikt: for wiktionary and c: for Commons. See {{section link|Help:Interwikimedia links#Prefix codes for linking to projects}}.
| | wiktionary:scribble in July 2014 |
| a section on a sister project page: Note the use of prefix codes q: and m:.
| | Feb 2017 rev of Little Prince quotes |
| any page in any foreign Wikipedia: {{warning sign|Deprecated}}: Local interlanguage links should not be used in the article namespace. Note the use of interlanguage prefixes to link to foreign-language Wikiprojects. | | |
| the most current version of a page (not a permanent link; this is just a plain wikilink) |
See also
{{Wikipedia glossary}}
- Help:Diff
- Wikipedia:Simple diff and link guide
- {{slink|Help:Page history|Linking to a specific revision of a page}} for more details of browsing the history of Wikipedia.
- Wikipedia:Citing Wikipedia for more details on how to cite Wikipedia, for which you may need a permalink.
- Template:Oldid2, link to an old version of a page
- Template:Cross-wiki oldid, link to an old version of a page in MediaWiki, Meta-Wiki, Wikibooks, Wikimedia Foundation, Wikimedia Incubator, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, or Wiktionary
- Template:Cross-wiki language oldid, link to an old version of a page in Wikibooks, Wikinews, Wikiquote, Wikisource, Wikiversity, or Wiktionary in any language
Notes
{{reflist}}
{{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}