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Update maintenance mode message wording#12209

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dknauss:codex/trac-35530-maintenance-wording
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Update maintenance mode message wording#12209
dknauss wants to merge 1 commit into
WordPress:trunkfrom
dknauss:codex/trac-35530-maintenance-wording

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@dknauss dknauss commented Jun 18, 2026

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Trac ticket: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/35530

Summary

  • Updates the default maintenance-mode message from “Check back in a minute.” to “Check back shortly.”

Why

The default maintenance response sends Retry-After: 600, and wp_is_maintenance_mode() can continue blocking normal boot while the timestamped .maintenance lockfile is less than 10 minutes old. In normal successful updates the interruption is usually much shorter, but in common interrupted-update cases “in a minute” can be objectively misleading.

“Shortly” keeps the message concise without promising a specific duration.

Testing

  • php -l src/wp-includes/load.php

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Hi there! 👋

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@dknauss dknauss force-pushed the codex/trac-35530-maintenance-wording branch from 857f4ff to e5b29df Compare June 18, 2026 00:04
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