If I

delete from logging where log_user_text="";
delete from actor where actor_name = 'Redirect fixer';
delete from logging where log_user_text="";
delete from revision where rev_user_text = 'Redirect fixer';

and re-run maintenance/migrateActors.php then I still get the same result.

In reply to @hexmode:matrix.org
yep, I'm sticking with User::createUser. I used to be able to do this with user->load(), I think, but that doesn't work now.

get into a shell

I tried with php ./maintenance/shell.php but everything I do with the shell just returns an error.

print wfMessage("Recentchanges")->plain();
PHP Error:  syntax error, unexpected '.', expecting ',' or ';' in Psy Shell code on line 1

In reply to @freephile:matrix.org

get into a shell

I tried with php ./maintenance/shell.php but everything I do with the shell just returns an error.

print wfMessage("Recentchanges")->plain();
PHP Error:  syntax error, unexpected '.', expecting ',' or ';' in Psy Shell code on line 1

Thanks nikerabbit . That worked

php ./maintenance/eval.php
User::createNew( 'Redirect fixer', [ 'id' => 7425 ] )
Ctrl + c
mysql wiki_en -e 'select * from user where user_id = 7425;'

In reply to @tgr:matrix.org
Manual user creation will mess up all kinds of internal state, like site statistics.

tgr: thanks for the help. I'm seeing two slightly different users in the db which is why, I think I had the code working in a deferred update (before) instead of immediately (like I was trying to do now). Probably the account was being created in the proper way before and I only glued it to the SSO afterward in the deferred update.

But, I didn't have that documented, so when I looked at it now, it looked all confusing and smelly. TY for the pointers.