[support] Creating Simplest Instructions for Updating Single-Site D5 Site -- "delete sites directory"

[Greg Knaddison - GVS]

On Feb 3, 2008 5:51 PM, Shai Gluskin <shai at content2zero.com> wrote:
> I'm trying to figure out the simplest instructions possible for someone
> doing a point release upgrade on D5 (e.g. 5.6 - 5.7) who will not be doing
> it from CVS. (I couldn't find it in the handbook a page which specifically
> describes point release upgrades, I guess I missed it?)

There is a page for "big" upgrades and it's basically the same for
point releases: http://drupal.org/upgrade/

> My question is, Is it appropriate to recommend to someone performing a site
> upgrade that they should just delete the sites directory from the fresh
> distro they downloaded?
>
> So the entire instructions would be.
>
> 1. back-up db
> 2. back up drupal directory
> 3. download tar ball
> 4. Untar tar ball
> 5. delete sites directory from fresh untarred drupal directory
>  6. Move all files and folders over to drupal directory on your site.
> 7. When FTP client says "okay to overwrite" say "yes" for all.
>
> Let me know if this is correct.

That's pretty similar to how I often do it (I do upgrades on so many
sites it's not funny, so sometimes I use this, sometimes I use other
methods).

They may also need to visit update.php

A slightly safer way to do it is to add a step 2.5 "remove all files
on the server except for the 'files' directory and the 'sites'
directory and anything else you may have added." The reason that's
safer is that there is a chance that a new release removes some
insecure files from the server which your process wouldn't capture.

I also feel it's important to read the release notes for the new
release (e.g. Drupal5.2 required people to edit or replace their
settings.php which wouldn't be covered in your instructions and is
probably more information than most people need to see
http://drupal.org/drupal-5.2 for details).

I'd suggest using SCP (perhaps via FileZilla) instead of FTP.  FTP is
just not safe enough any more.

While the goal of "simplest upgrade instructions" is a good one, there
are so many "but if X happened then you should also know Y" that it
makes it really hard to do.

Thanks,
Greg

-- 
Greg Knaddison
Denver, CO | http://knaddison.com
World Spanish Tour | http://wanderlusting.org/user/greg