[support] FW: Upgrading Drupal from 5.19 to 6.13

[David Christensen]

Earnie Boyd wrote:

> What steps did you did b4 the update.php?

Thank you for replying.  :-)


The short answer is, "I follow UPGRADE.txt as best I can".


Unfortunately, step 6 is vague:

    Remove all old files and directories from the Drupal installation
    directory.

I've never been certain as to which files and directories to remove.  So
when I've tried to follow the procedure to the letter, I've had to
guess.  :-O


I've run into issues both when attempting to upgrade/ update (broken
site, locked out, operator error, etc.) and also when recovering from a
failed upgrade/ update (notably restoring database images taken when
Drupal was in offline mode).  So, I've made adjustments to the procedure
both to improve my chances of success and to simplify recovery should I
fail:

- Steps 1, 2, 3, and 14 -- I login with user ID 1 (step 2), take the
site off-line by adding the following lines to .htaccess (instead of
step 3):

    Order Allow,Deny
    Allow from 127.0.0.1/255.0.0.0
    Allow from w.x.y.z/255.255.255.255

take backup/ archive images (files and database) (step 1), upgrade/
update per steps 4-13, take another set of backup/ archive images, and
put the site online by commenting out the above lines (instead of step
14).

- Steps 6 and 7 -- my Apache DocumentRoot is a symbolic link which
points to my current Drupal installation directory.  Rather than hacking
up my old Drupal installation directory, I unpack the Drupal 6.13
tarball into a new Drupal installation directory, add the above lines to
.htaccess, and change the symbolic link.


The modified procedure seems to have worked for minor revision upgrades/
updates (e.g. 5.x -> 5.19).


I only recently read about uninstalling Drupal modules via the UI.  In
the past, I thought I had "uninstalled" several modules by disabling
them via Administer -> Site Building -> Modules -> List and deleting
their files.  So, there may be (database?) leftovers from past modules
that are causing problems now.  I don't know how to check for this
condition.  I assume the fix would be to install the modules again and
uninstall them properly (?).


David