[development] disable contribs on updates. or not: chicken egg;

[Khalid B]

Here is what I do. Not saying it is the best way, or even the right way, but ...

I first make sure that I have all the contrib modules that I am using, or weed
out some of them (some are not really used much, not that important, ..etc).

Then, I start with a copy of the file directory from the live site,
and a database
dump. I install them on a test server, then do the upgrade. I do not
disable the
add on modules during an upgrade. I write down the problems I faced, and
what workarounds I had to do (e.g. manually do an ALTER, or CREATE TABLE).

I test the site to see if everything is working.

Then, the above is repeated on the live sites.

Until last summer, I used multisite with one database with prefixes. This
dictated that upgrades have to be done in fast for all sites, which is sometimes
inconvenient.

Since then, I separated the sites each in its own vhost and own database, so
they are  totally separate. This means I can upgrade the most important site
on a weekend, the next one a week later, ..etc. Less time pressure ...