[development] Incremental upgrades

[Cog Rusty]

On 7/28/07, Cog Rusty <cog.rusty at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 7/27/07, Cog Rusty <cog.rusty at gmail.com> wrote:
> > On 7/27/07, Gabor Hojtsy <gabor at hojtsy.hu> wrote:
> > > Cog Rusty wrote:
> > > >> Well, update.php does not include older updates, so if one has an older
> > > >> 4.x site (let's say 4.5 or 4.4), he cannot upgrade directly, but first
> > > >> go to an intermediate version. I have not looked into it, but update.php
> > > >> might have problems, or would not inform the user, if he has such an old
> > > >> system that has no updates in the actual update.php/update.inc/*.install
> > > >> files code.
> > > >
> > > > The question remains, because how would it help to upgrade such an old
> > > > version first to 5.1 and not to 5.2?
> > > >
> > > > An advice which seemed safe so far was
> > > > (a) never skip major versions
> > > > (b) when stepping to the next major version use its latest minor
> > > > version, assuming that it would be more "bug-fixed"
> > >
> > > Absolutely agreed.
> > >
> > > > People seem to have been doing that successfully. So, it surprised me
> > > > to see a suggestion to go first to the second-newest minor version
> > > > every time..
> > >
> > > IMHO these are copy-pastes, and it is a good idea to discuss them.
> >
> >
> > When I first saw in the previous announcement of 5.1+4.7.6 the
> > suggestion to go to 5.0 first, I also thought that it was an oversight
> > with a copy/paste. But then I noticed in the announcement of 5.2+4.7.7
> > that it was updated to "go to 5.1 first" and I wondered if there was a
> > reason.
>
>
> The next sentence in the "Upgrading" section of the announcement:also
> has a problem, I think:
>
> http://drupal.org/drupal-5.2
> quote:"If you are upgrading from Drupal 4.6.x or below, please consult
> the relevant release announcements."
>
> I don't understand. We are now reading the 5.2+4.7.7 announcement.
> Which are the "relevant release announcements" for upgrading from
> 4.6.x? (And if there is such a thing, where).


To understand these upgrade instructions I tried to trace their origin
(also looking for points where utility becomes ritual). Two old
announcements by Dries seem relevant, 4.5.0 and 4.5.2.

>From 4.5.0
quote: "For the most trouble free transition, it is recommended that
you first upgrade existing installations to Drupal 4.4 and only then
to Drupal 4.5."

No problem here, these are major versions.

>From 4.5.2
quote: "For the most trouble free transition from an existing
installation, it is recommended that you first upgrade to Drupal 4.5.0
or Drupal 4.5.1"

This "or" makes things clearer: "Don't trust this new release *yet*
with major version upgrades." I guess this is what has been carried
over to the recent announcement. Are there still good reasons for this
caution? Because I see many people in the forum for whom an additional
upload and minor update is also a real risk.

>From 4.5.2 again
quote: "If you are upgrading from Drupal 4.4.x or below, please
consult the Drupal 4.5.0 release announcement [a link] for more
information."

This seems to mean: "If you are upgrading from an older major version
(4.4.x), then consult the first release announcement of this major
version (4.5.0) because you will find more upgrade info there."

So, the "relevant announcements" in our case should be 5.0, 4.7.0,
4.6.0,... (provided that there are actually more upgrade information
there)