Whining about module updates

Posted by marcrocs on October 22, 2009 at 4:32am

I just want to openly whine about how many module updates have come out in the past few weeks. I'm up to 6 drupal sites now and it seems even as I install updates new ones are released soon as I go back to check my update status.

Don't get me wrong, I love the fact that this community is so "on", I love Drupal and the community who builds it.

I've seen it posted elsewhere, requests for a module that would make the process of updating modules easier. Auto updating seems scary as some modules need testing on test site before hand... but it sure would be nice.

Comments

That's life

Posted by dddave on October 22, 2009 at 6:35am

You can try to use drush to make updating easier.

And don't forget that

Posted by ScoutBaker on October 22, 2009 at 8:52am

And don't forget that frequent updates/releases is always listed as one of the strengths of open source software.

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yep, to reiterate comments

Posted by arh1 on October 22, 2009 at 2:37pm

yep, to reiterate comments above, keep in mind that the security audits that prompt so many module updates are a real strength of this community.

but of course it does mean a lot of ongoing work. if you're finding this daunting, you should really look into drush and/or revision control systems to manage your sites. personally, i deploy Drupal from CVS, and in turn manage all of those files in my own Subversion repository. that process is a bit clunky, though. i'm moving toward deploying Drupal via drush, and eventually moving to a distributed revision control system like Git.

good luck!

get e-mails when there are updates

Posted by Chris Charlton on October 22, 2009 at 5:21pm

The Update Status module (in Drupal 6) can e-mail you when an update is needed. It's under the Update Status settings tab.

If you are comfortable with command-line (terminal) then you should look at Drush to eliminate the need to FTP module updates.

Also, be thankful the modules don't update themselves as I've seen things break ugly when robots do that.

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Thanks

Posted by marcrocs on October 24, 2009 at 7:14am

Thanks for comments.

Yeah I realize the strength of this community is with frequent updates. Last year I spent a good month testing out different CMS options and drupal is the best, no doubt. Maybe not the easiest though :(

Drush. I'm not a fan of command prompt but looks like I'm gonna have to get into again or "a revision control system".

I just moved all my sites from shared hosts to a Virtual Dedicated Server, with WHM and cPanel.

I got my main Drupal Community site which is getting me work building out drupal sites for my users own websites, many of them are stuck waiting on a "web guy" to change any piece of content. One I've done already and another two have in que to build are paying me to use my server. I'm promising to do "security updates" for them. $100 (aprox) a year ain't much profit for hosting but I've almost got my VDS paid for. If I continue down this path not only will I be at a decent income but I can consider getting a dedicated server :)

Updating modules from a single place for all sites on my server via Drush looks like the solution I need :)

Now I've just got to do a pile more ready and maybe higher out some help to double check what I've got going on :)

Thanks again
Marc

--- --- ----- ----- --- ---
The music business is a cruel and shallow money trench, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free, and good men die like dogs. There's also a negative side

I'm getting to the stage

Posted by cantthinkofanickname on October 24, 2009 at 10:46am

I'm getting to the stage where due to a number of sites the logistics of updating is becoming cumbersome. I am wondering if any method is slicker or more efficient than any other. Can I use Drush (don't know a lot about this) regardless of my hosts configuration?

Keeping the number of modules down helps to avoid security updates and I always KISS before I consider a new module.

If a module upgrade is necessary it is first best to check that the site is clean. I always go through all the menus on my site just in case a hack has caused problems then if some thing has broken do a restore first, then the updates. Maybe it's best to combine any updates with a complete restore from a known clean version. Still, I'll stop rambling now, comments welcome.

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Thanks for your time.

I understand the pain - or

Posted by dman on October 24, 2009 at 12:10pm

I understand the pain - or perceived pain.
Every time you look there is an update to do. But in real terms it's just not a big deal. The worst bit is the update manager constantly bugging you about it when it's not really a huge deal.
So I turn it off or ignore it and sometimes try to update whenever I can be bothered.

Yeah it's an OSS blessing/curse. To compare it with my Ubuntu box, I could do the suggested updates every damn week, but every few months is just the same.

For live sites, the only way I'm comfortable with keeping up-to-date now is running CVS-stable checkouts of any contrib modules ... and using drush prolifically.
drush is not that hard and is a huge win. You just gotta stop being scared of typing text in the command line.

It's easy to look at the number of update alerts as a drawback or even a weakness of constantly updated code. It's hard to let go of that mindset. (I started to hate the PicLens/CoolIris plugin for mostly that reason)
But once you learn to take the upgrade alerts as suggestions for your information, then it's just a sign of an active community.

Turn off alerts, and do your updates yearly :-)
Really, that's not going to hurt too bad. As long as you also have a good backup scheme in place. Which you should.

_{.dan. is the New Zealand Drupal Developer working on Government Web Standards}

_

Posted by WorldFallz on October 24, 2009 at 2:31pm

You just gotta stop being scared of typing text in the command line.

AMEN!

Seriously, if you're running any more than 1 or 2 sites, hobby or professional, you really need to make the command line your friend. Managing sites with drush and cvs makes maintenance updates nearly trivial.

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If you find my assistance useful, please pay it forward to your fellow drupalers.}

personally, i would not

Posted by arh1 on October 26, 2009 at 2:15pm

personally, i would not recommend waiting a year to apply contrib updates :) but you can look very selectively at the updates: is it a security update, or a feature addition/fix? is the security update relevant to how you use the module? my typical workflow is to wait until there's a relevant security fix for a given site, then go through and update all contrib modules to their latest stable versions.

but i wanted to add that i make this point very clear to clients up front (yes, this is the stuff of flame wars, which is not my intention :) ): they should expect ongoing maintenance, and be prepared to pay for it. for me, i let them know that some sort of maintenance retainer is *required*. the retainer need not be with me (one of the biggest strengths of the Drupal community -- and any free and open source community -- is that the client is not locked in to any one vendor), but they'd better count on investing the ongoing time/energy/money to keep their site updated.