I am looking for suggestions for the "best" way (spesific modules) to upgrade the installation and install new modules and themes.

In my case security is not important (I can let Drupal write directly to the filesystem)
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This is a staging environment where I can take chances, also it is a virtual server where I have quite good control of the installation.

Comments

gaurav8184’s picture

Upgrading Drupal is quite easy. There are no specific modules which helps in upgrade process. But here is way how to upgrade:

Steps (From Drupal 5 to Drupal 6):

1. First of all, download the drupal to your local server.

2. Disable all contributed modules.

3. Now, download the latest Drupal, extract in one folder. Copy all the files and replace your old drupal source files with this one.

4. Before replacing "settings.php" have its backup so you can have database settings. Once replaced, change the settings.php configuration to have database settings as were in your back up settings.php file.

5. Now, run the update.php, to upgrade the database. Once successfully complete, upgrade is done. Now you can login and replace contributed modules with newer version.

Steps (From Drupal 6.x to Drupal 6.x latest version)

1. Just replace the modules directory which comes with Drupal as core and run the update.php to upgrade the database. Done.

Regards,
Gaurav Panchal
3 Steps Ahead Technology
http://www.3sat.co.in

Olav007’s picture

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alanpage’s picture

Check out the drush module (drupal.org/project/drush), which does exactly what you want from the Unix/Linux command line. It can install, upgrade, enable, and disable modules and themes.

The best part is that it will fetch the code from the main code repository and put it in the right place on your server. You'll never have to do the download-decompress-upload dance ever again, because you just use one-line commands to use it:

$ drush dl cck         <-- Download the CCK module
$ drush enable cck     <-- Enable the CCK module

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Olav007’s picture

I agree - actually I have used it for a while, and came back here to modify my answer.
(Though it doesnt do Drupal core, but I guess it has ot be done manually anyway)

alanpage’s picture

Never do anything manually, if you can get the computer to do it!

Use CVS to download and install the Drupal core and the drush module, so that you can then use drush for every other module. Issue the CVS commands below from the parent directory of where they'll be installed:

[web_root parent directory] $ cvs -z6 -d:pserver:anonymous:anonymous@cvs.drupal.org:/cvs/drupal co -r DRUPAL-6-15 -d [install_directory] drupal
[modules directory] $ cvs -z6 -d:pserver:anonymous:anonymous@cvs.drupal.org:/cvs/drupal-contrib checkout -d drush contributions/modules/drush

See the CVS introduction page for an overview: http://drupal.org/handbook/cvs/introduction
And then for the core command explanation: http://drupal.org/node/320
And for the contributed modules explanation: http://drupal.org/node/321

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alanpage’s picture

The second command above has been changed in the latest version of Drush. The "enable" command is now "pm-enable" (or "en" for short):

$ drush en cck     <-- Enable the CCK module

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