By svref on

With all the security updates coming out, it seems like one has to upgrade Drupal every week. And with the core, plus three modules, the instructions in UPDATE.txt seem really long and a little, heh, wishy washy. E.g.

1. Backup your database and Drupal directory - especially your "sites"
directory which contains your configuration file and added modules and
themes, any contributed or custom modules in your "modules" directory,
and your "files" directory which contains uploaded files. If other files
have modifications, such as .htaccess or robots.txt, those should be
backed up as well.

How the heck does one "especially" backup something? Either its backed up, or it isn't. It reminds me of the boss that tells his employee "send me three copies of that email".

Is there some way to make the upgrade process go faster, like by doing it all from the command line?

Comments

vm’s picture

vm commented

List of releases: http://drupal.org/node/3060/release
Drupal 6.14 released in September, Drupal 6.15 released in December. Certainly not every week but I digress.

especially the sites directory = because thats the most important folder that is impossible to replace by redownloading core. ie: the files folder (therefore anything uploaded through drupal) as well as your settings.php file which holds your database connection information in $db_url

upgrading/updating has been discussed in the past many many times and could have easily been found with a drupal search or a google search. I myself have answered this question many times. I'll do so again for posterity.

Some steps of mine are cautious and likley could be skipped. I prefere to err on the side of caution.
The steps that have served me well for minor to minor versions of drupal is as follows:

1) set site offline
2) clear sessions table
3) clear watchdog table
4) clear cache tables (all of theme)
5) backup database
6) backup all files and folders

7) delete all files and folders except sites folder and any file that you have altered. ie: robots.txt and .htaccess are commonly altered for multiple reasons.

8) compare default.settings.php of old install, with default.settings.php of new download
if the files have changed, add those changes to your settings.php of the old install

9) upload all files and folders from the new download of drupal to the server minus the sites folder and any files you've altered (robots.txt and .htaccess as previously mentioned in step #7)

after all files and folder are uploaded

10) login to site at yoursite.com/user
11) then run update.php : yoursite.com/update.php
12) set site to online
13) test

of note: I never do an update, regardless of how minor directly on a production site without first testing it on a test site using a backup of the database and the production files/folders.

I don't have a step by step for using a CLI but here's a google search = http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&source=hp&q=drupal+updating+from+comm...

NetButch’s picture

NetButch commented

I have followed the update.txt instructions and the instructions posted here by VM, for 6.13 --> 6.15

The update.php "looks" like it is updating, but is says on the "select updates" step --> NO updates available, and lists several older versions (6000-6051).

I pressed the "update" button anyway, and then I got "starting updates" and "remaining 0 of 0 " "100%"

then a final page saying "Updates were attempted. If you see no failures below, you may proceed happily to the administration pages. Otherwise, you may need to update your database manually. All errors have been logged." with no errors.

when I go to my module administration page all modules indicate version 6.13..... ??????

any ideas?

thanks,
Butch

vm’s picture

vm commented

where did you back up your 6.13 version of core?

if it's still within sight of your drupal install on your server, then it is likely that drupal is still using those modules.

inspect your install to ensure that a second core modules folder isn't present. Ensure that you updated core modules folder when you updated originally.

NetButch’s picture

NetButch commented

Backed up 6.13 to my hard drive, cleared my caches, sessions, and watchdog tables,
deleted all folders from my server, then uploaded the new folders.

is this a database problem or file problem? my root folder on the server has only the new folders and my original "sites" folder.

I will dig around the database and see if there is something "leftover" or duplicated.

Best,
Butch

hershel’s picture

hershel commented

> is this a database problem or file problem?

Sounds definitely like a file issue.

You made certain that after you deleted all files, they were definitely gone? and browsing to your site gave a big fat ugly 404 not found error?

NetButch’s picture

NetButch commented

Okay so now I am truly baffled. I deleted all the files in my www folder... and then went to the website and .... Viola, its still there. WTH? I am obviously missing a simple "delete" operation here to clear something.. but I have looked in my directory tree and there is nothing, I have cleared the database cache.. ack!. I have cleared my browser history and used IE, FireFox, and Opera, all show the site. ????

any help is still very much appreciated.

Thanks,
butch

hershel’s picture

hershel commented

I would contact your host support. Seems that you are not deleting files from the correct location or that they are not actually being deleted. Either way, this is an issue your host should be able to assist with.

NetButch’s picture

NetButch commented

will do. and I will report back. I host with 1and1 currently.. I see you have "drupal hosting" in your signature, perhaps I will look at your services and rates and see about switching.

Thanks.
Butch

NetButch’s picture

NetButch commented

Okay, not that I actually want to tell everyone WHY i was having this problem.. but I did finally fix it. SO maybe I am not the only MORON on the planet who is trying to upgrade drupal, thus.. here is my fix.

Make sure you are logged into the CORRECT FTP location. I have two sites for the same content, one is for development/changes/testing new ideas/ etc.. and the other is the production site.. and ... they are hosted in two completely different locations... so ..

Thats right folks.. I was deleted/updating the test site, but pointing my web browser to the production site.. thus.. I never saw the changes..

LAUGH OUT LOUD.. yes .... there are still complete morons trying to run Drupal sites..

Well.. thank you VM and HershelSR (got your Gmail, so you may hear from me again.)

VM --> your instructions worked PERFECTLY when I was actually looking at and file transferring to the same sight.. GO FIGURE.

Thanks again, and best to all,
Butch

hershel’s picture

hershel commented

> How the heck does one "especially" backup something?

Some items are more important than others to backup, that's all. If you failed to backup your Drupal core files, you could (obviously) fetch a fresh copy from this site.

> Is there some way to make the upgrade process go faster, like by doing it all from the command line?

If you know how to use CLI, then yes, that will probably be faster for the majority of the process. I wouldn't recommend running update.php from CLI however. :)