Hi List,

We are currently working on getting a Drupal site live on Debian.
I was wondering what the best way would be to do that:

I have problems or issues with three scenarios.

1. use the apt packages in Stable
I got answer from the package manager that only security issues are updated. That is nice, but what about custom modules? Could they ever need non-security related stuff for them to be upgradeable?
What I mean is, suppose we do apt-get upgrade drupal6, the version numbers don't reflect the current drupal version, probably because only the security related stuff is included. Could that be a problem for a module to get updated?

2. use the apt packages in Backports
Are these blindly compiled/created packages to deliver the latest versions on Stable? That would mean in a way you run a testing (at best) package on stable. I didn't immediately find a policy on that website regarding how well these are tested before release or if they get a "dry run" period.

3. manually install and update
A big disadvantage here is losing the comfort of apt-get update/upgrade, although I have the impression the admin pages take a lot of the work out of that job. Also keeping Drush up to date may be a drag?

Any thoughts on this would be most welcome.

kind regards,
peter

Comments

steffenr’s picture

I would suggest to use drush instead of the apt-get installer, cause the apt installer relies on repositories cared by debian team / other folks ;).. By using drush u have a "more direct connection" to drupal servers..

Just have a look at the modules page:
http://drupal.org/project/drush
http://drush.ws/
and not to forget http://drupal.org/project/drush_make ( it really rocks.. )

Updating drupal with the help of drush is very easy - it also takes care of your custom modules and helps save a lot of time while managing your drupal installations..

To get a better understanding you should have a look at this screencasts:
http://civicactions.com/blog/2009/jun/10/drush_20_released_screencast_1_...

The only thing you really need on your server is shell access ;)

SteffenR