ARCHIVE: Introduction to upgrading
A major release of Drupal introduces new features. If you are not running the latest major version then you will need to upgrade in order to take advantage of these features.
Summary of upgrade steps
Upgrading your Drupal site involves af number of steps, which are described in more detail on the other pages of this section of the handbook:
- Backup your existing site and database.
- Place the site in "off-line" mode (Administer >> Site configuration >> Site maintenance).
- Download and unzip the new Drupal files, and carefully review the information and instructions available in the file UPGRADE.txt (located in the root of your installation directory).
- Switch your site's theme to a default theme (Garland or Bluemarine), and disable all contributed or customized modules.
- Upload the new Drupal files to your server.
- Be aware that if you browse to your site at this point in the process you will see the standard installation script. Since you are only upgrading you should NOT run this script. If you run the installation script it will likely produce errors.
- NOTE: If you are upgrading to a new major version (e.g. 5.x to 6.x), it is recommended that you remove the old version's code and modules completely before uploading the new version's code.
- Run the update.php script, which will update your database.
- Re-enable your contributed modules and run update.php
- Re-enable your theme and if necessary run update.php
However, to make your update run as smoothly as possible, there are various preparations that experienced Drupal users do to guarantee the least frustrating upgrade and minimal interruption to their users. These best practices are represented in this full tutorial along with the basic steps.
NOTE: Before deciding to perform a major upgrade ( e.g. 5.7 to 6.x), you should check to see if the contributed modules you rely on have a compatible version for your planned Drupal upgrade. Old versions of modules will not run on an upgraded version of Drupal (e.g 5.7 modules do not work on a Drupal 6.x site). However, if you are only upgrading from one minor version of Drupal to another (e.g. 6.12 to 6.15), your modules should still continue to work.
Site online message
It would be truly excellent if update.php?op=results contained a link to the site maintenance page.
Miriam
Otaki, New Zealand
&
with a destination back to update.php >=)
Scott Rigby
http://basekamp.com
http://PlausibleArtworlds.org
update.php
The links in the update.php need to be clear.
The update.php file needs links to more hints as to what they mean, on the overview page.
Plus, there should be a set of the common operations bundled together in a menu when updating.
It would be nice to know that there is a faq on common errors or upgrade issues too.
Not much to ask really, that and a crate of free beer would be really nice.
Thank you :-P
It's really that simple!
Disable all my modules, then re-enable them? This is a tedious and error-prone process. Are their any plans to more thoroughly automate upgrading? Having to go through this every time a new security exploit is released is making me want to stab my eyes out with the corner of my keyboard.
This article is about
This article is about upgrading major drupal versions, e.g. Drupal 4.7.x to 5.x, 5.x to 6.x, 6.x to 7.x, 5.x to 7.x.
It is not recommended you disable all your modules when you update for a security release (aka minor release), e.g. 6.14 to 6.15, 6.0 to 6.15, 5.19 to 5.20.
Bevan/
I'm looking at the article and in its present form you're wrong.
The article as it currently stands is clearly not only only about upgrading major drupal versions.
If what you've said is correct, and the modules don't need to be disabled/re-enabled for minor releases then this is a major piece of information which should be put into the instructions on this page.
I've been working with Drupal now for half a year and I'm still very unclear on where and when a person is supposed to disable, uninstall, reinstall, run update.php, backup the database, backup the website, take video snapshots of your computer screen, print out your website's code and stow it in a swiss bank's safe deposit box, et.al. It's frustrating to say the least.
Drush
Drush (http://drupal.org/project/drush) can help a lot with those suicidal feelings. ;)
Drush is a PHP script that lets you perform operations on a Drupal site from the command line. It really takes the pain out of managing modules during both types of upgrade, in addition to a bunch of other stuff.
With it you can download, enable, and disable modules, perform database upgrades, and more -- with a few shell commands.
So... put down the sharp objects ... and pick up Drush!
Yes, but you can't update
Yes, but you can't update drupal core using drush, which is the frustrating part.
Now you can
Now you can update core with Drush. Go check it out, it's time saving.
Alejandro Prieto
At last!
I saw your comment so I tried it and was still getting this:
NOTE: A code update for the Drupal core is available.Drupal itself can't yet be updated by this tool. Please update Drupal manually.
Then I noticed I was still running the beta version of Drush 3.0. Updated it to the 3.0 non-beta and now I can update core. Exciting! Thanks for the tip.
Genny Engel
Incorrect password
When upload the files of drupal 6. x by FTP, some files could not be replaced. The following message appears:
http://i85.servimg.com/u/f85/12/25/17/96/captur10.png
How i can solve that problem?
Carlos
Followed instructions, cannot log back in.. Help!
Followed steps 1) and 2) above. Then I inadvertently went out of the site.
Now I cannot log back in.
How does one log in when the site is shown as being down for maintenance???
You're screwed
Unfortunately there's no way out of this situation. It's a but in Drupal and you'll have to rebuild your site again from scratch....just joking. Simply access the 'user' page via the URL www.example.com/user. From here you'll be able to log in again. That one caught me out before too.
/user
Just type in /user after you URL
UPDATE
Never mind, too slow for the joke...
- V
/user
Well it doesn't work for me...
It just returns to the maintenance-message...
Haven't created any users yet, could that be the problem?
Isn't there a address directly to the admin-login?
Mike
login with the first user
Then u can login with the first user (which u created at drupal installation)
If you are logged on and
If you are logged on and drupal is taking you to the maintenance screen, type yourwebsite.com/admin to get to the administration page.
www.airsoftpx.com - You're #1 source for airsoft guns
had this issue
the poster obviously is not a moron and knows that ?q=user or /user should take to login. Sometimes after updates drupal won't login though. Usually due to a stuck session cookie, literally. So, what needs to be done is login into your DB, i use phpmyadmin. SO, once logged in change active user in sessions to your admin user = usually 1. (you can find appropriate sql syntax.. i cant recall but its along the lines of UPDATE sessions ... SET active user bla bla to 1) From there you will be logged in. Operate quickly and flush all caches.. and rebuild permissions... log out. Now you should be able to log back in
What is your final answer
So what is the final decision. When upgrading between minor revisions say 6.15 to 6.16 do I need to disable all non core modules or not ?
I'd be keen for this to be
I'd be keen for this to be cleared up as well
NO! You don't need to disable
NO! You don't need to disable anything when doing minor updates (like 6.15 to 6.16). Just replace the core files, and run update.php (as your site super-admin - uid 1)
Taniwha Solutions- Drupal Consulting and Implementation. Site design and construction, module development, customization, etc.
Drupal core won't update?
I was using 6.15 and uploaded 6.16 (just to be sure I check CHANGELOG.txt for '6.16'), then ran update.php and it still says I need to update. I've turned off all modules and caching, cleared cache, etc. and ran update a few times. Still tells me to upgrade to 6.16. Any ideas?
—Matt
update problem
I sit on the same boat. I was trying to update brand new 6.12 to 6.16. I installed Drupal 6.12 using package command apt-get within Ubutun 9.04. I turned the site offline and then run update.php without any problem but my Drupal still says I am running 6.12 and should be ugraded.
So beside running the script, do I have to update any other files??
Thank you!
Fall in love with Drupal
Same issue here, any tips?
Hi,
Just wondering if you resolved this updating issue. I had exactly the same one and I cannot resolve it yet. Lucky for me I did a backup :>)
:) Thanks for clearing it up
:) Thanks for clearing it up (I actually ended up going ahead on a test server without touching the modules and all was fine, so figured this was the case).
Is it not possible to get this info added to the official instructions then? I understand it probably is best practice to disable all modules but if it's not really necessary then there must be a lot of poor souls out there wasting a lot of their time. I notice anyone can edit this info, so should I just go ahead and add it in? Or is that bad form?