By jacobson on

After working with Drupal for about a month, I've made the commitment to implement it for my sites. Drupal is a terrific community effort. One of my struggles, however, is with how to maintain my Drupal code. I would appreciate guidance on addressing these challenges:

  • How to know when Drupal core or a module has been updated?
  • How to upgrade to new code while preserving the ability to rollback?

Has there ever been consideration of using some kind of install technology with Drupal and modules (e.g., rpm)?

Thanks.

⋅ Categories: Drupal 4.7.x

Comments

alexmc’s picture

alexmc commented

> How to know when Drupal core or a module has been updated?

I believe you can get an RSS feed of the main Drupal Module page. You may find this tells you what you need to know. However it wont tell you all the little CVS updates - but then you dont want to be running a production site from CVS.

If you wish to roll back then
a) Keep a backup copy of your code
b) keep a bakcup copy of your database.

As for RPM or yum I dont believe that such tools know about updating databases so they wont really help you very much.

I dont actually find doing it manually very hard - what aspect of it are you having trouble with?

jacobson’s picture

jacobson commented

My biggest problem is with how to take a new tar ball and copy it over an existing Drupal installation updating only newer files and making sure that I have a backup up everything that existed before I apply the new tarball. RPM and YUM pretty much do that for me, but I'm not an advocate of either. Just want to have a low friction way of staying updated.

HAJ

grcm’s picture

grcm commented

We maintain all of our Drupal code in a subversion repository. When there is a new version of Drupal, we can see exactly what has changed between the versions and what may conflict with our customisations.

Use the RSS feed for major security problems, but don't bother upgrading otherwise unless there is a real need. You don't need to be running the very latest bleeding edge version unless you need certain new functionality or there is an exploit risk.

-- Version control your Drupal with The File High Club

jacobson’s picture

jacobson commented

I need to know about updates and what they are in order to make that decision.

HAJ

greggles’s picture

greggles
he/him
Primary language English
Location Denver, Colorado, USA
commented

The release notes will tell you what has changed.

Or you can look at the cvs patch list: http://lists.drupal.org/listinfo/drupal-cvs

Regards,
Greg

--
Knaddison Family Blog

--
Morris Animal Foundation

sepeck’s picture

sepeck commented

Sign up fo rthe security mail list and the newsetter

For modules you care about, you can subecribe to the cvs messages to track them. In your menu (top right) click projects, then issue's, then subscribe. This will send cvs messages for the projects you are interested in to your mailbox.

As to Drupal versions, check the front page of Drupal.org periodically. All new releases are announced there in a sticky post (Grey box) and if it is a security release, then you get an email.

Backups and test sites (see my sig link).

Yes, 4.7 has module installer capability, whether contrib modules will make effective use of this is yet to be seen. There is a Debian installer but it is 4.5. Frankly it is not as effective or easy then then current method IMHO.

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide -|- Black Mountain

-Steven Peck
---------
Test site, always start with a test site.
Drupal Best Practices Guide