[lug] web site advice needed

Wed Sep 11 11:59:19 MDT 2013

sure.  i always make backups.

followups though:

1) can you *easily* make backups directly from the wordpress admin panel vs having to go out to the cmd line (assuming a non linux user is going to administer the site)?  and then easily restore them from the admin panel if something goes awry vs having a non-technical user work mysql / cmdline foo?

2) in my original post, i mentioned two different things a) backup the db and then b) backing up the wordpress directory.   you commented i think mostly on the db backup.  i imagine that wordpress update is going to unpack some set of files on top of the existing directory.   

a) so do you dup your working directory and then run the upgrade on top of that? or do you just let it rip from the control panel in wordpress?

if you do the former, i imagine that's something that an avg user isn't going to be able to do without some cmdline foo?

b) obviously if you change CORE wordpress code, it could be overwritten on an update.  but what about if you roll your own templates and or plugins.  is wordpress smart enough to not touch or overwrite those?

3) does wordpress allow simple update and upgrade of plugins from the admin panel?  if a plugin author screws up for whatever reason, will reinstalling the previous version fix db issues that may have been applied via the plugin update or do you need a db backup for that?  my guess is that answer depends on the author and or the plugin.  just wondering if the plugins have guidelines that prevent this sort of mishap from happening by requiring plugins to take care of db maintenance when upgrading and falling back.

thanks for answering quentin

>________________________________
> From: Quentin Hartman <qhartman at gmail.com>
>To: karl horlen <horlenkarl at yahoo.com>; Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List <lug at lug.boulder.co.us> 
>Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 10:34 AM
>Subject: Re: [lug] web site advice needed
> 
>
>
>Always always always make backups first. Change always implies risk. Rollback is never simple w/o a backup when you are replacing things.
>
>
>That said, I don't remember the last time I saw a Wordpress upgrade go sideways. Probably not since the 1.x days.
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>As far as plugins go, that's highly variable and will depend upon whether or not the plugin author plays by the rules. Generally speaking, if your Wordpress installation knows about the upgrade and thinks it's safe to install, it probably is.
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>Always always always make backups first. Change always implies risk.
>
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>QH
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>On Wed, Sep 11, 2013 at 10:22 AM, karl horlen <horlenkarl at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>question for current wordpress users that do updates
>>
>>
>>when i used to do drupal updates in the past (about 3 years ago probably the last one), iirc i'd go through the process of backing everything up and perhaps making a dup of the site and running the upgrade on the dup in case the update didn't go smoothly.  i think this was b/c it wasn't easy to back the update out once the it ran and changed the db.   i used wordpress a lot less but i think i did similarly.
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>>so with wordpress these days, is it TRULY as simple as go to the admin console and update OR do you / are you supposed to backup and dup your site and run the update on the backup in case of failure.  which is another way of saying if you apply an update to your production instance of wordpress and the update fails, can you SIMPLY back it out on the original instance to get back to square one or are you screwed?
>>
>>
>>when also combined with the required updates of drupal module and wordpress plugins, updating and updates to either of these cms just always seemed to be a lot more work than i wanted them to be.  iirc, wordpress plugin updating was a little better / more reliable? / less cumbersome than drupal module updates but maybe only b/c most drupal sites require more modules than wordpress does plugins.  that was my experience anyway.  
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>>note that if you only have one site, the maintenance isn't as bad but if you have to maintain a lot of them, it becomes a pita.
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>>any thoughts on how wordpress updates play with wordpress plugin updates and conflicts today greatly appreciated
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>>thanks
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>>>________________________________
>>> From: Michael J. Hammel <mjhammel at graphics-muse.org>
>>>To: lug at lug.boulder.co.us 
>>>Sent: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 9:24 AM
>>>
>>>Subject: Re: [lug] web site advice needed
>>> 
>>>
>>>
>>>On Wed, 2013-09-11 at 08:36 -0600, Quentin Hartman wrote:
>>>> It depends on how you have the permissions setup. The "normal" way
>>>> these days is to have the installation writeable by the web server
>>>> user, and it uses http via php to download the update and then
>>>> installs over itself. That in itself introduces some risk, so the
>>>> recommended practice is to have stuff locked down during the normal
>>>> run of things, then relax the permissions only when you want to
>>>> update.
>>>
>>>Interesting.  I just checked my site and it doesn't look like the old
>>>ftp requirements are there anymore.  I'll have to give the automated
>>>update a try, after making appropriate backups of course.  :-)
>>>
>>>-- 
>>>Michael J. Hammel                                    Principal Software Engineer
>>>mjhammel at graphics-muse.org                          http://graphics-muse.org
>>>------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>>>Bumper Sticker: Heart Attacks... God's revenge for eating His animal friends.
>>>
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>>>
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