If you can satisfy two reasonable requirements, upgrading WordPress can be ridiculously easy using Subversion. If you’ve ever attempted to manually upgrade WordPress using the “Three Step Upgrade,” you know how much of a pain it can be. Three steps is false advertisement. It’s more like a gazillion. ;)
The two requirements?
- You need command-line (shell) access to the web server with WordPress installed.
- Your web server needs to have a Subversion client installed.
I venture most web hosts will support both requirements (I host with Site5 and they do).
Assuming you meet the requirements, you just need a single command.
svn sw http://svn.automattic.com/tags/2.6/ .
Just replace 2.6 with the current stable version. It’s like magic. Updating WordPress went from a tedious, hour long task to a walk in the park.
More specific instructions can be found in the WordPress Codex.
UPDATE (08-28-2008): I should mention the above command works out-of-the-box only if you’ve already got your WordPress install setup with Subversion. If you initially installed WordPress without using Subversion, please follow these instructions to get Subversion working with your existing installation. Once you do that, you will be able to use the above command for future updates.
2 replies on “How to upgrade WordPress in less than a minute”
Not quite. ;) TortoiseSVN is a Windows SVN client and is _not_ what you need.
The easiest way to check the requirements is to try and log into ASO using an SSH client like “Putty”:http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/.
Use the same username/password you would use to access ASO via FTP.
If you are able to log in, that meets Requirement #1. Now type “svn help” (without the quotes) and hit enter. If something happens (i.e. you don’t get a “command not found” error), then that means you’ve met Requirement #2.
You can proceed with the command listed above. If not, it wouldn’t hurt to email ASO and ask if it can be installed. You may even need to email them to enable SSH access. Some hosts make you jump through that hurdle.
Let me know if you’re still confused. ;)
Okay, so you have to install Tortoisesvn on your computer first, then create a repository on ASO in Subversion then in the SSH add the command line? Kinda confused…