Advnaced users of WordPress may be familiar with WordPress' Subversion (SVN) access. SVN allows the WordPress developers to work on code and aggregate the changes in a single location so that the software can be deployed. The most fresh version of WordPress is always available via SVN.
Unfortunately for users who have pre-configured their servers to use the latest stable version of the code, the trunk (typically the part of the SVN repository containing the latest development) is no longer the last stable version.
To get the latest 1.5 code, you'll need to run:
svn export http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/branches/1.5/ {wpdirectory}
Where {wpdirectory} is the directory on the server that houses your WordPress install. Usually this command is run via SSH. You can save this in a shell script to obviate remembering the URL.
You can also get the current 1.5 branch code via Tortoise SVN by using the Switch command on the context menu. Set the repo to http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/branches/1.5/and your source should automatically be updated to the 1.5.1.3 (latest) version.
Note that there is currently (as of this writing) not a tag for 1.5.1.3 in the SVN repo.
If you have no idea what I'm talking about, just go over to WordPress.org, download the zip file for version 1.5.1.3, and upload the files contained therein to your WordPress directory however you normally do so.
This version does not include any new features but does address some security concerns that could leave your site vulnerable to malicious hackers. You should probably upgrade as soon as you can.
This is great information. Unfortunately my webhost doesn't allow SSH access. I have to do everything via cPanel. Any idea how I can execute this viz cPanel?
Thanks.
Very topical... I had just complained about the lack of the 1.5.1.3 tag and saw this. The 1.5 branch technique didn't occur to me. Thanks, Owen!
Dave, try setting it up as a cronjob. It may take some trial and error (and probably the creation of a script) but it should work as such.
Good luck.
-drmike
I tried a cron job with the command that was given in the post but it didn't work. I don't think my server has svn. Do I need to install it? If so then whant version should I be using?
By the way, the response I get is as follows:
/bin/sh: line 1: svn: command not found
You probably don't have svn on your server, in which case, you wouldn't be able to permorm an update this way.
I should reiterate that unless you know what you're doing, you probably shouldn't be doing this anyway. The best way for common users to keep up to date is to use the download available from http://wordpress.org/download/ and update via FTP or whatever method they usually use.
I'm not implying that anyone doesn't know what they're doing, but if downloading, unzipping, and using FTP seems easier than learning how to use SSH and SVN, then you should probably do that.
I know the simple FTP and unzip route. I'd like to learn the SVN route and see if I can implement it. I'm a little familiar with SVN since we use it at work (I'm a QA engineer in a software development unit). I was not involved in the original setup of SVN so I'm a bit cloudy on that angle. (I knew enough to know what the command line meant even though that's the only thing I read in the post on my first pass.)
Well, getting SVN on the server isn't too hard if you're only after the client. The Apache modules are a little more trouble (at least they were for me) to compile.
Whether you are building client or server, you can get the SVN source from here. You might also be able to update your server with yum, up2date, or apt-get, but I'm not as versed with those tools as with just using ./configure and ./make which is all that seems to work properly on my server.
OK. Let me ask this from a different angle. What exactly do I need to load and compile on my server to get the svn commands to work?
Dave, you need to install subversion:
http://subversion.tigris.org/
I used
svn switch http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/branches/1.5To keep versioning intact.
The
svn switchcommand works well if your WordPress directory is already a check-out version. It will automatically switch your check-out to use the specified repo instead of the one that it was attached to, and will also automatically update your check-out to the version specified. I don't use a check-out of the repo here because I don't want all the .svn files all over the place. Also, I'm not sure of the behavior of SVN deletes on a check-out. Does SVN actually delete files in the repo marked as deleted? If so, I don't like that. On a test blog, I might useswitchand then subsequentlysvn up, which would read the .svn files and figure out where to upgrade from and what to upgrade. Theexportcommand is designed for deployment of a project to a non-development environment, and since that's mostly what my live site is, that's what I use and what I suggest for most people who deploy live sites.
Ah ha! Very true. Since you're taking the time to inform the ignorant masses (me), can you verify that
exportoverwrites rather than merges? I have a couple core hacks; in light if that, it seems life is made a little easier with versioning. I suppose I could keep a version controlled working copy somewhere complete with my hacks andexportfrom that onto my live site. As for locally deleting files deleted from the repository, yesswitching orupdateing will do that. All that said,exportis probably the way to go. People (including me) shouldn't have modified the core anyway, right :) ?
This is kind of related... if I download/install 1.5.1.3, will all my plugins go busted?
Blogroll Dive: 7/4/05
Here are the highlights from today’s Blogroll dive:
Owen offers some advice on keeping WordPress v1.5.x up to date via SVN.
Michael Heilemann prefers to store his ideas via an archaic analog system.
Khaled releases Rin v1.1.
Michael Hampton for...