The Geeks & God Podcast

Keeping modules up to date

December 8, 2008 - 4:43pm

Joined: 04/22/2008

My question actually has three parts. Firstly, how important is it to keep all my my contributed modules up to date on my drupal site? I try and pay attention to make sure the actual drupal install is up to date, but I always forget to check to see if any of the dozen or so modules I'm using has been updated. Secondly, if it is important, what is the easiest way to keep track of when updates are available. Do I really need to check each and every one manually, or is there some way to be notified when updates are available. Thirdly, what's the easiest/safest way to actually update the modules. The only module I've updated since I built my site has been the calendar and date modules, and when I did that I simply disabled the modules, uploaded the new versions, then reenabled them. Do these steps work across the board for all modules?

Any and all input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

www.tenmilevineyard.org

December 8, 2008 - 11:04pm

shrop

G&G Moderator

Joined: 07/16/2007

modules updates

hello,

1. If modules are updated due to security fixes, then it may be very important to update. It is probably easier to just update than to worry with what is in the update. If there isn't any security fixes, you may be missing important bug fixes.
2. Drupal 6 has a built in update status module. You can set your email address in the settings so you are emailed when updates are available. If you are running Drupal 5, you can add the update_status module since it isn't included in core with D5. The email think works well for me.
3. The safest ways it to test, test and test. Copy your site to your local development environment or another site on your web server so you can test the update. When testing looks good, you can repeat the udpate process on your production server. Make sure to backup your site files and db before updating just in case things blow up and you need to revert back to the original module version. Most modules include upgrade instructions in a readme file. Some will require that you run update.php if there are databse schema changes.

Thanks!
Shrop

Mark Shropshire "shrop"
Geeks & God Forums Moderator
http://geeksandgod.com/users/shrop

December 9, 2008 - 1:47am

micah

G&G Moderator

G&G Podcast Host

Joined: 06/21/2007

View CVS Messages

Sean,

First let me say that my comment doesn't change Shrop's 1-2-3 approach in any way, but here are some more things to check before performing an update:

For "stable" module releases, read the release notes. These will list most changes that occurred since the last version.

On every project page on drupal.org, there is a link titled "View CVS Messages." This leads to a nice summary of everything that has changed between the version you're running and the latest one, whether it's the dev version or a release.

When reading through here, you can see what files were changed and a list of issues that were fixed. Watch out, because you need to keep track of which branch was actually modified, especially between the D5 and D6 versions. If you click on the file version numbers, you'll see exactly which lines of code changed, but that's usually less helpful for this purpose.

The other thing I usually do is pop into the issue queue and see if there are any recently added critical issues. If somebody else has already broken their site with the new version, then I'll wait until that issue is fixed before applying the update.

Finally, be sure you're subscribed to Drupal security alerts, either by email or RSS feed. All serious security bugs for both core and contrib get announced through this channel.

Micah