been having random DB problems, so let’s see if 2.5 actually solves things.

I upgraded to WordPress 2.1. While not a terribly exciting ordeal for most, I want to comment on what I see is the inherent brokenness of the WordPress Upgrade Process.

Here’s the non-detailed fast version, in five easy steps:

1. Backup files and database. What, you mean you don’t have some script running that automatically backs up everything nightly?
2. Deactivate all plugins. Gah. If this is a standard thing, how about a Deactivate All switch somewhere, eh Matt?
3. Overwrite Files. And since this is a 2.0.x -> 2.1 upgrade, delete magic old files. You know which ones, right?
4. Run the upgrade script
5. Reactivate plugins one by one. Again, gah.

OK… the sucky part is really Steps 2, 3, and 5, especially 3 — overwrite and delete files. This is lame. Here’s what I did to make it less lame:

1. Move all the version-specific files into a version directory, e.g. wordpress2.0.3/ or wordpress2.1.
2. Create a special symlink called wordpress_version that links to the appropriate directory
3. Create symlinks in the top-level dir to the appropriate file in wordpress_version
4. Create symlinks in the version directories back up to wp-config.php.

For example, here’s a brief excerpt of my directory structure for this blog:

selberg.org/
		wp.config.php
		index.php@ -> wordpress_version/index.php
		wordpress_version@ -> wordpress2.1
		wordpress2.0.3/
			index.php
			wp-config.php@ -> ../wp-config.php
		wordpress2.1/
			index.php
			wp-config.php@ -> ../wp-config.php 

As far as when WordPress introduces files, you have to create new links. When you need to delete files, they appear easily via ls as a broken link. And even if I forget to delete a link, the file is effectively gone. We’ll see how this works. And maybe I’ll get inspired to try and fix how plugins work in the next upgrade.

Hat tip to Raging Liberal for the scoop on fixing Postie, the plugin I use to post mail to the blog. Turns out e-mail really is the best way to write a blog entry IMHO.

Update: Forgot to link to wp-cron.php, which appears to have caused WordPress to launch a DOS against itself… oops.

Just some administravia… I finally tracked down why the advanced editing functionality in my WordPress image wasn’t working, yet was on some of the other blogs I manage. Turns out it’s the Email Notification plugin. I’m not sure why exactly, but a fresh install (including nuking the database tables) didn’t solve the problem, so I’m killing it for now and will make all you guys that use e-mail notification do something like get an RSS reader.