I finally made the decision to upgrade WordPress to the latest 2.3.1 version. I skipped the initial v2.3 release as I had read that there was a lengthy list of bugs about that release, which eventually have been fixed in 2.3.1. Everything seems to run smoothly. I intend to spend some time browsing around my website to test it and by the way fix a few things here and there.

A while ago I had written a script that would automate the WordPress upgrade process. Such a program could have been a simple shell script, just a few lines of code. However, I decided to write a more flexible script in Python instead, which can keep backups, perform a thorough upgrade of the website’s platform, keep the files I need to keep etc. A script that takes good care of everything while upgrading is also a good idea because it minimizes downtime while performing upgrades. Today was the first time to test it. After the upgrade, everything seems to be where it should. The script is in pre-alpha state and despite the fact that I used it on my website, it is not ready for release yet. Below is the output of the upgrade on G-Loaded:

# python wpupgrade.py 2.3.1
info: ++ Performings Tests. Please wait...
info: Initial configuration checks - OK
info: Retrieval of WordPress database settings from wp-config.php - OK
info: Checking existence of mysqldump - OK
info: ++ Starting data backup. Please wait...
info: Database backup - OK
info: Filesystem backup - OK
info: Data backup Complete
info: ++ Downloading wordpress archive. Please wait...
info: Download and Verification Complete
info: ++ Removing old WordPress files and directories. Listing follows:
info: Removed DIR: wp-admin
info: Removed DIR: wp-includes - PRESERVED wp-includes/languages
warning: --> DIR wp-content/cache CANNOT BE REMOVED - NOT CRITICAL - REMOVE MANUALLY IF POSSIBLE
info: Removed FILE: wp-commentsrss2.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-rss.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-rdf.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-login.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-app.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-settings.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-comments-post.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-mail.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-rss2.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-pass.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-blog-header.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-register.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-feed.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-trackback.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-cron.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-links-opml.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-config-sample.php
info: Removed FILE: wp-atom.php
info: Removed FILE: index.php
info: Removed FILE: xmlrpc.php
info: Removed FILE: readme.html
info: Removed FILE: license.txt
info: WordPress files removal complete
info: ++ WordPress Upgrade
info: Writing new files. Please wait...
info: File Upgrade Complete
info: ++ Starting Cleanup
info: Nothing - TODO
info: Finish Upgrade by visiting: http://www.yoursite.org/wp-admin/upgrade.php

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Tags: Maintenance, Python, Scripts, Shell, Wordpress