Upgrading WordPress
Version 3.7 of WordPress introduced an automatic updater, which should keep your instance up-to-date (as long as someone visits every so often to kick off the update process).
Versions below 4.4 are likely not compatible with PHP 7, meaning the admin pages and automatic updates won't work. In this case, such an instance would need to be upgraded manually.
The notes below assume your WordPress site is at wordpress.soc.srcf.net -- substitute this for your own site's URL.
WordPress provide their own extensive guide for upgrades, which covers the below information in more detail.
Allow WordPress to write its own files
WordPress includes an update utility, but this can be quite tedious about not correctly detecting that it can update itself; it may fail without even trying, especially on society accounts.
To make this work, you can add the following to your site's configuration (wp-config.php), near the bottom but above the line that says "stop editing":
/**
* Force wordpress to use direct filesystem access so that upgrades work
* properly. See: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/10205
* https://codex.wordpress.org/Editing_wp-config.php
*/
define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');
define('FS_CHMOD_DIR', (02775 & ~ umask()));
define('FS_CHMOD_FILE', (0664 & ~ umask()));
You must ensure all WordPress files have the correct group permissions. For society accounts, this means all files should have the society's group and be group-writable. WordPress will not check this in advance -- if it fails to write some files during an upgrade, you may end up with a broken instance.
This should be the case by default, but some SFTP clients may override it. In addition, files moved/copied from your home directory may still have your personal group set, rather than that of the target society.
Upgrade through the admin panel
Head over to https://wordpress.soc.srcf.net/wp-admin/, log in with your
WordPress username and password if you haven't already (remember, these
are distinct from any SRCF-provided accounts).
Select ''Updates'', under ''Dashboard'' in the side menu.
If an update is available, you should have a button to perform the upgrade in one step. If you've installed a non-US-English version, make sure to pick the one with the correct language.
If you're prompted for SFTP credentials, see the section above for how to grant direct file access.
Upgrade files manually
Take backups of your files and database before attempting an upgrade.
Download the latest release from https://wordpress.org/download/. The
ZIP file contains a folder called wordpress, which contains the core
files.
If you're working over SSH, you can just
wget https://wordpress.org/latest.zip to download the ZIP file, then
unzip latest.zip to unpack it in the current directory.
For SCP, you'll want to extract the files on your local machine, then upload them to the server.
In either case, the contents of the wordpress folder are to be moved
into your existing site (for wordpress.soc.srcf.net, this would be
/societies/wordpress/public_html). You should delete the wp-admin
and wp-includes folders ('''not''' wp-content) first, as the
new files provide complete copies of these folders. The contents of
wp-content should be merged with the existing directory, in order to
retain plugins and themes.
Once the new files are in place, head over to
https://wordpress.soc.srcf.net/wp-admin/ and log in with your WordPress
username and password to check if things are working. You may be
prompted to complete a database upgrade -- this is normally a one-click
step, just follow the instructions it provides.
Last modified on Monday Feb 28, 2022 by Richard Allitt