INTRODUCTION ------------ This document describes how to: * Update your Drupal site from one minor 7.x version to another minor 7.x version; for example, from 7.8 to 7.9, or from 7.6 to 7.10. * Upgrade your Drupal site's major version from 6.x to 7.x. First steps and definitions: * If you are upgrading to Drupal version x.y, then x is known as the major version number, and y is known as the minor version number. The download file will be named drupal-x.y.tar.gz (or drupal-x.y.zip). * All directories mentioned in this document are relative to the directory of your Drupal installation. * Make a full backup of all files, directories, and your database(s) before starting, and save it outside your Drupal installation directory. Instructions may be found at http://drupal.org/upgrade/backing-up-the-db * It is wise to try an update or upgrade on a test copy of your site before applying it to your live site. Even minor updates can cause your site's behavior to change. * Each new release of Drupal has release notes, which explain the changes made since the previous version and any special instructions needed to update or upgrade to the new version. You can find a link to the release notes for the version you are upgrading or updating to on the Drupal project page (http://drupal.org/project/drupal). UPGRADE PROBLEMS ---------------- If you encounter errors during this process, * Note any error messages you see. * Restore your site to its previous state, using the file and database backups you created before you started the upgrade process. Do not attempt to do further upgrades on a site that had update problems. * Consult one of the support options listed on http://drupal.org/support More in-depth information on upgrading can be found at http://drupal.org/upgrade MINOR VERSION UPDATES --------------------- To update from one minor 7.x version of Drupal to any later 7.x version, after following the instructions in the INTRODUCTION section at the top of this file: 1. Log in as a user with the permission "Administer software updates". 2. Go to Administration > Configuration > Development > Maintenance mode. Enable the "Put site into maintenance mode" checkbox and save the configuration. 3. Remove all old core files and directories, except for the 'sites' directory and any custom files you added elsewhere. If you made modifications to files like .htaccess or robots.txt, you will need to re-apply them from your backup, after the new files are in place. Sometimes an update includes changes to default.settings.php (this will be noted in the release notes). If that's the case, follow these steps: - Make a backup copy of your settings.php file, with a different file name. - Make a copy of the new default.settings.php file, and name the copy settings.php (overwriting your previous settings.php file). - Copy the custom and site-specific entries from the backup you made into the new settings.php file. You will definitely need the lines giving the database information, and you will also want to copy in any other customizations you have added. 4. Download the latest Drupal 7.x release from http://drupal.org to a directory outside of your web root. Extract the archive and copy the files into your Drupal directory. On a typical Unix/Linux command line, use the following commands to download and extract: wget http://drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-x.y.tar.gz tar -zxvf drupal-x.y.tar.gz This creates a new directory drupal-x.y/ containing all Drupal files and directories. Copy the files into your Drupal installation directory: cp -R drupal-x.y/* drupal-x.y/.htaccess /path/to/your/installation If you do not have command line access to your server, download the archive from http://drupal.org using your web browser, extract it, and then use an FTP client to upload the files to your web root. 5. Re-apply any modifications to files such as .htaccess or robots.txt. 6. Run update.php by visiting http://www.example.com/update.php (replace www.example.com with your domain name). This will update the core database tables. If you are unable to access update.php do the following: - Open settings.php with a text editor. - Find the line that says: $update_free_access = FALSE; - Change it into: $update_free_access = TRUE; - Once the upgrade is done, $update_free_access must be reverted to FALSE. 7. Go to Administration > Reports > Status report. Verify that everything is working as expected. 8. Ensure that $update_free_access is FALSE in settings.php. 9. Go to Administration > Configuration > Development > Maintenance mode. Disable the "Put site into maintenance mode" checkbox and save the configuration. MAJOR VERSION UPGRADE --------------------- To upgrade from a previous major version of Drupal to Drupal 7.x, after following the instructions in the INTRODUCTION section at the top of this file: 1. Check on the Drupal 7 status of your contributed and custom modules and themes. See http://drupal.org/node/948216 for information on upgrading contributed modules and themes. See http://drupal.org/node/895314 for a list of modules that have been moved into core for Drupal 7, and instructions on how to update them. See http://drupal.org/update/modules for information on how to update your custom modules, and http://drupal.org/update/theme for custom themes. You may decide at this point that you cannot upgrade your site, because needed modules or themes are not ready for Drupal 7. 2. Update to the latest available version of Drupal 6.x (if your current version is Drupal 5.x, you have to upgrade to 6.x first). If you need to update, download Drupal 6.x and follow the instructions in its UPGRADE.txt. This document only applies for upgrades from 6.x to 7.x. 3. In addition to updating to the latest available version of Drupal 6.x core, you must also upgrade all of your contributed modules for Drupal to their latest Drupal 6.x versions. 4. Log in as user ID 1 (the site maintenance user). 5. Go to Administer > Site configuration > Site maintenance. Select "Off-line" and save the configuration. 6. Go to Administer > Site building > Themes. Enable "Garland" and select it as the default theme. 7. Go to Administer > Site building > Modules. Disable all modules that are not listed under "Core - required" or "Core - optional". It is possible that some modules cannot be disabled, because others depend on them. Repeat this step until all non-core modules are disabled. If you know that you will not re-enable some modules for Drupal 7.x and you no longer need their data, then you can uninstall them under the Uninstall tab after disabling them. 8. On the command line or in your FTP client, remove the file sites/default/default.settings.php 9. Remove all old core files and directories, except for the 'sites' directory and any custom files you added elsewhere. If you made modifications to files like .htaccess or robots.txt, you will need to re-apply them from your backup, after the new files are in place. 10. If you uninstalled any modules, remove them from the sites/all/modules and other sites/*/modules directories. Leave other modules in place, even though they are incompatible with Drupal 7.x. 11. Download the latest Drupal 7.x release from http://drupal.org to a directory outside of your web root. Extract the archive and copy the files into your Drupal directory. On a typical Unix/Linux command line, use the following commands to download and extract: wget http://drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-x.y.tar.gz tar -zxvf drupal-x.y.tar.gz This creates a new directory drupal-x.y/ containing all Drupal files and directories. Copy the files into your Drupal installation directory: cp -R drupal-x.y/* drupal-x.y/.htaccess /path/to/your/installation If you do not have command line access to your server, download the archive from http://drupal.org using your web browser, extract it, and then use an FTP client to upload the files to your web root. 12. Re-apply any modifications to files such as .htaccess or robots.txt. 13. Make your settings.php file writeable, so that the update process can convert it to the format of Drupal 7.x. settings.php is usually located in sites/default/settings.php 14. Run update.php by visiting http://www.example.com/update.php (replace www.example.com with your domain name). This will update the core database tables. If you are unable to access update.php do the following: - Open settings.php with a text editor. - Find the line that says: $update_free_access = FALSE; - Change it into: $update_free_access = TRUE; - Once the upgrade is done, $update_free_access must be reverted to FALSE. 15. Backup your database after the core upgrade has run. 16. Replace and update your non-core modules and themes, following the procedures at http://drupal.org/node/948216 17. Go to Administration > Reports > Status report. Verify that everything is working as expected. 18. Ensure that $update_free_access is FALSE in settings.php. 19. Go to Administration > Configuration > Development > Maintenance mode. Disable the "Put site into maintenance mode" checkbox and save the configuration. To get started with Drupal 7 administration, visit http://drupal.org/getting-started/7/admin