Killer Update
Yesterday I ran the 2.8 update for WordPress (the excellent software this blog is running on.) Instead of applying the update like I apply ever other web-based software update (moving each file and folder over one at a time), I decided to use WordPress’ built in updater. Oh boy.
The auto-updater from within WordPress itself works great and it’s mighty quick. Except for the fact that it killed my custom theme on the blog. The update overwrote my theme’s folder inside the theme folder. Ouch. Best part is I didn’t backup my theme files.
Yes, my ears are ringing and burning from the violent yelling of my conscience. “What a dumb thing to do. Why would you run an update and not back up your files? That’s rule #1 when applying updates you moron.” And on and on and on it goes.
Lesson learned? Why of course. Don’t trust an auto-updater to pay any attention to any customizations made – ever. Needless to say, I’ve got a copy of my custom theme locally and even have a plugin to backup the theme for me and send me an e-mail copy of it. Paranoid? Maybe. But if by some strange chance I decide to run the auto-updater again, I won’t have to recreate my custom theme.