Updating Drupal

I just wanted to post this quickly so I have a reference for it. This is how I update Drupal core:

wget <drupal archive>
tar -zxf <drupal archive>
diff -ru htdocs <drupal folder> > out.diff
less out.diff
cd htdocs
patch -p1 --dry-run < ../out.diff
patch -p1 < ../out.diff

The options for diff tell it to:

  • r - Recurse
  • u - Unified diff format. A style of diff formatting I personally find the easiest to view

I then confirm that the diff file looks right - I want the new additions to be applied to the existing web folder, not taken away from it

The --dry-run option to patch confirms that the diff will apply successfully.