A few words about the InstantUpgrade plugin
Alex Günsche · March 22, 2007
The InstantUpgrade plugin has received quite some attention during the last two weeks since its initial release. At the moment, the plugin package has been downloaded about 1100 times. But it has also raised a couple of questions which were asked here at zirona.com or discussed in other places. I want to say a few words and try to summarize the feedback a bit.
In general, the plugin received very positive feedback. Many people wrote me that they were astonished how quick and easy the upgrade was indeed. I have to admit that I myself am surprized how good it seems to work for the vaste majority of users. However, some people did encounter problems, in fact due to certain safe mode configurations. (This is why the plugin’s next version won’t work in safe mode at all.) However, as far as I know, everybody was able to restore his/her WordPress installation, so there was no grave damage so far. (phew…)
For the topic of security
We all know that making files writable by the webserver is potentially dangerous. For InstantUpgrade, you must make very many files writable. There is no way around that, because FTP user (you) and Webserver are different system users on the server in most cases. But that’s ok in this case, because with the first run, all those files will be owned by the webserver and have proper permissions again.
However, the WordPress base folder will remain world writable. This might allow the webserver or other users to create files there — if they come to access this area at all. If you want to avoid this very unlikely possibility under any circumstances, you must not use the InstantUpgrade plugin. However, if you have your .htaccess or your theme/plugin files world writable, or you use plugins that execute inline PHP, don’t you come to me whining about security.
Apart from this, there is — in my opinion — no reason to consider this plugin insecure. But if you believe to have identified another issue, please let me know.
Integration with WordPress
Another thing I’ve read a couple of times are statements like “If it’s so good, why isn’t it in the WordPress core?” or “I hope they will soon integrate this with the WP core.” Although I feel honoured when hearing thes proposals, I’m afraid, they’re a bit unrealistic. The installation of the plugin requires some steps that (a) might ask too much from novice WP users, and (b) can turn out to be impossible on some hosts.
I would however appreciate, if — with time — there could be a better cooperation with the WordPress developers. The InstantUpgrade plugin must be as future proof as possible, and I am afraid that most people won’t upgrade the plugin itself too often. So if there’s a change in WordPress for which the plugin is not laid out, there might be errors during upgrade. Of course I monitor the development of WordPress, so I pretty much get the idea what expects us with new releases, and you can be sure that I will bring out a new version of InstandUpgrade soon enough before the WordPress upgrade.
I have also received some ideas for upcoming versions. Some are things I had considered myself, and had rejected for various reasons. Others are good inspirations for improvements. So if you have an idea what could be a feature of an auto-upgrade plugin, please let me know.
Lorelle on March 23, 2007 at 05:51 #
Excellent points, and a great help to those having trouble with the Plugin and the security issues. Thank you.
And keep up the great work. I know that this, or something similar, will work eventually, as soon as the kinks are worked out. Thanks for helping to break ground.
kit on September 27, 2007 at 19:04 #
Alex,
I hadn’t seen the information about v1.0, I think that’s most definitely a step in the right direction to land this program in Core. I really can’t express to you how much I like this plugin, and if you can find a way to do this through FTP that wouldn’t require permissions changes, I really think you’re onto something.
As for upgrades to InstantUpgrade itself, I think now that the plugins upgrader notification is built in, it’s only a couple steps away from having InstantUpgrade require the latest version of the software be installed before attempting to upgrade Wordpress.
The only other thing I know Matt expressed a little hesitation about was in regards to your treatment of Plugins. The reason I understand for the deactivation of plugins is that plugins are the primary reason a WP installation will break upon upgrade. I’ve had this problem happen to me to the point where a plugin broke my WP so bad I couldn’t even access my plugins panel to deactivate it, and I had to enter through FTP and manually delete plugins until I found the right one.
Anyway, I will continue to be a faithful InstantUpgrade user as long as you support it, and I will seriously consider running a cloned site for the express purpose of testing out the 1.0 version on my provider.
Alex Günsche on September 27, 2007 at 19:22 #
kit, thank you for your very valuable feedback.
Yes, this is the whole idea. I could use PHP’s FTP functions, but unfortunately they don’t exist on all hosts. I’m using the pemftp library now, which is very cool and does everything with raw FTP commands on the TCP stack, but it seems not to be 100% stable. As soon as I’ll have more time again, I’ll continue working on it.
Indeed, that is one of the benefits of this new feature. However, I want to stay 2.0.x compatible, so it’s not that easy in the end.
I know, we’ve been discussing that with fellow WP users and devs, and I now agree that it is a useful feature for many. It’s on my list for the next release.
That would be cool indeed, but let’s wait a bit till I release a modified alpha of 1.0. The current one is just too screwed to waste time on it.