[rt-users] Upgrading RT 3.0.8 (was RT 3.0.8)

[Kevin Murphy]

> When you recompile, is there a way to back out if things go
> wrong?

In a lazier variation on Blair's theme, I always install into the same 
location, but beforehand I make a copy of the RT web directory.  E.g., 
in my case:

cd /usr/local/
sudo cp -Rp rt3 rt3.2004-01-02

I also make sure I have an at-hand backup of the rt database.  On top 
of my existing automated tape backups, I usually do something like this 
right before an upgrade:

cd /usr/local/pgsql
su - postgres
pg_dump rt3 >rt3.2004-01-02.dump

The above commands are specific to my setup.

In addition to modifying RT_SiteConfig.pm as Blair indicates, if you 
have made custom versions of any RT files in the 'local' subdirectory, 
you would want to diff those against the new ones and merge in any 
changes.  (Do all this before restarting Apache, eh?)

As far as I understand, if you are upgrading from a recent version, you 
can often downgrade by just swapping the old web directory back in and 
restarting Apache.  If the upgrade involved any database changes (which 
should be documented, hopefully), then a downgrade would also involve 
restoring the database.  For the truly paranoid, you would test the new 
version of RT using separate Apache and database instances and mail 
aliases, etc, before installing it for real.  Thankfully my application 
doesn't need that level of robustness.  If you have made Perl module 
upgrades along with the RT upgrade, there is potential danger there, 
but not usually.

-Kevin