Upgrading to WordPress 2.1 Tip

I upgraded to WordPress 2.1 recently and I want to share a tip. I uncompressed the new WP 2.1 files into a new directory. I name it wordpress2.1 then I upload the entire new directory to my server. When I was ready to switch to the new version, I jus renamed the current wordpress directory to something like wordpress2.07. Then I renamed the new version to match the name of my official wordpress directory (ie – wordpress). This way, I have a clean install and I still have the old version to cut back to if something went wrong.

If you look at the WordPress upgrade instructions, it'll tell you to delete certain files and don't delete certain files. Seems kinda of messy to me. Below are the steps I took. Keep in mind my situation will be different from your setup, so you will need to modify the steps to suit your needs.

1. Download and extract WP 2.1 to a new directory named wordpress2.1
2. Back up the database by using the WordPress backup plugin or phpMyAdmin
3. I made a change to template-functions-post.php in the old version of WordPress to alter the behavior of the more tag, so I had to make the change in the new version. In WP 2.1, I had to make the change in a new file called post-template.php.
4. Copy the following files from the old WordPress directory to the new directory:
   • wp-config.php (it's in the root wordpress directory)
   • plugins (except Akismet because WP 2.1 comes with a new version of Akismet)
   • theme files
5. Deactivate the plugins (don't forget to write down special codes, like the Akismet api key, in case you need to re-enter them after you re-activate the plugins)
6. Rename the old wordpress directory (ie: wordpress –> wordpress2.07)
7. Rename the new wordpress directory (ie: wordpress2.1 –> wordpress)
8. Run the upgrade script (load …/wordpress/wp-admin/upgrade.php in the browser)
9. Reactive the plugin one by one

Remember, the above steps are for my situation. You will need to look at the WordPress upgrade instructions and modify the above steps for your setup.