Since I'm responsible for four different websites which run phpBB, upgrading due to security vulnerabilities is a chore -- especially when the site has some local customizations which must be preserved.

Because of this, I've written a shell script called upgrade-phpbb which automates the process. This script can be run from a unix system and updates a phpBB installation on a remote (unix) server. You need ssh/scp access to the remote server. It detects and preserves modifications you have made to phpBB. In a nutshell, the script

• copies two phpBB tarballs (which you must supply) to the server, one for the current (old) version and one for the new version
• compares the contents of the old tarball to the installed php directory, and creates a patch file containing modifications
• unpacks the new tarball and applies the patch
• copies over any binary files which diff could not handle (i.e. images)
• moves the old phpBB directory into your home directory (but leaves it untouched)
• runs the phpBB update_to_latest.php script via wget to upgrade the database
• removes the install and contrib directories to allow phpBB to run

It makes some checks along the way, and aborts if things are not as expected. Even if it is successfull, it only moves the original directory and does not delete it.

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