An easy upgradeable installation

The following post might be a bid long, but I hope you can find time to read it all as I try to explain my point ??

Every time a new version of WordPress is released, I find my self shutting down my blog and merging the content between the two installations (mainly .htaccess, wp-config.php and the wp-content folder). This is a painful procedure prone to error and the site is down in the meantime. So I’ve set out to find an easier way:

The root of my home-directory contains a folder called httpdocs whose content is viewable from the net. Previously this was where I placed my WordPress installation. Instead I’ve now created a separate folder for each version I install at the same level as the httpdocs folder (i.e. wordpress-2.0.2 and wordpress-2.0.3). Then I’ve created a symbolic link called “wordpress-latest” which points to the current running WordPress installation. This gives me the following directory structure:

httpdocs
wordpress-2.0.2
wordpress-2.0.3
wordpress-latest -> wordpress-2.0.3

I’ve then created a lot of symbolic links in my httpdocs folder, like this:

index.php -> ../wordpress-latest/index.php
license.txt -> ../wordpress-latest/license.txt
readme.html -> ../wordpress-latest/readme.html
wp-admin -> ../wordpress-latest/wp-admin
wp-atom.php -> ../wordpress-latest/wp-atom.php
...etc.

The only folder that I have not symlinked to the ../wordpress-latest directory is wp-content. This of cause needs be the same from installation to installation.

In case the classic or default theme or the akismet plugin where to be upgraded I’ve (inside the wp-content directory) made symbolic links to those folders or files in the wordpress-latest folder. The files and folders that I’ve symlinked in httpdocs/wp-content/ is the following:

index.php -> ../../wordpress-latest/wp-content/index.php
plugins/akismet -> ../../../wordpress-latest/wp-content/plugins/akismet
plugins/hello.php -> ../../../wordpress-latest/wp-content/plugins/hello.php
plugins/wp-db-backup.php -> ../../../wordpress-latest/wp-content/plugins/wp-db-backup.php
themes/classic -> ../../../wordpress-latest/wp-content/themes/classic
themes/default -> ../../../wordpress-latest/wp-content/themes/default

All this means that I should just need to change the wordpress-latest symlink to point to whatever new installation of WordPress I might install (i.e. wordpress-2.0.4).

But here’s the problem: When referring to a file via a symlink the scope also changes. This means that if I refer to a file that is actually in the wordpress-2.0.3 folder this file can no longer se the real wp-content folder which is actually in the httpdocs folder.

Does anybody know how to get this scheme to work or of another similar way to achieve this?

Thanks for listening ??

/watson