Auto updates

  • zignorp

    (@zignorp)


    2 years ago

    I’ve been running manual updates for years, and switched a few simple sites to automatic minor updates. Recently I got a fatal error on one, checked the php log, noticed that it was basic core stuff, and worked with the host to try to figure out what happened. What is disturbing to me, is that, for whatever reason, many of the files were corrupted during the update, a fatal error happened because of this, and I didn’t get any kind of notification as the admin. The last notification I got was for the update at the end of August. I’m aware that this is a fluke, but I thought that there would be more built-in validation, checksum, whatever on core automatic updates, some kind of abort or at least notification in this kind of case. For now I’m going back to manual updates, because I don’t see any way I could’ve prevented this. Replacing core files fixed the problem, but, with many sites, I can’t afford to have one go down without notification. I didn’t think this was possible. Any insight of how this can be prevented with auto updates would be appreciated.

    • This topic was modified 2 years ago by Jan Dembowski. Reason: Moved to Fixing WordPress, this is not a Requests and Feedback topic
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  • Moderator bcworkz

    (@bcworkz)

    In the case of certain types of errors, it’s not possible for WP to send out a failure notification. Combine that with the general unreliability of email in general. Lack of notification is not surprising. For similar reasons, WP cannot abort an update. The entire system is unstable and cannot reliably do anything.

    Corrupted updates are rare, but they do happen. WP does what it can to prevent this, but it is limited by what’s possible with PHP. It’s not omnipotent. Corrupted files are usually server related, but can be due to any number of factors. It’s also possible the .zip data was corrupted during the download process. The stubs of a checksum scheme are in place, but are not currently active. My understanding is it flags too many false negatives, so it causes more trouble than it resolves. Even with a reliable download checksum scheme, it would not prevent server issues from corrupting files. I’ve encountered corrupted files where updates were not even a factor.

    If auto-updates make you uncomfortable, it’s fine to disable them. As long as you do manually update in a reasonable amount of time. You wouldn’t want to miss out on important security updates.

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