Need to install 2.8 in root without losing blog

  • Resolved wordshine

    (@wordshine)


    15 years, 6 months ago

    Hi.

    I’ve been using WP for over a year and it’s brilliant. I started with a conventional site at https://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz then started the blog at https://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/blog to see how it went and learn how to use it. Now I want just one site driven by WP.

    But upgrades have stopped working. I cannot upgrade to 2.8 automatically. I get the request to connect with ftp then it falls over “unable to locate WP directory”. I’m nervous about doing it manually, which I did initially, because the chmods must be all wrong somehow.

    I changed permissions until the cows came home with no effect on WordPress Automatic Upgrade. Now I just want to wipe it and start again because I’m worried about missing out on the security fixes. I’ve made some customisations so I’ll have to be careful with restoring the files (I’ve backed up) but I reason that with a fresh installation all the permissions will be correct.

    So: I want to change the blog address to the root but leave the WP files where they are, in /blog. That’s easy enough, I just need some hints. I would test locally, like I do with my regular site, but I’m not sure how to set up a working WP system. php is installed, with the Abyss web server, but I’m not sure how to set up MySQL.

    Perhaps if someone can point me to instructions for setting up a local test site that would be enough. Or how do I simply wipe what’s there, install 2.8 and restore the existing blog?

    Thanks,
    Richard.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
  • Thread Starter wordshine

    (@wordshine)

    Uhhh, guys, this is an incredibly busy forum. My original post is a bit wordy. I’d like to keep things simple.

    • I do not trust my current installation because I’ve used chmod so much I fear the values are insecure.
    • I cannot upgrade to 2.8 automatically.
    • I want to change the url from …/blog to the root but leave WP where it is, in …/blog.

    I think I can address all this by deleting the current directories (but not the MySQL database!), installing 2.8 afresh and then restoring the customisations from backup.

    Is there documentation on doing this? I’ve looked but I can’t find any.

    How should I handle the .htaccess file?

    I’ve customised a few css files, the header and sidebar and some other things. In restoring from backup after installing 2.8, I think I should overwrite /wp-content/*.* and nothing else. Is that correct?

    I’d value any confirmation you can give and any further advice.

    Thanks!

    Richard.

    I want to change the url from …/blog to the root but leave WP where it is, in …/blog.

    See: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Giving_WordPress_Its_Own_Directory

    Also see: https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Changing_File_Permissions

    Thread Starter wordshine

    (@wordshine)

    iridiax:

    Right, thanks for that. I have seen these references.

    As you can see, I need help to install 2.8 then restore my blog.

    As to permissions, I can change them, but I don’t understand the section “Permission scheme for WordPress”. I don’t know how to find the different users and I’ve made changes I can’t remember. I want to start from scratch to clean things up.

    Can you comment on how to reinstall? Can you answer my questions?

    Thanks.

    Back up everything (files and database) first:

    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/WordPress_Backups

    Then try a manual upgrade following these step by step instructions:

    https://codex.www.ads-software.com/Upgrading_WordPress_Extended

    You’ll be deleting all but a few files (those in step 7), so the rest will be fresh and new. As for the .htaccess file, you can either keep it as is or keep it and rename it (to disable it) and then let WordPress regenerate a new one when you set your permalinks.

    Thread Starter wordshine

    (@wordshine)

    iridiax:

    I’ve got the new version installed now, with all the original content, and it’s all working. I’m confident there’s nothing wrong with the setup.

    Thank you for your help!

    Richard.

    I’m glad it’s working again. ?? Hopefully you’ll be able to upgrade automatically from now on.

    Thread Starter wordshine

    (@wordshine)

    iridiax:

    Yes, I look forward to that!

    After reinstalling, I did break the blog for several hours with redirection and I’d be interested in your comments, as I fixed it by accident.

    I set the WordPress URL to [path]/wordpress and the blog URL to [path] so it was now the root, replacing the old static pages. Then I tried to set up redirection, because I wanted to respect requests from bookmarks set to the old blog address of [path]/blog.

    I knew by now I didn’t want to upset search engines or lose any ranking we might have achieved so I was hoping to use an .htaccess technique.

    I ended up with:

    Redirect 301 /blog/ https://www.climateconversation.wordshine.co.nz/

    placed in the file at my domain’s root, not the subdomain’s root. There’s another .htaccess file at the subdomain’s root containing all the mysterious WP code.

    So I don’t know how it works but it works and I’ve tried hard to break it! It feels good.

    Thanks again!
    Richard.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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