Skips version 5.4-rc1 and jumps to 5.5-alpha

Unfortunately this is a side effect of branching to 5.5-alpha after the RC.

Once this happens I don’t think the Beta Tester plugin will update to the 5.4 branch. It has to do with the API responses.

A temporary work around is:

• manually edit wp-includes/version.php
• set the value of $wp_version to 5.4-beta3
• go to Tools > Beta Tester (or Network Admin > Settings > Beta Tester on multisite) and select Beta/RC - Bleeding edge

You should then be able to update to 5.4-RC1.

@pbiron Having the same issue – I tried your fix but it still updates to 5.5-alpha-47431 every time. I tried all kinds of variations (bleeding edge, point releases, reverting to 5.3.2, not reverting, etc) – always goes to 5.5.

Were there DB updates in 5.4, does $wp_db_version need to be updated too?

If no DB updates, I guess I could just copy all the 5.4 files over into my localhost install to test right? I’d like to test on one already set up with a bunch of content / plugins rather than just installing 5.4-RC from scratch. Thanks!

@mmcginnis Are you sure you’re selecting Beta/RC - Bleeding edge and NOT Bleeding edge nightlies on the settings page (after editing $wp_version)?

That should work.

Re: $wp_db_version: that global is not consulted by the plugin, so no need to change that (even if there were DB updates in 5.4, which there aren’t).

Yep, my bad! I did have it set to “Bleeding Edge” – there’s no visible setting for “Beta/RC Bleeding Edge” until after you choose “Bleeding Edge Nightlies” and I didn’t see that originally.

Anyway after upgrading to 5.5, I set it to Point Release Nightlies, which somehow downgraded my installation from 5.5 to 5.4-RC1-47424. Then I was able to set it to Beta/RC Bleeding Edge, which got me back on track to get the right updates. Whew. Many thanks for your help!

Glad to hear that!

I did have it set to “Bleeding Edge” – there’s no visible setting for “Beta/RC Bleeding Edge” until after you choose “Bleeding Edge Nightlies” and I didn’t see that originally.

Yeah, for reasons that are too hard to explain here, you have to have already updated to a one of the nightlies before the Beta/RC option can be shown.

FYI: I’ve opened an issue to improve the documentation around how to get on one the Beta/RC streams.

• This reply was modified 4 years, 8 months ago by Paul Biron.

Here was my experience today. My site was running WP 5.3.2 and I wanted to update to 5.4 RC to do some testing. I installed your plugin. Initially the only two options provided by your plugin were:

* Point release nightlies
* Bleeding edge nightlies.

I first selected “Point release nightlies” and updated. My site was then updated to WordPress 5.3.3-alpha-47419, which wasn’t my desired version. I then opened Dashboard–>Beta Testing and saw three options:

* Point release nightlies
* Beta/RC – Point release
* Bleeding edge nightlies.

I selected Bleeding edge nightlies and updated WordPress, and my site was updated to WordPress 5.4-RC1-47424. This is where I want to be for testing, so I’ll leave it here.

I think this issue may be now resolved with https://make.www.ads-software.com/core/handbook/about/release-cycle/releasing-major-versions/#branching-before-release

I believe this is a new part of the release process.

The point release selection should always update to the point release of the currently release version. The bleeding edge nightly should always point to the current nightly of the next version.

Prior to this new constant WP_CORE_DEV_BRANCH being set, after RC and branching on trac, bleeding edge would update to then next alpha. Unfortunately we have no control over the API response and we greatly appreciate this new constant.

I hope that makes sense.

I believe this is a new part of the release process.

Just to clarify, neither WP_CORE_DEV_BRANCH nor the approach is new, it has been this way since at least WordPress 4.6.

It’s just that this step was previously undocumented and there could be a delay between branching and switching the constant. During that time, some users could be bumped to an early alpha version instead of the latest nightly for the RC branch.

With this task now being a part of the release checklist, there should hopefully be less confusion in the future.

Thanks for the clarification Sergey.