Upgrading to WordPress 2.5

I installed a previous version of Wordpress with Dreamhost's easy install about six months ago. But I'm now having trouble figuring out what I need to do to upgrade to 2.5. There's no info on the easy install page about upgrading. Do I do a fresh install? Or will that ruin my world? Has Dreamhost done it automatically for me? I can't find any info on this anywhere. Any help at all is most appreciated. Gracias.
Patrick

It's basically a two-click procedure.

If you go to the one-click install page, it should offer you the option to upgrade to the latest version. You should click on it and that will perform the WordPress upgrade.

Once it's done, you'll receive an email, and you should then go to the admin page of your blog to perform the database upgrade.

That's it.

In reply to:
I installed a previous version of Wordpress with Dreamhost's easy install about six months ago. But I'm now having trouble figuring out what I need to do to upgrade to 2.5. There's no info on the easy install page about upgrading.

While hugoh's reply is accurate for the "advanced" one-click installs, one of the principle advantages of the "easy" version (which you indicate you used) is that DreamHost does all of that for you!

Are you sure your "Easy One-Click" WordPress is not *already* running 2.5 (all of mine are!)?

You can tell by looking at the bottom of the DashBoard when you log in to the admin section of your WordPress. Actually, if you are *not* at the latest version of WordPress. there is *usually* a "warning" near the top of your page when you first log in (since about version 2.3.2, IIRC).

--rlparker

Yup, the one-click install Dreamhost did for me six months ago is still running version 2.2.3, I just checked. But now I can't recall if I used the Easy or Advanced install option back then. It doesn't seem like my blog is limited to only a few themes and widgets, as they say the easy version is. (But on the other hand, I haven't really used it much, as I'm still using a free wordpress.com blog while I figure out how to edit the CSS on this one.) The advanced version looks pretty complicated for a novice like me. For example, the first thing the advanced install says is to make sure there are no files at the existing install site. Well of course there are files there now. All the wordpress 2.2.3 files. So do I have to create a new database for the install and then migrate all the files I need for the new blog over to it -- and maintain two different entire Wordpress installs on my Dreamhost server? Very confusing for my little non-technical brain...

In any event, thanks to both of you for the help so far.

In reply to:
Yup, the one-click install Dreamhost did for me six months ago is still running version 2.2.3, I just checked. But now I can't recall if I used the Easy or Advanced install option back then.

Then it is safe to say that you are running under the "advanced" one-click install of WordPress because:

1) It is the only one that was available six months ago (the "easy" one-click version was only added to the Control Panel in February, 2008

2) The "Easy" version never requires any action on your part to be kept "updated" - DreamHost handles all that for you "automagically".

In reply to:
So do I have to create a new database for the install and then migrate all the files I need for the new blog over to it -- and maintain two different entire Wordpress installs on my Dreamhost server?

No, you just have to use the panel to tell the DreamHost one-click system to upgrade your existing "one-click" installation of version 2.2.3 to version 2.5.2, and it will proceed.

That said, you should be aware that you may have some issues, as you have gone so long "past" the normal upgrade point (you have skipped *many* upgrades available since 2.2.3!).

Your theme may, or may not, be compatible with WordPress 2.5.1, and many of the plugins you may be using may require updated versions to work, if they work at all.

Given this situation, I'd make sure I made a backup of the database before I tried this upgrade. That way, if things go wrong, you can always go back (DreamHost stores your "old" 2.2.3 WordPress files in a ".old" directory for this purpose).

--rlparker

Well, the whole thing has officially blown up in my face, I'm afraid. There was no option for upgrading from 2.2.3 to 2.5, so I decided on a fresh install. As it could only install into a completely empty directory, I tried to delete all the items in my 'installs' folder, checking first to make sure there was nothing critical in it. (I also use Gallery2, but it seemed to have its own separate directory elsewhere on my account's root.) But Filezilla wouldn't let me delete the installs directory completely, telling me it wasn't empty. So I renamed what was left of it 'OLDinstalls,' and on DreamHost's one-click install page, I created a new directory for the install called 'installsnew.' Then I successfully installed WP 2.5 into it, and got the confirmation email from them, and spent some time playing with new themes etc. I even installed ZenPhoto into the new directory, and also got a confirmation email from them.

Now, this morning, it's all gone horribly wrong. My former domain (manandultraman.com) is dead. So is the link Dreamhost sent me to administrate my new blog (at manandultraman.com/installsnew). My Gallery2 site is gone and all photos and links to it elsewhere are dead. My ZenPhoto account doesn't exist where they say it should.

What on earth have I done??! I don't understand what's happened. I thought deleting the old installs folder would have no effect any of this new stuff, as it was all installed in a new directory or lived elsewhere on the account. ... but obviously somehow it did. Any insight?

There's always the option to restore your old setup in two parts:
1) Restore your domain folder from the .snapshot directory:
http://wiki.dreamhost.com/Snapshot_data_restoration

2) Restore your database via RestoreDB in the Goodies->Manage MySQL panel:
https://panel.dreamhost.com/index.cgi?tree=goodies.mysql&

-Scott

Thanks for the info, Scott. I worked on that first option using the .snapshot directory in Webftp, and it seems to have restored my old 'installs' directory to the account root. But unfortunately I'm still unable to access any of my web-based stuff that lived in that directory. No Gallery2 love, no blog, I can't even log into my account directory using Filezilla anymore. The confirmation window at the end of the .snapshot copying process said "All the selected directories and files have been processed," and I didn't see any error dialogs. So I'm assuming everything copied okay. But what do I know? Is it possible I need to re-point those things to the proper directory now that it exists again?