Hi @ramadama,

Version 6.4.4 has not been released yet.

There is no quick upgrade patch because version 6 is still beta and those packages are meant for stable versions only (unless there are mandatory changes in the database structure between two stable versions that forces to run the install process).

Automatic upgrade is documented here: http://b2evolution.net/man/auto-upgrade. Basically, it downloads and decompress the new version into a folder in the server, creates a backup of the site, overwrites old files according with the rules defined at: http://b2evolution.net/man/upgrade_policy-conf, and finally runs the installer.

This feature is marked as experimental because there are some things that may fail and you should be prepared to restore your site from a backup. I have tested it successfully several times, but I must say that my tests are basically focussed on small sites.

IMO, while the automatic upgrade is polished enough to make it bullet-proof, the recommended upgrade for novices (or people that doesn't want to take any risk :D) should be the standard procedure, when a quick patch is not available, of course. Another scenario could be having two version with no direct quick patch between them, let's say 5.2.0 and 5.2.2, so you may apply b2evolution-5.2.0-to-5.2.1.zip first, and then b2evolution-5.2.1-to-5.2.2.zip.

You can use Installation's Clone feature to duplicate an existing b2evolution install to test the 5.2.2 upgrade prior to applying it live.

I sympathise with ramadama here. This is the first time I've installed a beta and it would be useful, when the next update arrives for there to be a list of which files have changed. The biggest problem I have is in css validation. There's one file I edit [/rsc/build/b2evo-base.bmin.css] which is a single 48K line of code. My little Asus 900 takes ages to edit it, I mean an hour, so I'd rather not upload it etc.

I suppose I should make a script that compares the dates of two versions and delete the files that aren't newer.

Ah! I've just checked >>> Of course Filezilla has the option of just uploading the files with a new date. So as long as all the files are not new date stamped that should work.

Sorry for the version mess-up: i wanted know 6.4.2-beta to 6.4.3-beta.

Normally i would not mind such a minor upgrade, but we are curious about each single change/improvement .. and in this case it was the Tag Cloud Widget and the more responsive Bootstrap Forums skin, that we really did not want wait longer to see/test. To make the long story short: i ended up doing the automatic upgrade, just for the fun and because we wanted see, if it works. i guess it got stuck. after having the following lines for about 10 minutes on the screen, i closed the browser, deleted the old version and installed the 6.4.3 new.
>Backing up table «b2eWald_users__user_org» ... OK.
>Backing up table «b2eWald_users__usersettings» ... OK.
>Backing up table «b2eWald_widget» ... OK.

Maybe i could have tried again, but one test seemed okay and as my time for that is so limited, so far i have not had an opportunity to check what i wanted see in the first place, widget and skin.
In general: there is not too much sense in documenting changes of beta-versions and relevant upgrade procedures in perfect details. Whoever wants play around with this versions knows that time invested is a bit like gammbling. (system doesnt like last word in correct spelling)

As I'm running my beta install inside a VM on my laptop, I've just blown earlier versions away and re-installed. It takes less than 10 minute all in, and is far quicker than trying to work out what has changed. Until the stable release is out there, I'm not doing any real work to the install, so I lose nothing by taking the approach I've been doing..

Just by way of an update in this, I got my 6.4.4-beta up and running this evening. As it was unmodified from the 6.3.3-beta, I just deleted all the previously updated files (leaving the database untouched), uploaded the new files, then ran the install routine as an upgrade. It all looks good so far, and I'm hoping Francois is going to be able to declare the stable release this coming weekend.

@ramadama wrote earlier:

So what would you suggest is the right way to upgrade from 6.4.3-beta to 6.4.4-beta? The manual offers the 'Quick Upgrade Procedure' but there is no b2evolution-a.b.c-to-a.b.d.zip-file around.
.

I have a b2evolution with 19 blogs and 2000+ post (and hundreds files in media folder). I delete the old bootstrap files in skin folder (as suggest in b2evolution blog) and runned the automate upgrade. All works fine!

I have used the automate upgrade to all upgrade series 6.x.x and all work fine! (ok, in 6.0.0 alpha happened an small problem with any fields in user in BD (that I have edited)).

If a problem occur the upgrade is canceled and your blogs remains ok!

This is my experience with automate upgrade!

http://sfl.pro.br/imagens/myblog-b2evo.png