[wp-hackers] Upgrade instructions fatally flawed for Mac

[Lloyd Budd]

On 1/15/07, Elliotte Harold <elharo at metalab.unc.edu> wrote:
> There is a major bug in the upgrade instructions on
> http://codex.wordpress.org/Upgrading_WordPress that can cause Mac users
> to lose their data. This needs to be corrected. The problem is here:
>
> Step 3: Overwrite Files
>
> Get the latest and greatest WordPress (http://wordpress.org/download)
> and upload it to the WordPress directory, overwriting all the files that
> exist there. This will preserve your images and themes.
>
> Actually it won't, at least not on a Mac. I think what happens on
> Windows is that when you copy a folder such as wp-content onto an
> existing folder, files inside the target folder are retained if the new
> folder does not contain different versions of those files. However, on a
> Mac the behavior is different. The entire target folder is completely
> wiped out and replaced by the new folder. No content from the target
> folder is retained under any circumstance.

Ugg, the Apple view of a physical world folder ;-)

Elliotte, you are welcome to update the wiki page!

As long as everyone follows "Step 1: Backup " then it should be ok.

Thank you for finding this,
Lloyd