[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #51857: Add rollback for failed plugin/theme updates

[WordPress Trac]

#51857: Add rollback for failed plugin/theme updates
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
 Reporter:  pbiron                               |       Owner:  pbiron
     Type:  enhancement                          |      Status:  reopened
 Priority:  normal                               |   Milestone:  Future
                                                 |  Release
Component:  Upgrade/Install                      |     Version:
 Severity:  normal                               |  Resolution:
 Keywords:  has-testing-info has-patch needs-    |     Focuses:
  dev-note needs-testing                         |
-------------------------------------------------+-------------------------
Changes (by hellofromTonya):

 * keywords:  early has-testing-info has-patch needs-dev-note needs-testing
     => has-testing-info has-patch needs-dev-note needs-testing
 * milestone:  6.1 => Future Release


Comment:

 == Feature Current State

 Summary of discussions from the core-auto-updates and core slack meetings:

 @peterwilsoncc and I moved this feature to a featured plugin. Why? Because
 there are concerns that are too risky to mitigate after shipping in a
 major.

 In a featured plugin, it can gain feedback, faster iteration, and when
 ready, then be scheduled for a future major release.

 Q: What's the bar for determining when it's ready?
 A: When the concerns are removed.

 Q: What will remove the concerns?
 A: Active real-world testing across multiple web hosted platforms as well
 as feedback from web agencies whose development workflows use VirtualBox
 environments.

 === Concerns:
 * What are the unknown impacts when doing larger bulk updates when
 multiple failures occur, especially when resources are throttled on shared
 hosting?
 * What state does it leave a site in when failures happen?
 * What is the impact to agencies and developers who use VirtualBox powered
 local development workflows such as VVV and others?

 @davidbaumwald
 [https://wordpress.slack.com/archives/C02RQBWTW/p1659647343251629 raised
 additional concern]:
 >Yeah, the infra that makes me question whether this is ready are network-
 based volumes and such where there's additional latency.  Unless you have
 $$$, I doubt anyone has recreated that yet

 === Testing / Feedback Status:

 I've been actively reaching out to web hosting companies to coordinate
 testing. I'm currently working with wp.com, Bluehost, GoDaddy, and WP
 Engine. I've reached to others too (awaiting feedback). One the goals is
 to test the plugin across 1000s of sites. It'll take time to set up these
 tests.

 Some of the criteria I've asked of these hosts are:
 * Setting up an environment with at least 3 large plugins such as
 WooCommerce, Jetpack, BuddyPress, etc.
 * Benchmark bulk updates the large plugins:
    * ''before'' activating the feature
    * ''after'' activating the feature
    * then with the feature activated, force 1 failure in a large plugins
    * and then force ''multiple'' large plugins to fail during bulk update
 * Benchmarking data to capture for all of these scenarios:
    * Time: How long does a bulk update?
    * Resources: How much resource usage is consumed?

 As the testing completes for each hosts, I'll add the results to the Call
 for Testing post on Make/Core.

 === Ticket Updates:
 As this feature is in the featured plugin phase, I've moved it to `Future
 Release`. Once the concerns are mitigated (see above), then please move it
 into a milestone.

 I've removed the `early` keyword as this is not necessary since it'll be
 battled tested through a featured plugin process.

-- 
Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/51857#comment:272>
WordPress Trac <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/>
WordPress publishing platform