If you wish to upgrade a
Simple Machines Forum 1.1.x
forum to 2.0 you can take the steps listed below.
You should probably backup all files in your forum directory before
starting the upgrade, though, to another
directory on the server or download them to your system first. On a Linux
system, you can use the cp --archive source_directory
destination_directory command to copy the files from one directory
to another maintaining the permissions on the files when they are copied
and copying all subdirectories and files.
E.g., you could make a temp directory and copy all of the
files to a directory named backup within it as shown below:
$ mkdir ~/temp $ cp --archive forum ~/temp/backup
Note: If you simply download the files to a PC without putting them in a tar file first, you may lose all the permissions on the files, which may or may not be problematical when restoring them.
You could also follow the steps listed at Backing Up a Simple Machines Forum (SMF) database to backup the database where all of your data resides, but this is not needed as the upgrade process offers you a chance to backup your existing forum tables, which is where your forum data resides.
For the upgrade, download the 2.0 version of the forum software from the SMF Downloads page. Get the large upgrade file rather than the full install
When you've placed the file on the server in the forum directory, you can unzip and untar the file. I'm assuming you can log into the server via Secure Shell (SSH); with some hosting providers, you have to specifically ask that SSH access be granted to your account.
$ gunzip smf_2-0-rc5_upgrade.tar.gz $ tar -xvf smf_2-0-rc5_upgrade.tar
Then point your browser to the location of your forum, e.g.
http://example.com/forum/upgrade.php. Login with your admin
account to proceed with the upgrade.
You will see checkboxes for the following options when you start the upgrade.
I leave the backup and "put the forum into maintenance mode during upgrade" options checked and also check "empty error log before upgrading".
After the upgrade concludes, when you check the installed packages by logging in as an admin and clicking on Admin, Packages, then Installed Packages, you will see "No mods currently installed", though if you check Browse Packages, you will see that some packages installed under SMF 1.1.x will have "Install Mod" listed for them while others may not, which might lead you to believe those others are installed. So, be prepared to reinstall packages you wish to continue using.
Created: March 5, 2011