Drupal 7 minor version upgrade

Steps for upgrading 7.x version of Drupal to any later 7.x version

Preupgrade steps

1. Make a full backup of all files, directories, and your database(s) before starting, and save it outside your Drupal installation directory. Instructions may be found at http://drupal.org/upgrade/backing-up-the-db
2. It is wise to try an update or upgrade on a test copy of your site before applying it to your live site. Even minor updates can cause your site's behavior to change.
3. Each new release of Drupal has release notes, which explain the changes made since the previous version and any special instructions needed to update or upgrade to the new version. You can find a link to the release notes for the version you are upgrading or updating to on the Drupal project page (http://drupal.org/project/drupal).
4. Log in as a user with the permission "Administer software updates".
5. Go to Administration > Configuration > Development > Maintenance mode. Enable the "Put site into maintenance mode" checkbox and save the configuration.
6. Remove all old core files and directories, except for the 'sites' directory and any custom files you added elsewhere.

If you made modifications to files like .htaccess or robots.txt, you will need to re-apply them from your backup, after the new files are in place.

Sometimes an update includes changes to default.settings.php (this will be noted in the release notes). If that's the case, follow these steps:

• Make a backup copy of your settings.php file, with a different file name.
• Make a copy of the new default.settings.php file, and name the copy settings.php (overwriting your previous settings.php file).
• Copy the custom and site-specific entries from the backup you made into the new settings.php file. You will definitely need the lines giving the database information, and you will also want to copy in any other customizations you have added.

Now download the latest Drupal 7.x release from http://drupal.org to a directory outside of your web root. Extract the archive and copy the files into your Drupal directory.

On a typical Unix/Linux command line, use the following commands to download and extract:

wget http://drupal.org/files/projects/drupal-x.y.tar.gz

tar -zxvf drupal-x.y.tar.gz
This creates a new directory drupal-x.y/ containing all Drupal files and directories.

Upgrade steps

This is the most important part.

1. Copy the files into your Drupal installation directory:

cp -R drupal-x.y/* drupal-x.y/.htaccess /path/to/your/installation

If you do not have command line access to your server, download the archive from http://drupal.org using your web browser, extract it, and then use an FTP client to upload the files to your web root.

2. Re-apply any modifications to files such as .htaccess or robots.txt.
3. Run update.php by visiting http://www.example.com/update.php (replace www.example.com with your domain name). This will update the core database tables.

If you are unable to access update.php do the following:

 - Open settings.php with a text editor.

 - Find the line that says: $update_free_access = FALSE;

 - Change it into: $update_free_access = TRUE;

 - Once the upgrade is done, $update_free_access must be reverted to FALSE.

7. Go to Administration > Reports > Status report. Verify that everything is working as expected.
8. Ensure that $update_free_access is FALSE in settings.php.
9. Go to Administration > Configuration > Development > Maintenance mode. Disable the "Put site into maintenance mode" checkbox and save the configuration.