If you run multiple WordPress blogs on WebFaction it can be a chore to update. You know the song and dance: visit the admin panel, click upgrade, wait for it to install, and repeat for the next blog. I decided to write a shell script that helps out with this process. It assumes you use the default path WebFaction sets up for you. E.g /home/username/webapps/wordpress-site/. Place it in your home folder.

The script will:

• Download the latest WordPress
• Backup the database
• Backup the site
• Copy over new WordPress files

The script will not:

• Upgrade the database
• Upgrade your plugins
• Compensate for non standard installations
• Win the Lottery

As noted above, in some cases you may need to upgrade the database. That can be done by visiting http://yoursite.com/wp-admin/ and clicking the upgrade button (You don’t have to login).

The script is below or you can download it here.

#!/bin/bash
# Backup and update wordpress sites on webfaction
# Author: Glen Zangirolami
# URL: http://twitter.com/glenbot

# Get a list of sites under webapps
WEB_APPS=$HOME/webapps/*

# Set backup paths
DB_BACKUPS=$HOME/wordpress_backups/databases
SITE_BACKUPS=$HOME/wordpress_backups/sites

# Set new wordpress extraction path
WP=$HOME/wordpress_extaction

# Download wordpress and extract
wget http://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
mkdir -p $WP
tar -C $WP -xzf latest.tar.gz
rm latest.tar.gz

# Make the database backup path
if [ ! -d $DB_BACKUPS ]; then
  mkdir -p $DB_BACKUPS
fi

# Make the site backup path
if [ ! -d $SITE_BACKUPS ]; then
  mkdir -p $SITE_BACKUPS
fi

# Loop through the apps and:
# 1. Backup the database
# 2. Backup the site directory
# 3. Copy new wordpress files
for APP in $WEB_APPS
do
  WP_CONFIG=$APP/wp-config.php
  APP_NAME=`echo $APP | cut -d \/ -f5`
  IS_WP=0

  if [ -f $WP_CONFIG ]; then
    IS_WP=1
  fi

  if [ $IS_WP -eq 1 ]; then
    DB_NAME=`cat $WP_CONFIG | grep -P -o "define\(\'DB_NAME',\s*\'([^\']+)\'\);" | cut -d \' -f4`
    DB_USER=`cat $WP_CONFIG | grep -P -o "define\(\'DB_USER',\s*\'([^\']+)\'\);" | cut -d \' -f4`
    DB_PASSWORD=`cat $WP_CONFIG | grep -P -o "define\(\'DB_PASSWORD',\s*\'([^\']+)\'\);" | cut -d \' -f4`
    DB_HOST=`cat $WP_CONFIG | grep -P -o "define\(\'DB_HOST',\s*\'([^\']+)\'\);" | cut -d \' -f4`
    echo "Backing up database for $APP_NAME ..."
    mysqldump -h $DB_HOST -u $DB_USER -p$DB_PASSWORD $DB_NAME > $DB_BACKUPS/$DB_NAME.sql

    echo "Backing up site $APP_NAME ..."
    tar -czf $SITE_BACKUPS/$APP_NAME.tar.gz $APP/*

    echo "Copying over new wordpress to $APP_NAME ..."
    cp -rf $WP/* $APP
  fi
done

Happy coding!