I have inherited a 1.1.11 install with TP. Looking at 2 of our articles it appears to have some underlying custom code. We are experiencing a mix of problems which have me thinking it's time to upgrade. Will the upgrade trash the custom code? Does the upgrade delete code tied to the old code? Thanks for the help!!
Yes, when you upgrade all of the custom modifications and normal modifications will be "removed". I say removed in quotes as they won't be there in the first place since it is using fresh copies of the files.
Thanks colin! My experience was on static html pages created with netscape's editor. That experience gives me Just enough insight to see the tip of the iceberg in this "sea". Does the upgrade/install save the old files?
no.... upgrade is a manual process for 1.1.x to 2.0.x, so you will be overwriting the files yourself.
(always take a backup yourself, of course)
If you do a series of "small" upgrades to 1.1.12, .13, etc. eventually you can get to 1.1.16 (current latest and greatest on the 1.1 branch) without losing your mods and customizations. You still will not be able to jump to 2.0 without losing them, but 1.1.16 should be more secure than where you are now. Note that small upgrades are installed like mods, so due to your installed mods and custom code, you may still end up having to do a lot of manual editing.
On the subject of backups is tar good enough? My predecessor has been using it. It seemed like a good idea until I discovered the SMFbackup.php download. I read through the strings dump of the jar file and didn't see any blocks running tar or dump. Thanks again for the help!
backup using your hosting cpanel - back up the files and back up the database (you need both)