Or, another possible title: Please explain and/or list which upgrade paths (example: version SMF x.x RC Y upgrade to SMF z.z RC Q) make sense.
I have been running SMF for my medium sized community successfully for the past year. Currently my board identifies as SMF 2.0 RC3.
Now I see some mods I want to try for my community and they are not available for RC3. They do seem to be available for SMF 2.0 RC4 or RC5, or, for SMF 1.1.13. So maybe I want to upgrade.
You guys have two fershlugginer systems of numbering:
SMF 1.1."XX"
And,
SMF 2.0 RC"X"
How the heck do the versions work on SMF and how do these two different systems relate to each other?
Can someone pretty please explain what the relationship is between the versions in the series 1.1.XX and what I presume are the SMF 2.0 "release candidates"?
Are all of the SMF 2.0 RC's more high functioning and recent than the SMF 1.1.xx series? Or is the opposite the case?
Why, after the year I have messed with SMF, is SMF 2.0 permanently stuck in a "release candidate" mode, implying that it's not ready for prime time?
I mean - why haven't the "standard" distributions of SMF 2.0 gone to a 2.x.y system of numbering?
And what makes sense to upgrade "from" and "to"? Which upgrade paths are mutually incompatible?
I just attempted an upgrade from a copy of my board to SMF 1.1.13. It puked on this:
LainaaThis query:
SELECT ID_HOLIDAY
FROM smf_calendar_holidays
WHERE YEAR(eventDate) > 2010
LIMIT 1;
Caused the error:
Unknown column 'eventDate' in 'where clause'
So this implies that the "from" and "to" version upgrade I tried should not be attempted. I searched for this particular bug and I get lots of dissociated questions from others on here having the same error and lots of MySQL type questions, but I am using other people's source because I don't feel like debugging SQL and I have seen no "this is really what you need to understand" type guiding principles for SMF upgrades.
This is *really* great software. I just don't hang out on FOSS forums all day to pick up this trivia by osmosis and I am trying to make sense of how the versions are organized. It's not my hobby. I'll share my own findings gladly if I have any, but for pete's sake, some of this should be defined in a "hard" way. Right now it just seems like one putters around until you stop getting errors from the upgrades.
Some well defined pointers would really be appreciated.
Thanks!
Hey there, it's pretty simple, I'll explain it to you.
The latest SMF 1.1 version (SMF 1.1.13) is the last stable version of SMF that was released. While the latest of SMF 2.0 RC's (RC5) is the latest version of the 2.0 series, however, the 2.0 series is still being developed, and is in Release Candidates, SMF 2.0 Final should be out shortly, which will be marked as the latest "stable" version of SMF.
Ok... thanks. So are you saying that my running RC3 implies that I should go up to RC4 or RC5, and not even look "back" at 1.1.13? The 1.1.13 stuff is older/less than, right?
The SMF 1.1 series is only being updated with any Security updates/bugs that are found in it. So the SMF 2.0 series, even though it's still in the RC stages, is the new SMF.
SMF 2.0 RC3 is actually quite old, and a LOT has been updated since then, both security wise, and a lot of bugfixes have been made since then in addition. As of now, I would suggest at least upgrading to SMF 2.0 RC4 Security Patch, if not RC5.
Hope this helps,
Labradoodle-360
Thank you, Labradoodle! :D
Basically, the branches go in order of 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0 RCX.
1.0.X is ancient history - but some still use it, I think the latest 1.0 version is 1.0.21. No new patches (except security) are done to these unless I'm mistaken.
1.1.X is the current Stable branch. Still fully supported, still updated with security patches etc. The latest 1.1 version is 1.1.13
Most mods and themes available to date, are designed for 1.1.
2.0 Release Candidate versions are the current development branch, not fully supported ( ie. update patches are not released for RC versions, and mod and theme support may be lacking compared to 1.1 ) and this version is still in development for the time being. The latest 2.0 RC version is RC5, which is basically stable enough to be used, and there are basically no big issues with it for the most part.
This site is currently running SMF 2.0 RC5, which goes to show that it works ;)
Sometime in the not too distant future (I hope) there will be an SMF 2.0 release, which will then become the current fully supported Stable release, meant to replace the RC versions, and from there on if 2.0 needs to be patched, it will probably be 2.0.1 and so on. :)
Please keep in mind as well that there is no supported method to downgrade from 2.0 to 1.1.13.
True - If you are planning on taking 2.0 for a test ride, you should make heavy backups of your current versions files and database, and preferably first make a test copy to play with, rather than directly upgrading your live site if you are the least bit unsure.
Ok, thanks for the perspective - I know what I need to do now. You guys should just understand that for a newcomer or occasional participant on a board like this, even for an active SMF board owner, the story on versions is extremely confusing. I do not have a good suggestion for a better way to label things, however.
I am curious if there is a FAQ that covers this genealogy and recommendations for upgrade practices. It seems to get asked a lot here as part of other questions.
have you read Upgrading SMF (http://docs.simplemachines.org/index.php?board=3.0;sort=subject) ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Software_versioning
It is common practice that higher numbers in sequence represent a later version or release of a software, which is typically accompanied by bug fixes, new features or overhauls.