Drupal 7 patch howto

Step 4: Type the following into the terminal window: curl Make sure there's a space after the command, i. Step 6: Presuming the change applied ok, use "git status" to see what changed.

Step 8: Clear all of the site's caches: drush cc all Reason to do this There's no need to keep a copy of a patch file, it can always be downloaded again later from drupal.

Because there are no patch files locally there's no worrying about where the patch file is stored on the computer versus which directory the command prompt is in, or how to make the path to the patch work correctly. If the patch didn't apply cleanly then it has to be manually recreated from scratch, which can be problematic and lead to mistakes.

Using the "patch" command instead will apply what can be successfully applied, and anything that couldn't be applied correctly will be saved out as a separate ". There will be fewer files floating around the computer; the only patch files on my computer are the ones I actually created. If you use Drupal regularly, this will happen to you at some point.

However, one of the good things about using Drupal is there are so many other users that someone else may well have found and solved the error. One common way to solve an error is with a patch. A patch changes the code on your site, but only by editing a file rather than providing a complete update.

Many of the available instructions for applying patches ask you to use an application called Git and to use command line instructions. These instructions can be intimidating, so we're going to show you how non-coders can safely and effectively apply patches. Before we start, it's important to note that this is not the ideal solution for applying patches. Also, please make sure that before you do this that you have a backup of your site and that you test the patch on a backup installation of your site.

The technique in this blog is strictly for non-coder who are stuck in charge of a Drupal site that they need to fix. Imaginee you have just installed Drupal and you have created your first user account but something goes wrong. You get an error that looks like this:. I went to Drupal and searched for the error message. This switch sometimes happens when the same issue is present in two versions of Drupal. If this is the first time you have looked at code, let alone a patch, you might feel like you are in over your head but trust me, it isn't that bad.

The first thing you want to note is the file that needs to be changed. In this instance, we need to edit a module in Drupal's core.

Please note that we are not hacking core - we are patching it. The difference is that a hack is designed to permanent whereas with a patch, we hope that a future version of Drupal will fix this bug. Updating a Drupal site is vital for security. Step 1: Check for Available Updates. Step 2: Download the Update Files. Drupal will show you a link to download the files for the new update. Step 3: Upload the Update Files. Unzip the files that you've just downloaded.

You should now see a page saying the update has been successful with no errors. Click on the "Administration pages" link and go "Configuration" then "Maintenance mode" to put the site back online.