WordpressUpdate

Unfortunately - the default ubuntu install is a bit too broken to allow for an automated update.

The manual update process for simple releases is as follows:

0) Read the rel notes https://codex.wordpress.org/Version_4.9.8 (substitute the right version number)

1) Consider making a backup of the database:

   umask 027
   mysqldump  --single-transaction --quick --lock-tables=false wordpress > ~/wordpress-pre-4.9.7.sql

2) Fetch a recent copy from https://wordpress.org/download/releases, check, unpacked and _rename_ it:

Warning - do not do this in /usr/share - as it unpacks in wordpress rather than something version number namespaced.

   curl -O https://wordpress.org/wordpress-4.9.8.tar.gz 
   openssl sha1 wordpress-4.9.8.tar.gz 
   tar zxf wordpress-4.9.8.tar.gz 
   sudo mv wordpress /usr/share/wordpress-4.9.8

3) Get some permission sanity

   cd /usr/share
   sudo chgrp -R www-data wordpress-4.9.8
   sudo chmod -R o-rwx wordpress-4.9.8

4) Take risk (after scanning the release notes) and copy the old config across

   sudo cp wordpress-4.9.7/wp-config.php wordpress-4.9.8

5) Test cursory and declared victory. Then let the mailing list know and ask people to be on the alert for issues.