Use SVN Tags to Install and Upgrade a Site

If you want to maintain the data in a test installation through one or more release cycles, then using tagged SVN releases, rather than checking out and using the latest revision from a branch. This is particularly useful if you are working with a copy of production data from a stable release over the course of an alpha / beta new release cycle.

Review the steps for Installing CiviCRM from subversion (SVN) repository to get a general idea of the procedure. This page covers the DIFFERENCES when using SVN tags.

Installing a tagged release

Check out a tagged release to start, rather than checking out from trunk or a branch:

EXAMPLE: To begin with the 3.2 Alpha 1 release:

Following the remaining steps (2 through 10) here.

You should now have a running CiviCRM site. Be sure and verify the your civicrm-version.txt file contains the version corresponding to the tag you've checked out (e.g 3.2.alpha1 Drupal PHP5 for the example we started with).

If you want to upgrade and use a copy of a production DB (i.e. from a prior version):

Update the CIVICRM_DSN in your civicrm.settings.php file to point that DB
Run the CiviCRM upgrade script by logging in and navigating to:

You may need to go through the site move procedure as well to update path information stored in that DB.

Updating to a new release tag

Follow these steps when you are ready to update the site to a new release tag:

Switch your local SVN repository to the new release tag:

EXAMPLE: To switch to the 3.2 Alpha 4 release:

Review the version contained in civicrm-version.txt and update to the new tag version if needed.

Update the DAO (data access object) files to the current release:

Run the CiviCRM upgrade script by logging in and navigating to:

If the upgrade script runs successfully, your site should be happily running the new release.