Installing WordPress The Right Way (revised)

Keep WordPress core files entirely separate from your content (themes, plugins, uploads).

There are a couple of ways to keep your WordPress install up-to-date. The easiest way is to install it as an svn:external. In the root of your (Subversioned) site:

svn propedit svn:externals .

Then paste in:

wordpress http://svn.automattic.com/wordpress/tags/[current_tag_number]

Replacing [current_tag_number] with the current tag number (check wordpress.org/download/ to see the latest). Alternately, you can just download WordPress and put it in a wordpress folder (or wp or whatever you prefer) in the root of your site.

Now copy the default wp-content folder from the fresh copy of WordPress to the root of your site:

cp -R wordpress/wp-content .

Delete the existing .svn folders from your fresh new wp-content.

cd wp-content
rm -rf `find . -type d -name .svn`

Now create your wp-config.php

cd ..
cp wordpress/wp-config-sample.php wp-config.php

Edit the file and add your database info. While you’re in there, add these settings to the top of the file:

// Custom wp-content folder: 
define('WP_CONTENT_DIR', $_SERVER['DOCUMENT_ROOT'] . '/wp-content' );
define('WP_CONTENT_URL', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '/wp-content');

define('WP_HOME', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '');
define('WP_SITEURL', 'http://' . $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . '/wordpress');

Those settings do a number of cool things. First, you’re allowing WordPress to use your fresh copy of wp-content in the root of your site instead of the one that lives inside of the wordpress folder. Second, you’re specifically setting some WordPress variables that are normally defined in its database in PHP, so that you won’t have to readjust your settings between development (on your local machine) and where it lives in the wild. Third, you’re telling WordPress where to find it’s core files since you’ve put them in a subfolder (/wordpress).

Now copy index.php from WordPress to the root of your site:

cp wordpress/index.php .

Edit the file and change the line that says:

require('./wp-blog-header.php');

To this:

require('./wordpress/wp-blog-header.php');

If you want fancy URLs (you do), create an .htaccess file:

touch .htaccess
chmod 666 .htaccess

Duplicate the default theme:

cp -R wp-content/themes/default wp-content/themes/[your_new_theme]

Replacing [your_new_theme] with what you want your new theme to be called.

Bonus: keep Akismet as an svn:external for automatic updates from Automattic.

cd wp-content/plugins/
rm -rf akismet

Or, if you’re already committed your code:

svn rm akismet
svn ci -m "Moving Akismet to external."

Then setup the external link:

svn propedit svn:externals .

Paste in:

akismet http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/akismet/trunk/

That’s it.

Now commit your code and get to it. If you get lost, check out wp-template for an example.

Updating WordPress

svn propedit svn:externals .

Change the tag number, then svn update and you’re good to go.

If you’re not using svn:externals, just dump a new copy of WordPress over the one that’s already in /wordpress. There’s no way you can hurt your existing content, because that’s all in the /wp-content folder in the root of your site.

Sources

• Installing/Updating WordPress with Subversion
• Changing File Permissions
• Recursively delete .svn directories
• Editing wp-config.php
• WP Config
• Giving WordPress its own Directory