A Way to Auto update plugins using cron?

Is there a solution to keep plugins updated with wordpress by auto upgrade them without need to access to the admin panel every time?

1 Answer
1

Holy schmoly shadowpress – what a risky idea.

I imagine one could write a cron plugin to do it, BUT what a risk….Already the auto wordpress multi update feature makes it way too tempting to just hit the update button on a bunch of updates in one go.

Recommended ‘safe’ procedure for system upgrades is something along the lines of:
1) read the changelogs and test all upgrades on a local similar install first
2) make a backup before upgrading
3) apply updates individually, checking all is fine in between, possibly even making a new backup in between so you can rollback should an upgrade not agree with your site.

If one can cope with the fallout of an error one could skip a step… but going to full automated update sounds like a recipe for disaster.

Consider the likelihood/risk/impact balance:

eg: the likelihood of a tsunami causing a nuclear reactor to melt down may be low, but the impact if it does……

Given that plugins are written by a variety of 3rd party developers, theres is a strong likeihood of a clash of some kind. Also some plugins release major new features in an update and that sometimes requires human intervention.

That said – a look at the ‘related’ questions will show you that the question does come up now and then.
eg:
Real automated and unattended wordpress upgrade including plugins

Plugin for automated upgrade of WordPress core and it’s plugins?

Leave a Comment