How can I update from the recommended release of a module to it development snapshot?

Question

I'm currently using the Geofield module, 7.x-1.0-beta2 (released on November 17, 2011). The development snapshot has some functionalities I want.

How do I correctly and safely update to the development snapshot, which was last update on January 10, 2012?

What I currently do is removing the geofield field from any content type, uninstalling the module, physically delete the module files from the server, download and install the development snapshot.

This seems to work but I'm wondering if there is a more efficient workflow.

(I have Drush installed; an answer about using it is welcome too.)

Answer 1

From the working directory (site root) use this command:

drush dl module_name --dev

To get the DEV version.

Or:

drush dl module_name --select

To display a list of available versions.

Afterwards do drush updatedb to apply any database updates made by the module. You should check out https://drushcommands.com/ and all the commands on that page (the aliases are at the end of each section). For example, drush up will check for all possible updates.

In most cases you will not need to disable and uninstall things first but always make sure you are working in a dev environment and have regular backups (e.g. use the backup_migrate module). Drush will also backup the previous version of the module when usingdrush upbut NOT if you directly overwrite withdrush dl`.

Answer 2

You can use drush pm-update to update any module, and add the version information to update to a specific version. For example if you want to update to a 7.x-1.x-dev version of a module, you can use the following command:

drush pm-update MODULE_NAME-7.x-1.x-dev

or, shorter:

drush up MODULE_NAME-1.x-dev

so you can omit 7.x-.