Updating a block inside an update hook

Question

I want to update the configuration (weight, pages, region) of some blocks within an update function. I know I could do this directly inside the database. Is there a better way of doing this? I scanned http://api.drupal.org, but I didn't find anything like block_load() and block_save().

Do you have any idea?

Answer 1

No, there is no such thing.

One of the typical update block configuration tasks was changing the cache flag (before 6.22, that is). You can find updates that mess with the {block} table directly in many projects, including mine: privatemsg_update_6002().