WordPress Updates: Is there to much of a good thing?

It seems that WordPress updates come down the line quite often.  So often, that if you manage quite a few WordPress blogs, you seem to always be updating them.  Is there to much of a good thing here?

So far there have been seven WordPress updates in 2008 with at least one more major update, and an unknown number of minor updates, due later this year.

• v2.6.2 Released: 9/8/08
• v2.6.1 Released: 8/15/08
• v2.6 Released: 7/15/08
• v2.5.1 Released: 4/25/08
• v2.5 Released: 3/29/08
• v2.3.3 Released: 2/5/08

Updating blog or two isn’t an issue, it’s when you have 15+ blogs to update each time.  Not only do you need to update the software, but also keep in mind backups, plugin compatibility research and plug-in updates.  It can keep a person quite busy.

The good news here is that WordPress is working on an auto updating feature called WordPress Upgrader.  It sounds like it’ll work much like the auto-updating of plug-ins does currently where you can choose to have WordPress update your software.  I for one am excited about this feature!

Another thing you can do with the smaller updates is only update the files that changed. Whenever a WordPress update comes out, the announcement blog post links to a full changeset and list of changed files. (Example  Post) Once you’ve clicked though to the WordPress trac site, scroll down to the bottom of the page and you’ll see a zip file that contains only the updated files.  Update these on your blog and your update will be complete.  There may be only a handful of files that need updating and can be a real time saver.

Whether you choose to update a few, or all files, keeping your blog up-to-date is important.  Not only to ensure that your blog software runs smoothly, but to ensure it’s safe and secure too.