Running pm-updatecode on Core Without Backups Deletes Non-Core Files and Directories

[KeyboardCowboy]

Summary:

When updating modules and core with Drush, the existing code is moved to a backup location before the new code replaces it. If there is an error, the old code can roll back over the new code, restoring the system. The pm-updatecode command accepts an option --no-backups that prevents these backups from taking place, which I find useful when using git to manage my projects. I don't need the extra disk space used up with code backups.

Issue:

Most projects have additional files at the docroot, such as Google or Bing authentication files. When updating core with backups ON, these files remain intact. With backups off ($options['no-backups'] = TRUE), these files are lost. Also any non-core profiles are deleted.

Expected Result:

Any non-core files and directories I have in the docroot or profiles/* remain intact after updating core, regardless of whether I am backing up the code or not.

Actual Result:

Non-core files are lost after updating when --no-backup is set.

Proposed Solutions:

Users Can Fix:

1. Don't turn backups off. This may increase processing time and bloat your drush-backups folder, but you won't lose files.
2. Change the backup directory to a tmp location so backups are cleaned out. $options['backup-dir'] = '/tmp/drush-backups';

Drush Fixes:

1. It looks like there are a couple of existing issues that might resolve this. [Update Drupal core without moving core files out of the way #4], [Provide a way to not delete files or folders during pm-update drupal #614]
2. If the user has --no-backups set, store backups to a tmp directory instead of ignoring them.

From what I can find, the offending code appears to be here:
https://github.com/drush-ops/drush/blob/master/commands/pm/updatecode.pm.inc#L215:L221

[weitzman]

Thanks for the clear writeup. I do think this issue is a dupe of both the issues you linked to. Fragmented discussion is not helpful so closing this.

I'll note that sites built with https://github.com/drupal-composer/drupal-project dont suffer from this problem, mainly because the dont use pm-updatecode. Thats how all D8+ sites should be built and even D7 sites should consider it.

Given available workarounds, I doubt this will ever get fixed.