On every site where I updated WordPress to version 3.5, two error messages flashed onto the screen, only to be immediately replaced by the WordPress About page. The messages don’t stay on the screen long enough to read, but I managed to hit PrintScreen and read them that way.
Note: this has happened with previous updates, but I can’t be sure when it started because I may not have noticed the errors before, and the sites all seem to work fine.
Warning: copy(/home/something/wordpress/wp-blog-header.php)
[function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in
/home/something/wordpress/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php on line 200
Warning: copy(/home/something/wordpress/index.php)
[function.copy]: failed to open stream: Permission denied in
/home/something/wordpress/wp-admin/includes/class-wp-filesystem-direct.php on line 200
Update: there are really two issues here: first, what are the warnings telling me, are they serious, and can I prevent them from happening? Second, wouldn’t it be a good idea to leave the warnings on the screen instead of flashing them up, only to have them disappear into the abyss milliseconds later? I can’t help wondering whether more serious warnings/errors might also disappear if/when they occurred. Are these warnings logged anywhere?
The issue is that the files cannot be written to by the web/php process due to permissions.
This is:
So, I’d advise you do the following:
This gives you a foolproof method of updating WP Core, without setting the write permissions in such a way that it compromises your security for the sake of convenience.
Given the warnings, I’d recommend doing the procedure again via FTP, clearly those files may not be the v3.5 files but older ones that it couldn’t write to.
Give your files/folders the right CHMOD (I assume 755 for folders)
Edit: This answer should answer all your questions 😉
What is true chmod for WordPress?