Admit it. We’ve all done something we’ve regretted in our lives. For some, never got the chance to regret their action.
I’ve recently got a wake up call today. It was one of the well known pitfalls for anyone that deals with computers. Overwriting files without backing up. Yup, the eye popping, hair pulling, window jumping situation. I’m sure I don’t need to remind anyone reading this, MAKE A BACKUP COPY FIRST!
As for me…well, it all started with a V8 splash drink and a couple biscuits for breakfast. Just another regular day at work. Nothing out of the ordinary. I was then requested to put some files onto a server for our internal blog, Wordpress MU (WPMU). We use WPMU as one of the ways to archive discussions and is a form of communication within our company.
Only a handful have people have access to this location on the server. I being one of them and the go-to guy for the WPMU blogs. Want to change the layout of the blog? Change the CSS? Upload some common images? That’s all done through me. Now, we don’t have any sort of CVS, so I have to be careful when I’m in there.
You probably know where I’m going with this already. So lets cut to the chase. I was asked to upload some files for a particular theme. Simple walk in the park. Done it before. Takes 15 seconds of my time. What possibly can go wrong right?
So the usual, copy the files that I was given, ctrl + c, open a new explorer window and go to the server, and paste the files in, ctrl + v, overwrite any existing files. As this was happening, I was asking myself if I should do a backup of the files first, but decide not to since this was a walk in the park. Awesome, now for the images. I clicked the images folder but saw nothing. I thought that was fishy. I’ve done updates for this theme before. I clicked back and saw one word that made my jaw drop on my desk - literally. That word was “admin” in the address bar.
The gears in my brain went from 0 to 100MPH in just 1.2 second. I tripled check to see what director I was in. As much as I wanted to be wrong, I was within the director of “wp-admin”, the location where all the back-end clockworks for WPMU resides. Since this was WPMU, this would affect EVERY single blog on record.
I had 2 options. Whistle and walk away or fix this soon to be catastrophe. I’m not crazy enough to walk away when I know something bad has gone wrong. First thing on my mind was to inform someone who would understand the quicksand I was stuck in. Sowrey.
Now, I am at fault for several things:
- Not backing up files
- Telling myself that I don’t need to do a backup
- Not paying attention
An awesome recipe for a disaster. A cherry on top would’ve been a DB meltdown. Fortunately that didn’t happen. I’ve been working with WordPress long enough to understand what does what and what goes where. After bringing my brain down to 2nd gear, I took a closer look at the problem. The only file I actually overwrote was the index.php file. The other files were new files written into the directory. I had an upper hand since I had recently installed WMPU on my computer and took that index.php file and replaced it with the one on the server. I then checked the back-end of things on Wordpress, and everything seemed to be back to normal. A big sigh of relief. Damage reversed.
Lesson of the story? The obvious steps that should’ve been address in the beginning. This was a wakeup call for me. It could’ve been worse. Perhaps it might’ve been client work instead. It’s too bad that my desk is on the first floor, so jumping out the window would only result in cuts. But not all this is bad. Geoff did point out to me that I did the right thing to not walk away from problem wither or not I knew about it. I had the initiative to address and fix the problem.
More or less, this is another check that life gives us time to time. It lets us comprehend the ups and downs that we face. Besides, I’ve been on available time a couple days now, why not give me heart attack to keep my on my toes?
Nice job on the recovery. I’ve been there before myself and had over written another worker’s files. Now I’m preaching the gospel of “backup” wherever I go. It’s nice to know that everybody can make an honest mistake. The important thing is how you went about correcting your mistake.
Just to add more to Nick’s story: He came prepared with a solution, and needed only assurance that he wasn’t going to make things worse. As he already had a (thankfully recent) copy on his computer, recovering from the problem wasn’t a big deal. But it could have been a lot worse.
You’ll find as you move into larger projects that relying on a code management system (such as CVS, Subversion, Starteam, Visual Source Safe, etc.) won’t always save your bacon. There are times when doing a full-on backup is a wise idea.
Things to consider:
1) How much are you potentially changing? A few files or a whole website?
2) Are you working with a database? (You might want to back up the DB, too, to ensure less of an impact.)
3) Are you modifying server configuration?
Remember that Wiki update we did? We backed up EVERYTHING. For the very reason of the upgrade not working properly. We restored a few times until we got it right. Imagine what would have happened if we hadn’t backed up first…