In the open source world, version control generally takes care of staying current with the latest releases, but once you've begun to customize your code,
merging in updates isn't always what you want. As a result I've come up with the following pattern for Octopress:
1. Plugins, configs, gemfiles, `.themes`, `.gitignore` and the `Rakefile` are all tracked for easy to updating and collaborating.
2. The install process copies layouts, pages, javascripts, and styles out of the `.themes` directory. Once you've installed a theme, none of the
files under `source` or `sass` are in any repository except your own. This way you can change them to your liking without worrying about merging in
updates and screwing up your changes.
When you pull down changes from the Octopress repository, the latest layouts, pages, javascripts and styles are merged into your `.themes` directory.
To update your site, you must manually merge in the new files. Before you do a spit-take, I came up with something to help out with this.
## Updating Sass
If you've pulled in changes and you want to update your `/sass` directory, run this.
rake update_style
This task will:
1. Move `/sass` to `/sass.old`
2. Copy `.themes/classic/sass` to `/sass`
3. Replace `/sass/custom/` with `/sass.old/custom/`
This way if you keep your theme changes in `/sass/custom` you'll be able to upgrade your stylesheets without losing any of your work. If you made changes elsewhere, you can copy them back them from `/sass.old`.
After you have the update in place, you can remove the `/sass.old` directory.
## Updating Source
If you've pulled in changes and you want to update your `/source` directory, run this.
rake update_source
This task will:
1. Move `/source` to `/source.old`
2. Copy `.themes/classic/source` to `/source`
3. Copy back everything in `/source.old` (`cp -rn` - without replacing )
4. Replace `/source/_includes/navigation.html` with `/source.old/_includes/navigation.html` (because it commonly has changes).
This way all of the files you've added, eg. `_posts`, `about.html` etc. will be preserved while all files tracked by Octopress (except for the navigation partial) will be updated.
If you made changes elsewhere, you can copy them back them from `/source.old`. After you have the update in place, you can remove the `/source.old` directory.
## That's It?
Yep. I figured this is the simplest thing that could possibly work. I don't like the idea of having blog files change if someone wants to update their plugins,
and I haven't yet figured out a better way. If you have a better idea, I'd love some [help](http://convore.com/octopress/ideas) improving this.
[Next, Blogging With Octopress »](/docs/blogging)
