Network admin update-core.php doesn't check for plugin or theme updates

[johnbillion]

Visiting wp-admin/update-core.php on a single site install or on the main site of a network install will fire off update checks for everything -- core, plugins and themes.

Visiting this screen within network admin (wp-admin/network/update-core.php) only checks for updates to core. I believe this is unexpected behaviour based on discussion in #14764 and it's inconsistent with the behaviour of the screen on the main site or a single site installation.

The problem occurs because wp_update_plugins|themes() are only added to the load-update-core.php hook when is_main_site() is true.

[johnbillion]

Patch

[johnbillion]

Hmm. There's a check inside wp_update_plugins() and wp_update_themes() which prevents the checks from happening if a check was performed within the last 12 hours and no plugins/themes have changed. This check is also present in _maybe_update_plugins|themes() so surely it's redundant?

[nacin]

Interesting. Normally, the network admin is only available from is_main_site(), but it's technically $site->domain . $site.path, which may not be the case.

No objections to the patch at a glance, then, though we use early logical operators rather than the ones with later precedence. ​http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.precedence.php

[johnbillion]

My patch doesn't fix anything. I misunderstood is_main_site() (thanks nacin).

It seems there's some logic in wp_update_plugins() which should be in _maybe_update_plugins() instead. It's not possible to force a check for plugin updates (same goes for themes).

This means plugin and theme update checks are inconsistent with core update checks. I would expect wp_update_plugins() to work the same as wp_version_check(), in that it fires off an update check whenever it's called. The logic should be left to the _maybe_update_* functions.

[nacin]

It's not possible to force a check for plugin updates (same goes for themes).

It should be. Especially since we have a "Check Now" button.

My patch doesn't fix anything. I misunderstood is_main_site() (thanks nacin).

It does, in the rare situation where the main site is not the network admin.

[johnbillion]

Replying to nacin:

It's not possible to force a check for plugin updates (same goes for themes).

It should be. Especially since we have a "Check Now" button.

Agreed.

My patch doesn't fix anything. I misunderstood is_main_site() (thanks nacin).

It does, in the rare situation where the main site is not the network admin.

Ah yes, in that situation it does cause wp_update_plugins() to fire, however the problem remains that wp_update_plugins() doesn't actually fire an update reeuest each time it's called.

[ryan]

Let's fix the main site not matching network admin case and punt the rest.

[nacin]

I think we need a is_network_admin_site() function. (Lame name, to be fair.) I see a few situations where is_main_site() is used in a situation where we really want to know what blog is the network admin root.

This can then be filtered potentially reusing the filter in wp-admin/network/admin.php.

[nacin]

In [19021]:

Attach update hooks in the network admin. Accounts for the rare situation where the network admin is not the main site. props johnbillion, see #18876.

[nacin]

In [19022]:

Check for plugin/theme updates every hour when hitting update-core.php, not just themes.php/plugins.php. see #18876.

[nacin]

I noticed a few days ago that there was code missing to refresh the plugin/theme updates as often on update-core.php as we do on plugins.php/themes.php. [19022] corrects this.

It's worth noting that this code will also fire on network/themes.php and network/plugins.php as the same load-* hooks fire. (Which I'm not sure I like.)

Thoughts on this? I actually think that update-core.php's timeout should be 0. It makes sense to not fire it off every time someone goes to do general theme or plugin management, but when you click "Check Again", you should get up-to-the-minute results. I'd think that update.php might want to get the same treatment.) This seems easy to implement now (just a matter of changing the logic changed in [19022]).

[scribu]

It makes sense to not fire it off every time someone goes to do general theme or plugin management, but when you click "Check Again", you should get up-to-the-minute results. I'd think that update.php might want to get the same treatment.)

Agreed.

[nacin]

18876.diff​ optimizes how the code is branched. update-core.php now always refreshes plugins/themes.

[scribu]

There seem to be two identical // Check for updated [...] depending on the page. blocks.

Also, couldn't we check WP_Screen instead of current_filter()?

[nacin]

Replying to scribu:

There seem to be two identical // Check for updated [...] depending on the page. blocks.

One for plugins, one for themes. Abstracting this further needs a lot more work.

Also, couldn't we check WP_Screen instead of current_filter()?

We could.

[kurtpayne]

Replying to nacin:

when you click "Check Again", you should get up-to-the-minute results.

I'd advocate for a short-lived cache (e.g. 30 seconds). There are several scenarios where this page could be requested multiple times in a short span.

Consider clients that pre-fetch content, or re-fetch content (extensions, scripts). Or possibly a plugin mistake that contains a self-reference error (example below) that would cause the browser to fetch the same URL again:

add_action( 'admin_notices', function() {echo '<img src="?" />';} );

This may easily save some traffic for api.wordpress.org in some edge cases.

[nacin]

Short-lived makes sense, especially considering the race conditions already baked into the code.

[SergeyBiryukov]

[19311]

[nacin]

Well then.

[nacin]

In [19312]:

Revert update changes that snuck in with [19311]. see #19255, see #18876.

[nacin]

Just need to tweak the existing patch for the short-lived timeouts.

[kurtpayne]

Short lived cache of updated responses

[nacin]

Happy with this for 3.3. We'll make it shorter-lived in 3.4.

[ryan]

In [19683]:

Check for plugin and theme updates more often when visitng update-core.php. Props kurtpayne. fixes #18876

[duck_]

[20286] to fix a copy and paste error.