Automated updates

Update hooks

farmOS modules may change and evolve over time. If these changes require updates to a farmOS database or configuration, then update logic should be provided so that users of the module can perform the necessary changes automatically when they update to the new version.

This logic can be supplied via implementations of hook_update_N() and hook_post_update_NAME().

For more information, see the documentation for Drupal's Update API.

Configuration updates

If the farmOS Update module is enabled, changes to configuration entities will be automatically reverted when caches are rebuilt. The purpose of this is to make it easier for farmOS module developers to make minor changes to the configuration included with their module without writing update hooks.

Note that this only handles overridden configuration. It does not handle missing, inactive, or added configuration. It also does not touch "simple" configuration (eg: module settings) - only configuration entities (eg: Views).

If your module is adding or deleting configuration, the recommended approach is to implement hook_post_update_NAME() to perform the necessary operations.

In most cases this is desirable, but if you are intentionally overriding configuration in your farmOS instance then you have a few options for disabling this behavior.

Disable farmOS Update module

The easiest way to disable automatic configuration updates is to turn off the farm_update module. This can be done via Drush:

drush pm-uninstall farm_update

This will completely disable automatic reverts of configuration. You can then manage all configuration changes and deployment manually. One way to do this is with the config_update_ui module, which provides a report of all missing, inactive, added, and changed configuration. This can be enabled via Drush:

drush en config_update_ui

Then go to /admin/config/development/configuration/report/type/system.all to see the full report. Individual configuration items can be reverted, imported, and deleted.

Exclude specific configuration

Alternatively, if you want to keep automatic updates enabled, but want control over certain items, the farmOS Update module provides two mechanisms for excluding specific configuration from automatic updates.

hook_farm_update_exclude_config()

If a module overrides certain configuration items, either in hook_install() or via something like the config_rewrite module, the module can list these configuration items in an array returned by an implementation of hook_farm_update_exclude_config().

For example, in mymodule.module:

/**
 * Implements hook_farm_update_exclude_config().
 */
function mymodule_farm_update_exclude_config() {

  // Exclude mymodule_custom view from automatic configuration updates.
  return [
    'views.view.mymodule_custom',
  ];
}

farm_update.settings

The farmOS Update module will also check the exclude_config setting in its own farm_update.settings configuration for a list of configuration items to exclude from automatic updates. This can be provided by a custom module in config/install/farm_update.settings.yml, or synced/imported into active configuration by other means.

For example, in farm_update.settings.yml:

exclude_config:
  # Exclude mymodule_custom view from automatic configuration updates.
  - views.view.mymodule_custom