Direct plugin auto-update on WordPress 2.8

I get a lot of traffic on the site due to my post on getting direct (non-FTP) updates to work on WordPress 2.5.  This method worked up until 2.7.x.  With 2.8 out this week, I found during my svn switch a conflict was created due to a code change in file.php.  Looking at the changes, it looks like the wordpress developers created an easy way for one to short-circuit the update to use the method you want via a setting in wp-config.php.

So, in brief, the permissions and WP_TEMP_DIR settings from the older article still stand.  However, you no longer need to edit wp-admin/includes/file.php. Now you just need to edit your wp-config.php and add the following towards the bottom:

define('FS_METHOD', 'direct');

51 thoughts on “Direct plugin auto-update on WordPress 2.8”

  1. Hi Keith,

    Can confirm this still works – those of you who run into permissions issues, I wrote a short item on this here, which will work for updating themes, wp version & plugins:

    http://silicondales.com/blog/how-to-get-auto-update-working-on-wordpress-update-wp-version-plugins-without-ftp/

    If you’re having problems with this, check out your file permissions/ownership (its almost always that!).

    I wrote the above for people who keep emailing me asking how, so hope it helps a few people on this page I bookmarked years ago for my own purposes!

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