Drupal Release: 6.19

TL;DR

Drupal 6.19 Release Overview

Drupal 6.19 is primarily a maintenance release focusing on documentation improvements, bug fixes, and PHP 5.3 compatibility enhancements. This update addresses several issues including watchdog hook ordering, OpenID login problems, search relevance calculation, and CSS optimization bugs. The release contains numerous documentation improvements across various core functions, making the codebase more accessible to developers.

Highlight of the Release

• Improved PHP 5.3 compatibility for better support on newer hosting environments
• Fixed OpenID login issues that previously showed 'Access denied' after successful authentication
• Resolved CSS optimization bug that caused PHP CGI to crash in certain conditions
• Extensive documentation improvements across numerous core functions
• Fixed watchdog hook ordering to properly respect module weights

Migration Guide

No specific migration steps are required for this maintenance release. Standard Drupal update procedures apply:

1. Back up your database and site files
2. Put your site in maintenance mode
3. Replace your existing Drupal core files with the new 6.19 release files (excluding the sites directory)
4. Run update.php
5. Take your site out of maintenance mode

This release does not contain database schema changes or API changes that would require special migration steps.

Upgrade Recommendations

This is a recommended upgrade for all Drupal 6 sites, especially those:

• Running on PHP 5.3 environments
• Using OpenID authentication
• Utilizing CSS optimization features
• With multilingual content using the locale module

The update addresses several bugs that could impact site stability and user experience. As this is primarily a maintenance release with bug fixes and documentation improvements, the risk of upgrade issues is minimal. Standard backup procedures should be followed before upgrading.

Bug Fixes

• Watchdog Hook Ordering: Fixed issue where watchdog hook invocations were ordered by name instead of weight (#521370)
• Taxonomy Selection: Resolved dependency on node preview for taxonomy selection functionality (#341136)
• CSS Optimization: Fixed issue where optimizing CSS would cause PHP CGI to segfault in PCRE function 'match' under certain conditions (#444228)
• OpenID Login: Resolved issue where OpenID logins would show "Access denied" after successful authentication (#365597)
• Search Relevance: Fixed broken search relevance calculation when last_comment_timestamp was NULL (#488166)
• PHP Notices: Eliminated PHP notice when a batch is used without JavaScript (#867722)
• Locale Module: Fixed state machine inconsistency in locale module import code that caused plural string variants to be ignored (#860154)
• Data Handling: Improved robustness of drupal_unpack() and user_save() to avoid issues with empty keys in data arrays (#767512)
• CSS Selector: Fixed typo in a Garland print.css selector (#750434)

New Features

No significant new features were added in this maintenance release. Drupal 6.19 focuses primarily on bug fixes, documentation improvements, and compatibility enhancements.

Security Updates

No specific security fixes were mentioned in the release notes. However, as with any Drupal update, this release may include minor security hardening measures as part of general code improvements and bug fixes.

Performance Improvements

• CSS Optimization: Fixed and improved the CSS optimization functionality that previously caused crashes in certain environments (#444228)
• Module Loading: More efficient module loading by using module_load_install() instead of module_load_include() in drupal_get_schema_unprocessed() (#828706)

Impact Summary

Drupal 6.19 is a maintenance release that improves stability and documentation without introducing breaking changes. The most significant impacts are:

1. Improved PHP 5.3 compatibility - Sites running on newer PHP environments will benefit from fixes that prevent deprecation notices and improve compatibility.

2. Fixed OpenID authentication - Users who previously experienced "Access denied" errors after OpenID login will now be able to log in successfully.

3. Resolved CSS optimization crashes - Sites using CSS optimization that experienced PHP CGI crashes will now function properly.

4. Better developer documentation - Extensive documentation improvements across numerous core functions make the codebase more accessible and easier to work with.

5. Fixed search relevance - Content with no comments will now be properly ranked in search results.

Overall, this release provides important stability improvements and bug fixes without requiring significant adaptation from site owners or developers.