Core auto-updates UI: Consider setting it by default for new installations

[audrasjb]

During the last dev chat, setting major auto-updates by default for new installations was considered by the core team. The project leads also wanted to explore this for WP 5.6.

[audrasjb]

Upgrade/Install: set auto_update_core_major option to true for new installations

[audrasjb]

Patch works fine.

[mukesh27]

Patch 51743.diff​ working fine for me on WordPress 5.6-beta3-49552 with the fresh installation.

[azaozz]

In 51743.2.diff: Set the default for the auto_update_core_major option to enabled for new installs and override it to unset on upgrading from a WP version earlier than 5.6.

Please test!

[azaozz]

In 51743.3.diff:

• Populate the three new auto-update options: auto_update_core_dev, auto_update_core_minor, and auto_update_core_major.
• Add some more inline comments.

These pre-populated options apply only to single site installs despite that they are set/read with update_site_option() and get_site_option(). To do the same for multisite/network installs it seems the code will have to be in upgrade_network() and (perhaps) in populate_network() in schema.php but not sure if that's needed/a good idea. Pinging @jeremyfelt as the resident multisite/network expert for a quick review :)

Still todo:

• More testing on existing and new single-site installs.
• TBD: should new network installs be set to do major core auto-updates by default, same as single sites?

[helen]

In 49581:

Upgrade/Install: Enable all core autoupdates for new installs.

Likely needs more work for multisite installs.

Reference: ​https://make.wordpress.org/core/2020/11/10/wp5-6-auto-update-implementation-change/

Props audrasjb, azaozz.
See #51743.

[helen]

Does this ticket need anything else? Do we need to address multisite at all? My view is that by nature multisite is still really meant for a more hands-on admin so I don't know that autoupdates on by default makes sense right now. That said, is it weird if somebody has explicitly turned major autoupdates on in the UI and then converts to multisite and it's off again? Is it okay to call that a multisite conversion quirk for now? I am not strongly opinionated, hoping somebody else feels strongly enough about this to advocate for a direction before RC :)

[audrasjb]

FWIW, I'm fine with the current implementation _for now_. Multisites can be handled in the next release. Also, they still have the possibility to opt-in to auto-updates once the multisite is set up.

[pbiron]

I concur with @audrasjb.

Ultimately, when a single site is converted to a multisite, it would be good if the multisite "inherited" the current setting for the single site during conversion, but I seriously doubt we can get a working/tested patch before RC1 (in a few hours). I know I certainly don't have time.

This "quirk" should be made very explicit in the dev-note so that MS admins are aware.

[audrasjb]

This "quirk" should be made very explicit in the dev-note so that MS admins are aware.

Absolutely. FYI I'm working on the dev note right now, I'll let you know when it's ready for review.

[audrasjb]

Closing as fixed. We'll open a new ticket to handle next steps for multisites.