Should I upgrade to the latest Roots?

Jumped into Wordpress with Roots, and did a site for my wife (and was helped a lot by kind people like Chris). About 3 weeks after the was done, the new version of Roots was released along with Wordpress 3.6.x.

I’ve already moved her to WP 3.6.x but haven’t touched Roots. Should I upgrade the site to the latest version of Roots, and if so are there any specific guidelines to doing it? I’m not using bootstrap on her site - removed it, so those updates wouldn’t matter to me.

Tried to post the new site in the examples section, but couldn’t figure out how: http://www.sandiboudreau.com

Thanks!

Don’t try to update unless something is broken with a new version of WP, or there is a new feature introduced in Roots that you need. Roots is a starter theme, not a framework that needs updates.

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Okay cool. But one question Chris - wouldn’t it be better to try and stay in step?

If things could break in WP releases, I’m afraid I’ll be left behind and get into trouble down the road.

I had the same exact question and would love to know your recommended approach to update the theme down the road when it become necessary to do so.

We’ve only had one instance where there was an issue… when WordPress changed searchform template loading code in WP 3.6. As Chris said, you shouldn’t update the theme unless it’s necessary due to a bug. In that case, you will be able to just view a commit on GitHub and apply those specific changes to the theme. You shouldn’t expect to have to do that often, or ever.

Sweet, thanks Ben! And thanks for the great theme. Have recommended to someone else already, and just launched our new production site built on Roots: www.theatereleven.com

The whole GitHub stuff is a little greek to me, but I’ll figure it out when the time comes I suppose.