How often do you upgrade your hugo version?

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This is not a complain, I’m just asking out of curiousity :slight_smile:

I just read on HN the other day Some Notes on Upgrading Hugo | Hacker News

Some people complain about that hugo upgrades break their site.

Maybe it is just due to the new template system (which I really like!)

Is it even worth it to ever upgrade? I mean it is just a static site generator, why would I even upgrade if there is no need for? I’m on v0.148.2 and I’m totally happy with it!

Thank you hugo team, so much appreciation! :heart_decoration:

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The simple answer here is that, while Hugo is production ready, it might still be in beta, hence the v.0.xxx.x. While it tries to be as backwards compatible as it can, new features or changes necessitate breaking some things here and there. But looking back recently, major breaking changes happened in versions 0.123.0 and 0.146.0.

The beauty of Hugo is that you only really need to upgrade if you need any of the new features in future versions. And that may come with the pain of having to make changes to your site/theme to be in line with the chosen version.

Personally, I usually keep up with current Hugo and have made changes in my sites (no external theme) to ensure my code and markdown formatting is up to date. I sometimes skip minor versions if I read the release notes and see a bug or improved feature does not affect my site.

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I’m with @tyco with the first two statements.

but let me mention two things:

continuous follow hugo’s release cycle

imho best if you have your own layouting/theme

  • smaller changes are more easy to handle.

If you wait too long,

  • you will miss even some deprecation messages as that thing has been totally removed.
  • The docs may have changed and don’t match your old version.
  • it’s hard to track down all changes at a large version jump

OFC you must test each update to not break your site. So it’s a steady invest of time.

An external theme involved

This case is different. Themes tend to not be at cutting edge. So i would update more defensive here. Theme’s might be quite complex and a simple change might create some effort and theme customization you don’t want to do.

Maybe here it’s better to get in contact with the author to

  1. apply a bug fix
  2. raise hugo version for simple deprecations/updates
  3. support the new feature you need

Most are willing to do 1+2 , but keep in mind that a theme has it’s users, so they have to decide if theay want to make that change…

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I think that nowadays, we should no longer assume that 0.x is beta and 1.x is a stable product, so to speak. It is precisely this thinking that leads many projects to deliberately avoid releasing a version 1.0 or to use a different versioning system such as CalVer (Calendar Versioning). Because nowadays, development usually continues after version 1, which in turn can lead to bugs or breaking changes.

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Basically, I can understand your point of view. But what if, for example, version 160.1 includes a feature that you really want to use? With a bit of bad luck, major changes may have taken place between 0.148.2 and 160.0 that make it necessary to adapt your theme. I prefer to make these changes gradually rather than all at once. That’s why I always use the latest version of Hugo and try to keep my site as up to date as possible. I also use my own theme. For this reason, and because I read the announcements of new versions, no website has yet been broken by a new Hugo version.

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