Patching vs Installing all those Drupal files
Submitted by root on May 13, 2009 - 3:42pm
Just a quick note, if you've got shell access to your drupal install, this site provides patch sets so you don't have to do the massive copy dance for every new release.
Murphy
Of course, I just tried the patch for 6.11 to 12 and on my system it didn't work... although it did work for .10 to .11
Always make a backup :D