I choose to not run FTP on my server so when it comes time to upgrade WordPress, I do it manually. If, like me, you think that even the short instructions are too long, here are the even shorter instructions. These commands are done within an SSH shell on the server.

1. Backup your existing WordPress install and database
2. Download WordPress and upgrade using the below commands. Replace the directories with those specific to your system.

   cd ~/downloads
   wget https://wordpress.org/latest.tar.gz
   tar xvzf latest.tar.gz
   cd /var/www/wordpress
   rm -r wp-includes wp-admin
   cp -r ~/downloads/wordpress/wp-includes .
   cp -r ~/downloads/wordpress/wp-admin .
   rsync -rAv ~/downloads/wordpress/wp-content/ wp-content/
   rsync -Av ~/downloads/wordpress/*.{php,html,txt} .

3. Visit your main WordPress admin page at /wp-admin and upgrade the database if necessary.