Enabling New Modules Via Update.php

UPDATE: There's a better way.

I work with 3 other developers, all of whom have their own local sandbox of our site. Since we're constantly adding new modules, I found a simple way to enable a new module via another module's .install file. That way, all we have to do is run update.php when we update our source tree.

Here's a simple example update function:

<?php

function some_enabled_module_update_1() {
$ret = array();
switch ($GLOBALS['db_type']) {
case 'mysqli':
case 'mysql':
//this function tells drupal to update its file directories, and insert records for any new modules it sees.
module_rebuild_cache();
$ret[] = update_sql("UPDATE {system} SET status = 1 WHERE name = 'some_completely_new_module'");
break;
}
return $ret;
}
;?>

The major limitation of this method is that it doesn't run the new modules install file. I can live with that. It beats always bugging other developers to see if the build needs a new module enabled. I'm sure there's a workaround for that anyhow.