--- /dev/null
+
+ HOW TO USE THE IMPORTER/EXPORTER
+ --------------------------------
+
+ Citadel/UX now contains an importer/exporter module, affectionaly known as the
+"Art Vandelay" module (a not-so-obscure Seinfeld reference). It allows you to
+export the entire contents of your Citadel databases to a flat file, which may
+then be imported on another system. (This procedure is also known as "dump and
+load" to some database gurus.)
+
+ Why would you want to do this? Here are some scenarios:
+
+-> You are moving a Citadel installation to another computer, which uses a
+ different CPU. Since Citadel stores data in an architecture-dependent
+ format, the data files wouldn't work on the new computer as-is.
+
+-> Your computer crashed, lost power, etc. and you suspect that your
+ databases have become corrupted.
+
+-> You want to switch to a different back-end data store. (Currently, the
+ only data store available is the default GDBM one, but this may change
+ in the not-too-distant future.)
+
+
+
+ So ... how do we work this magic? Follow these steps *exactly* as documented,
+and you should be able to do it all with very little trouble.
+
+
+1. This should be obvious, but it's still worth mentioning: MAKE SURE YOU
+TAKE A BACKUP OF EVERYTHING BEFORE YOU START THIS!! You're performing a
+major operation here. Don't risk it.
+
+
+2. First, get all the users logged off from your system. Disconnect it
+from the network if possible. You don't want anyone logging in while
+you're doing this.
+
+
+3. Log on as root, or some other user that has read/write access to all
+relevant files.
+
+
+4. Go to the directory that Citadel is installed in. For example, issue a
+command like "cd /usr/local/citadel"
+
+
+5. Export the databases with the following command:
+
+ ./sendcommand "ARTV export" >exported.dat
+
+ This command may run for a while. On a very large system it could take
+an hour or more. Please be patient!
+
+
+6. When the export completes, check to make sure that
+"exported.dat" exists and has some data in it.
+(Type "ls -l exported.dat")
+
+
+7. Shut down the Citadel server. If you have a line in /etc/inittab that
+reads like this:
+
+c1:2345:respawn:/usr/local/citadel/citserver -h/usr/local/citadel
+
+ ...then you should change the "respawn" to "off" and then type
+"/sbin/init q" to make the changes take effect.
+
+
+8. Now it's time to delete your current binary databases. Type:
+
+ rm citadel.config citadel.control data/*.gdbm
+
+
+9. If you're moving Citadel to another computer, you should move the
+*entire* directory over at this time. exported.dat only contains the
+information that was in the binary databases. Information which was
+stored in portable formats doesn't need to be exported/imported, so you
+must bring it all over in its current form.
+
+
+10. Now get Citadel running on the new computer (or whatever). Run setup
+(documented in install.txt) and turn the service back on (from
+/etc/inittab) but DO NOT log in.
+
+
+11. As root, run the import command:
+
+ ./sendcommand "ARTV import" <exported.dat
+
+ This will import your databases. Again, it may run for a long time.
+
+
+12. Restart the Citadel server. You can do this any way you like. From
+the command line, you can do it with a command like:
+
+ ./sendcommand "DOWN"
+
+
+13. Now you're finished. Log in and test everything. You may delete
+exported.dat at this time, or you might want to save it somewhere as a
+sort of pseudo-backup.
+
projects / citadel.git / commitdiff