[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Data loss: suggestions for handling



On Fri, Aug 01, 2003 at 01:59:43PM +0200, Roland Mas wrote:
> Matthew Palmer (2003-08-01 19:51:46 +1000) :
> 
> > The latest upstream version of a package I've begun to maintain,
> > IRM, has a problem in that a portion of the data in the system
> > (relating to software and licence assignment) can't be upgraded
> > along with the rest of the database - the schema is totally
> > different.
> 
> Do you have an upgrade script?  Like a set of SQL commands that will
> convert from one schema to the other?  More importantly, do you have a

I do, but it doesn't work with the software portion.  The rest of the system
upgrades smoothly, but the information stored by the software tracker part
is different enough that it can't be converted.

I've extracted out all the SQL commands that do the upgrade from the
upstream-supplied PHP script and have gotten those going OK.  It's dealing
with the seemingly unavoidable data loss in the software tracking part that
I just can't deal with well.  Upstream seems to think it too hard as well,
because, while the rest of the system upgrades OK, they've got big "warning,
you will lose your software data" messages all over the later versions.

> > A couple of questions:
> >
> > * Am I being too paranoid?
> 
>   Probably not.  Maybe some of your users won't mind too much if they
> lose data, but most of them probably will.  Then there's the personal
> pride in building a crash-proof system even if nobody notices.

A craftsman after my own heart.  Pride in one's work.  <g>

- Matt



Reply to: