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Manual Reference Pages  - OVDB_INIT (8)

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ovdb_init - Prepare ovdb database for use

CONTENTS

ovdb_init [-u|-r]

This command must be run before any other process can access the overview database. It performs the following steps:

1	Creates the database environment, if necessary
2	If the database is idle (and if the -u option is not specified), it performs a normal recovery. The recovery will remove stale locks, recreate the memory pool cache, and repair any damage caused by a system crash or improper shutdown.
3	If the -u option is specified, it performs any necessary upgrades to the database. See the UPGRADING section below.
4	Starts the DB housekeeping processes (ovdb_monitor) if they’re not already running. (Unless the -r option is specified).
5	Starts the ovdb readserver (ovdb_server) processes if readserver in ovdb.conf is true, and if they’re not already running. (Unless the -r option is specified). Returns exit status of 0 if all steps were completed successfully. In the event of an error, messages are written to syslog and/or stderr. If a recovery was attempted but it failed, the database may be damaged beyond repair, requiring a rebuild with makehistory(8). This command is normally invoked automatically by rc.news(8). It is OK to run this command multiple times.

-r	Perform recovery only. ovdb_monitor is not started.
-u	Perform any needed upgrades. Recovery is not attempted. ovdb_monitor is started if the upgrade succeeded.

There are two situations in which the database will need to be upgraded:

o	You upgrade the BerkeleyDB library to a newer version, for example from 2.7.7 to 3.1.17. In this case, the BerkeleyDB db->upgrade() method is used.
o	You upgrade ovdb to a newer major version; i.e., ovdb-1.0 to ovdb-2.0. In both of these cases, the database is upgraded in-place; and the upgrade can not be undone. Do not interrupt the upgrade process once it has started, because there is a risk of irrepairable corruption. The upgrade may take several minutes to complete. If an upgrade does get interrupted, try running the upgrade again. Here’s an example procedure to upgrade a database created with BerkeleyDB 2.7.7 to use BerkeleyDB 3.1.17:
1	Build and install the BerkeleyDB 3.1.17
2	Run configure in the INN source tree and make sure it picks up the right BerkeleyDB directory (e.g., /usr/local/BerkeleyDB.3.1)
3	Do a make
4	Shut down INN (e.g., with rc.news stop). Be sure to kill all nnrpds as well.
5	Do a make update to install the new binaries.
6	Run ovdb_init -u as the news user.
7	Start INN with rc.news It is OK to specify -u even if no upgrades are needed.

Written by Heath Kehoe <hakehoe@avalon.net> for InterNetNews.

ovdb(5), makehistory(8)

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