TOC | Previous | Next | Documentation Home


Merging configuration files for an existing site

EXISTING SITES ONLY

This section applies only to existing Reciprocal Net sites that are upgrading to the newest release of the Reciprocal Net site software.  It does not apply to new sites.

Amongst the files that were brought over from your old system was the recipnetd.conf configuration file that controls the recipnetd daemon.  This file may or may not have contained customizations applied previously by your old system’s administrator. 

The present release of the Reciprocal Net site software includes a new recipnetd.conf with several new and updated configuration directives.  These new directives are required for proper operation of site software 0.9.0.  It is necessary to merge your new system’s recipnetd.conf file with your old system’s recipnetd.conf file.  There is a utility for doing just that.  At a command prompt, type:

recipnet-mergeconfig

.  The configuration files are merged and several lines of descriptive output are produced.  Leave this output open for a moment.

Now go to the GNOME desktop and double-click the Computer icon in the upper-left corner of the desktop.  In the window that appears, double-click the Filesystem icon.  Continue navigating to the etc folder and then the recipnet folder beneath it.  Notice there are several files in the /etc/recipnet/ folder, including these three:

· recipnetd.conf , which is a default configuration file optimized for site software 0.9.0.

· recipnetd.conf.rpmsave , which is the configuration file that was copied from your old system.

· recipnetd.conf.merge , which is a merged version of the two files above.

Double-click the recipnetd.conf.merge file to open it in a text editor.  In a moment, you will activate this file as your new system’s configuration file.  First, peruse the file and verify that all of your customizations (if any) were copied over from your old system correctly.

Review the output of the merge program in the terminal window.  You should see a Properties changed section with one or more configuration directives listed beneath it.  This means that for those directives listed, the merge program ignored the value that was found in recipnetd.conf.rpmsave (from your old system), instead overriding it with a default value that is likely more appropriate for your new system running site software 0.9.0.  Usually the merge program is correct, but you might wish to double-check these directives by looking at the configuration files with your text editor.  If needed, refer to page 51 for a complete reference on the recipnetd.conf file.

Also output by the merge program in the terminal window should be a Properties removed section with zero or more configuration directives listed beneath it.  The directives listed in this section were found in the recipnetd.conf.rpmsave (from your old system) but could not be copied automatically to recipnetd.conf.merge .  They probably represent important customizations by your site’s system administrator, such as locally-defined custom metadata files.  If there are any configuration directives listed in this section, you will need to copy them manually.  Open the recipnetd.conf.rpmsave file in a text editor window and find the named directives.  Highlight these lines and copy them to the clipboard.  (Look inside the recipnetd.conf.rpmsave file using a text editor; do not rely on the output of the merge program.)  Then, open recipnetd.conf.merge in a text editor window, find the corresponding section of the file, and paste in the configuration directives.

When you’ve finished reviewing recipnetd.conf.merge and are ready to test it, save the file and exit the text editor program.

In the GNOME folder window, find the file named recipnetd.conf and right-click its icon.  In the menu that pops up, select Move to Trash.

Then find the file named recipnetd.conf.merge .  Right-click its icon and select Rename from the popup menu.  Rename the file to recipnetd.conf .  Right-click on the same file again and select Properties from the popup menu.  In the window that appears, click the Permissions tab.  Set the Owner to recipnet, the access beneath it to Read and write, the Group to recipnet, the access beneath it to None, and the access for Others to None.  Then click the Close button.  The merged configuration file now is active.

It is necessary also to remove (or at least rename) the recipnetd.conf.rpmsave file.  Otherwise, future upgrades to the Reciprocal Net site software might be confused by the presence of this file and would attempt to merge configurations again.  Right-click on the icon for recipnetd.conf.rpmsave and, in the menu that pops up, select Move to Trash.


TOC | Previous | Next | Documentation Home