[mythtv-commits] Ticket #11509: mythfilldatabase pulls incorrect channel information from Schedules Direct

[MythTV]

#11509: mythfilldatabase pulls incorrect channel information from Schedules Direct
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 Reporter:  ccoager@…             |          Owner:
     Type:  Bug Report - General  |         Status:  infoneeded_new
 Priority:  minor                 |      Milestone:
Component:  MythTV - General      |        Version:  0.26-fixes
 Severity:  medium                |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                        |  Ticket locked:  0
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Comment (by mdean):

 Yes.  Running mythfilldatabase --do-channel-updates explicitly tells
 mythfilldatabase to make unsafe changes to '''all''' existing channels
 (even ones that your provider hasn't recently changed) because the user
 does not want to bother with updating channels himself.  It says, "Treat
 the information from the listings provider as the definitive channel
 listing, and forget all modifications I have made to my channels."  Unsafe
 changes include changes to call sign, name, channel number (and ATSC
 major/minor channel numbers), and frequency(tuning) ID.

 If you use --do-channel-updates, you will need to make the same changes
 each time, because you're saying to use the information from your listings
 provider and forget all your changes.  Alternatively, once you have the
 majority of your channels defined, edit them manually to reflect any
 changes made by your provider.

 Note, too, that mythfilldatabase will make /safe/ changes to your channels
 every time it's run.  Safe changes include adding an XMLTV ID and setting
 name and call sign if the channel is in the database but without XMLTV ID,
 or inserting new channels (that don't exist in your database).  So, since
 providers normally just add new channels to your lineup or shuffle around
 channels within your lineup, you can take advantage of the safe-update
 behavior of mythfilldatabase by deleting the xmltvid from (only) channels
 that are being changed or (use the messier option of) deleting channels
 and letting mythfilldatabase add the new ones--and doing so never requires
 using --do-channel-updates.

 (Note, also, that mythfilldatabase is designed to fill the database with
 program listings, not to pick up changes to the channel list.  Using it as
 a tool to do channel maintenance--anything other than initial population
 of channels for unscannable interfaces--is going beyond its design
 purposes, and the results of doing so are your problem to deal with.  If
 someone wants a good "compare channels in the database with those in my
 listings" tool, they can create one--ideally an interactive one--as an
 external tool, for example, a script using the Python bindings.  Making
 unsafe changes to channels without user interaction (or explicit user
 permission) is a bad idea, which is why it is only done when the user says
 to with mythfilldatabase --do-channel-updates.  Even if we add a mechanism
 to detect channel changes in the future, users will be required to approve
 the changes before they're made, due to the danger of making these unsafe
 changes automatically.)

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Ticket URL: <http://code.mythtv.org/trac/ticket/11509#comment:11>
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