[mythtv-users] WAF through the floor, with lost database!

[Paul Gardiner]

On 31/12/2013 03:39, Michael T. Dean wrote:
> On 12/30/2013 07:34 PM, Paul Gardiner wrote:
>> tortise wrote:
>>> On 31/12/2013 12:00 p.m., Paul Gardiner wrote:
>>>> So the dreaded disaster has happened, so now how can I populate
>>>> mythtv's recordings from all the orphaned files I have. I realise
>>>> the best I can probably do is make names from channel, date and
>>>> time, but what tables would I need to update to do so? I'm guessing
>>>> there are some risks involved if you don't ensure consistency
>>>> between the various tables.
>>>>
>>>> Also, given that I have another separate mythtv system that has
>>>> been running mythfilldatabase relentlessly for years,
>>>> is there any way I might turn channels, dates and times back into
>>>> titles? I'd imagine that past listing info is forgotten, but
>>>> I've never looked so, just wondering.
>>> Did you put your database backups on a data drive??? (!)
>>
>> I did, but that wasn't the problem. Somehow mythconverg_backup
>> generated a less than 1k file containing just a few headers, with no
>> actual data, and I noticed only when I came to restore. :-(
>
> If mythconverg_backup.pl was running against an empty database, it would
> do that--and doing that would not result in an error, so it would also
> rotate backups.  If, instead, there were an error reported by mysqldump,
> mythconverg_backup.pl does not rotate backups (attempting to ensure you
> don't delete valid backups to "make room for" a broken/invalid backup).
> So definitely look for other backup files, as Mark suggested.
>
> When you originally set up mythconverg_backup.pl, did you verify it was
> working at that time?  If so, I can't see how it would stop working
> /and/ delete existing/good backups.  So, if you don't have any valid
> backups, about the only thing I could imagine is the backup script's
> being run against an empty database as you're cleaning up the
> mess/fixing the system, and running enough times that it rotates out the
> good backup files. ???

No, I at no time verified it was working. This was a system that wasn't
usually being backed up. I backed up the database just before an OS
upgrade that involved reformatting /.  I ran mythconverg_backup twice,
once that explicitly failed because of backuprc not being present,
and then again that seemingly worked.

Paul.