[mythtv-users] Is there an approved may to remove frontend settings?

[Mike Perkins]

On 02/02/14 18:23, Raymond Wagner wrote:
> On 2/2/2014 12:09 PM, Mike Perkins wrote:
>> On 02/02/14 16:19, Raymond Wagner wrote:
>>> On 2/2/2014 7:18 AM, Anthony Giggins wrote:
>>>> is there an approved way to remove old frontend hostnames from the
>>>> database?
>>>
>>> Is there a reason to do so? All those old machine profiles are
>>> consuming a
>>> trivial amount of space compared to the seek tables and guide data.
>>> The only
>>> harm in keeping them around that I know of is the remote control in
>>> Mythweb that
>>> attempts to connect to each frontend control socket you have defined
>>> in the
>>> database.
>>>
>> Whenever this question is asked, the answer is always in terms of the
>> space used. That is almost always /never/ why the question is asked.
>> More like, it is an attempt by the user to clean out the table(s) so
>> that fault finding becomes less of an exercise in hacking one's way
>> through a jungle.
>
> The point is that the user shouldn't be fiddling in the database to find it
> "unclean" except in the case of development, which would more appropriately
> belong on the -dev list.
>
Perhaps. But when a simple OS upgrade suddenly causes all your mythtv settings 
to disappear then investigation is required. That's when you find that 
'hostname' has suddenly become 'hostname.example.com' and mythtv-setup is asking 
you to remember all those settings you tuned over so many years (and forgotten!).

Of course, when you fix that, the 'new' settings stay in the database until the 
next time you do an upgrade and something else moves... now you have /two/ sets 
of settings with little clue which is the correct one.

I'm not suggesting that users deliberately fiddle with the database. What I'm 
suggesting is that with all the cruft that builds up for the above reasons and 
others, fault finding becomes that much more difficult. A mechanism for clearing 
out the dead wood would be useful.

-- 

Mike Perkins