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

[Raymond Wagner]

On 2/3/2014 3:54 PM, Daryl McDonald wrote:
> On Mon, Feb 3, 2014 at 11:15 AM, Michael T. Dean
> <mtdean at thirdcontact.com> wrote:
>> On 02/02/2014 06:00 PM, Mike Perkins wrote:
>>> On 02/02/14 18:23, Raymond Wagner wrote:
>>>> 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!).
>>
>> No, the proper solution, then, is to change the
>> proper-host-name-but-improper-settings profile host name (using
>> http://www.mythtv.org/wiki/Database_Backup_and_Restore#Change_the_hostname_of_a_MythTV_frontend_or_backend
>> ) to some "unused" value (like "garbage" or "oops" or whatever), then change
>> the wrong-host-name-but-proper-settings profile host name to the proper host
>> name using the same approach.
>>
>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>> Eventually it will be there-, but as part of a change to the whole profile
>> mechanism that will also stop using host names as the *default* value for
>> the profile identifier.  The host name of a MythTV system is completely
>> irrelevant.  However, we need /some/ name for the profile, and years ago
>> someone decided to use host name as a default.
>>
>> Note, too, that the host name is only the *default* name used for the
>> profile.  Users should probably--because of the problems they have keeping
>> host names consistent/constant over time--specify the profile name they want
>> when first configuring the backend settings (by specifying a name for
>> "Custom identifier") or as a LocalHostName override in their config.xml.  If
>> you do, you can change your host name all you like, and as long as you have
>> users running MythTV applications properly configured (with a valid
>> config.xml, as created when you configured backend settings and specified a
>> "Custom identifier"), all will work.
> So is there a way to go into an existing combined FE/BE setup and
> change the default, hostname dependent, profile and create a custom
> identifier?

The profile name is defined by the config.xml, and the location of the 
config.xml is defined by the $HOME and $MYTHCONFDIR environmental 
variables.  If you want to run multiple profiles on a single machine, or 
split the frontend from the backend, create a new config.xml with the 
new profile name, and manipulate your environment to get MythTV to read 
that new file.