[Refdb-users] ANN: refdb-0.9.7-pre7 released

[Markus H. <mar...@mh...>]

Hi,

I've just uploaded refdb-0.9.7-pre7, which you can download using this
link:

http://refdb.sourceforge.net/pre/refdb-latest.tar.gz

The binaries are essentially the same as in pre6. The reason for this
prerelease is an experimental first version of an interactive setup
script. We've had discussions lately about the poblems of users who
somehow miss the fact that there is something else to do after running
"make install". I've changed the trailing output of ./configure which
now displays a list of things to do:

echo "What you should do next"
echo "- run \"make\" to build RefDB."
echo "- run \"make install\" as root to install everything."
echo "- create the main database and the configuration files. Either run the"
echo "  refdb-init.sh shell script as root, or peruse the handbook if you"
echo "  prefer a manual installation."

Said script is the main new code in pre7. To cite from the docs:

    * Creates the main database refdb for the selected database engine. If a copy of the main database already exists, it asks for permission to delete this database before proceeding.
    * Creates a configuration file for refdbd(1), the RefDB application server. If the file already exists, it will keep a copy of this version.
    * Creates a configuration file for refdba(1), the RefDB administrative client, in the current login account. If the file already exists, it will keep a copy of this version.
    * Starts refdbd, the RefDB application server
    * Loads the bibliography and citation styles shipped with RefDB
    * Creates a reference database
    * Creates a database user with permissions to work with the reference database

Some of the steps can be skipped. The script currently does not handle
loss-free system upgrades, i.e. you're still responsible to backup and
restore any data that you'd like to keep if upgrading involves
creating new databases. The main purpose is to get the first-time
admin up and running.

I'd ask everyone with a bit spare time to test-drive the setup
script. The easiest way is to use the script to set up refdb for a
database engine which you do not currently use for RefDB. E.g. if you
use MySQL as a backend, you could use the script to set up RefDB for
sqlite (this is a very small download if you don't run it anyway). The
setup script keeps backups of the config files it touches (refdbdrc
and refdbarc) so it should be easy to revert the system to the
previous state.

I'm aware that you can kill an existing installation if the script
fails for some reason. Although I'd like to encourage as many users as
possible to run this test, please don't if you're not sure you can
revert to the previous state by hand. In any case, the script won't
delete reference data under any circumstances.

As a consequence of the new script, a few minor adjustments were
necessary:

- the refdbdrc.example template is gone. It was replaced by four
  templates called refdbdrc.<engine>.example which are preconfigured
  for the supported database engines. This should make it easier for
  package builders as well as for end-users as you can just copy or
  symlink one of the files based on the package user's engine choice.

- the --with-db-engine configure switch is therefore obsolete and was
  removed


regards,
Markus

-- 
Markus Hoenicka
mar...@ca...
(Spam-protected email: replace the quadrupeds with "mhoenicka")
http://www.mhoenicka.de