FreeLists / arachne / [arachne] Upgrading Arachne (was Re: I found it!!!)

["Udo Kuhnt" <048321887-0001@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Arachne at FreeLists---The Arachne Fan Club!

Hi Greg!

>> What is all this talk about? I said that I have *always* installed new
>> Arachne versions over the old version, and I did not have to re-enter
>> the relevant data; Arachne simply used the existing config files.

> But when changes in the new version are accompanied by new or
> altered items in the new config files, then using the old files
> may PREVENT the new features from working.

That is *exactly* what I want when I upgrade - I want to activate new
features myself, preferably one by one, so I can test them separately.
And until I do this, I want the configuration to stay the same. So I am
very glad that the installer does *not* overwrite my arachne.cfg file.

> Think about it: Why does the Arachne installer save old files in
> the backup directory when new ones are installed?

Because the original developer was too lazy to write a routine to merge
the new options into the old files? ;-)

> Surely that is because it is recognized that the new ones may
> work differently from the old ones, but the old ones may contain
> important stuff that the user may want to incorporate by hand
> into the new versions.

Ah, so files like sign.txt, e-dress.txt and hotlist.htm work differently
in every new version of Arachne! I did not know that. Probably the
purpose is to prevent trouble caused by incompatible links, email
addresses or signatures, that is very clever indeed! ;-D

> I have tried it both ways, and come to the conclusion that it is
> better to load the new version separately, then check out its
> features and work my way slowly into it.

> This requires comparing the old config files almost line by line
> and ammending the new config files where necesary to incorporate
> my custom alterations.

> Or in some case NOT to incorporate them as the new version makes
> them redundant.

You expect trouble, so you get it - that is your problem. I just said
that it is a bad idea to make this appear a *necessary* procedure to
upgrade Arachne. Also, always trying to avoid problems that *might*
occur does not help to make Arachne a better piece of software.
Sometimes it would be better to see if there is actually an obstacle
ahead before going a long way around it.

> Some things may move across "one for one" into the new version,
> but not necessarily everything. Each one needs to be looked at
> individually and carefully to see that some new feature is not
> going to be compromised.

From my experience, this seems to be the exception rather than the rule.
It seems to me that it is a much better way to simply upgrade Arachne
and then see what (if anything) is missing than to deliberately lose all
your settings because you are *afraid* of losing them. ;-)

Regards,

Udo

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