Gossamer Forum
Home : Products : Gossamer Forum : Discussion :

setup.cgi and database.def

Quote Reply
setup.cgi and database.def
Not a urgent question, just a curious one.

In the admin interface, if you click on "Setup" then "Initial Setup" on the left hand menu, it will take you through the entire set up process again, and in doing that, wipe out any information that you might have, including deleting database.def in the def folder.

Well, the first time I went through it, it works. Gossamer forum went down because there's no connection information. And when I go to admin.cgi, it takes me right back to setup.cgi. Everything is what I expected it to be.

Second time I went through the initial setup, it took me back to setup.cgi, but my Gossamer Forum is still up and functional, and I could still connect to the database. database.def file was not deleted like I have anticipated.

Any Comments/explanation/speculation?
Is this how it is suppose to behave? Is it suppose to keep the database.def or not?

Connie
Quote Reply
Re: [theFirst] setup.cgi and database.def In reply to
Yes, it is normal behaviour to overwrite the database.def file, but not until the stage where you enter the SQL information again - in which case it will be recreated almost immediately.

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
Quote Reply
Re: [Jagerman] setup.cgi and database.def In reply to
Then I believe my BBS is not behaving as it should be.

I would click on Initial-Setup. And it would take me to setup.cgi (so at this point, I have yet to re-enter the SQL information), and I would stop right there.

Then I would go to my bulletin board, and it is still running. I would check the files, and database.def is still there as well.

Any clue as to why this is happening?

Connie
Quote Reply
Re: [theFirst] setup.cgi and database.def In reply to
When you click "Initial Setup", you are taken to the "Redo Setup" screen. When you click the proceed link, it simply sets a flag in the config file to indicate that Gossamer Forum is not yet setup. It is not until you submit the "Gossamer Forum Setup - SQL Information" page that setup.cgi attempts to delete the database.def file.

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
Quote Reply
Re: [Jagerman] setup.cgi and database.def In reply to
Thanks for explaning that, that makes it clear.

However, the first time I did a Initial-setup, I would click on the proceed link. And after it has refered me to the setup.cgi. I would then stop here, and check my bulletin Board, it would give me a SQL.pm error.

I have another colleague of mine that botched up the forum that I setup by clicking on Initial-setup and the proceed link. He doesn't have the connection information so he could not have been able to enter any information on the "Gossamer Forum Setup - SQL Information" page.

Is that a bug then? Should the forums be working even after you have clicked on the proceed link?

Connie
Quote Reply
Re: [theFirst] setup.cgi and database.def In reply to
Probably not - I'm tempted to do away entirely with an "Initial Setup" type feature in the future as this is not the first case where people have gone through the Initial Setup without their SQL data - and effectively locked themselves out of the admin panel.

Jason Rhinelander
Gossamer Threads
jason@gossamer-threads.com
Quote Reply
Re: [Jagerman] setup.cgi and database.def In reply to
I think this Initial-setup stuff is actually wonderful. It lets me completely re-do stuff without screwing around with the data in the back end.

I have to agree that the feature probably shouldn't lock people out of the admin panel, but that is a problem that is easily remedied.

I think what is probably more important to implment is the admin login...