From: va7aqd@VA7AQDS.remove-kmx-this

Howdy all!

Couple of questions about changing message base options along the way:

- Is it dangerous or will anything negative happen if I change the storage method from one type to another?

- When turning on message base compression, is there any way to have Synchro compress everything in the message base that's already there? I'm not sure if this is something that would be handled automatically, but I don't see a directly relevant option
in smbutil.

Thanks!

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From: va7aqd@VA7AQDS.remove-qz9-this

To: Digital Man
Re: Changing message base options
By: Digital Man to Va7aqd on Sat Jun 01 2019 02:11 pm

You can't go from Hyper-allocation to another storage method without

deleting the message base data files. From the SCFG F1 help

screen:

OK - I have found that some have been created with Fast Allocation for some reason (I think on the default/stock setup they were all Hyper Allocation), so I'll have to see what the state of them is and possibly just give them a try. Probably not a big
deal to lose some message data currently.

- When turning on message base compression, is there any way to have

Synchro compress everything in the message base that's

already there?

No.
There is no option to compress the messages already stored and frankly, that

feature (LZH compressed message bases) is kind of

obsolete today, not often used, and likely to go away in the future.

Man, that's too bad as I think it's awesome that the feature is even there. Perhaps on most systems the storage space available is going to be larger than any (current) message base storage requirements would ever require... but, the fact that one can
still reduce the storage size by 50%(ish?) just means that even if one had a crazy big BBS, they can store twice as much message base data as someone without the compression option.

Or, did you mean by 'go away' you'd replace it with something that could compress even better? ;-)

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From: digital.man@vert.synchro.net.remove-5ah-this

To: Va7aqd
Re: Changing message base options
By: Va7aqd to All on Sat Jun 01 2019 01:25 pm

Howdy all!

Couple of questions about changing message base options along the way:

- Is it dangerous or will anything negative happen if I change the storage method from one type to another?

You can't go from Hyper-allocation to another storage method without deleting the message base data files. From the SCFG F1 help screen:

Hyper Allocation is the fastest storage method because it does not
maintain allocation files at all. Once a message base is setup to use
this storage method, it should not be changed without first deleting
the message base data files in your data/subs directory for this
sub-board.

And if you try to change from Hyper Allocation to another storage format: É[þ][?]ÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ»
º Delete all messages in this sub-board? º ÌÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍ͹
º ³Yes º
º ³No, I want to use Hyper Allocation º ÈÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍÍͼ

- When turning on message base compression, is there any way to have Synchro compress everything in the message base that's already there?

No.

I'm not sure
if this is something that would be handled automatically, but I don't see a directly relevant option in smbutil.

There is no option to compress the messages already stored and frankly, that feature (LZH compressed message bases) is kind of obsolete today, not often used, and likely to go away in the future.

digital man

Synchronet/BBS Terminology Definition #66:
SSH = Secure Shell
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From: digital.man@vert.synchro.net.remove-r9e-this

To: Va7aqd
Re: Changing message base options
By: Va7aqd to Digital Man on Sat Jun 01 2019 04:14 pm

Re: Changing message base options
By: Digital Man to Va7aqd on Sat Jun 01 2019 02:11 pm

You can't go from Hyper-allocation to another storage method without deleting the message base data files. From the SCFG F1 help
screen:

OK - I have found that some have been created with Fast Allocation for some reason (I think on the default/stock setup they were all Hyper Allocation), so I'll have to see what the state of them is and possibly just give them a try. Probably not a big deal to lose some message data currently.

- When turning on message base compression, is there any way to have Synchro compress everything in the message base that's
already there?

No.
There is no option to compress the messages already stored and frankly, that feature (LZH compressed message bases) is kind of
obsolete today, not often used, and likely to go away in the future.

Man, that's too bad as I think it's awesome that the feature is even there.

It was at the time it was added... or at least, I thought so: http://wiki.synchro.net/_media/museum:ads:1995-08_accept_the_inevitable.png

Perhaps on most systems the storage space available is going to be larger than any (current) message base storage requirements would ever require... but, the fact that one can still reduce the storage size by 50%(ish?) just means that even if one had a crazy big BBS, they can store twice as much message base data as someone without the compression option.

In the era of terabytes, saving kilobytes or even megabytes is just not that big of a deal.

Or, did you mean by 'go away' you'd replace it with something that could compress even better? ;-)

No, I don't think so. I don't think the benefit is worth the risk (to the data)
and hassle. And it wouldn't go away until SMB is replaced or overhauled with something else (e.g. sqlite).

digital man

Synchronet "Real Fact" #5:
Synchronet version 3 for Win32 development began in 1999.
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