I went to watch to some recorded TV the other day and found about 1/2 to 3/4 of my recordings are missing. I instantly brought up an xterm and df'ed to find that my disks were still at about the same level of fullness so I don't think that they are really gone. It seemed to select the missing recordings at random (ie. it didn't go a deletion binge because it would have deleted from lowest priority first).

What should I do? Can I rebuild the database. Do you guys need to see any logs? Also does rebuilding the database mess up my previously recorded list?


I have a working knowledge of linux/knoppmyth but if you need me to do anything fancy please pretend that I am a newb.



Thanks in advance.

BTW. I did search the forums for something similar but couldn't find anything that really did anything like this. If I missed it I'm sorry in advance.

When I had managed to mess up my Myth machine a few months or so ago, I ended up with orphaned recordings which by that means they are still intact on the hard drive but no longer in the database.

This, from what you have said is the problem you have ended up with... though the cause is is not as apparent.

I would try and track down what happened to your missing recordings in the log files. Have you a problem with Myth that is likely to reoccur if it isn't tracked down? Or is it a Phantom deleter (think child, cat on remote, wife/girlfriend/significant other?)

Anyhow...to repopulate your database use this command from the command line as root.



You will need to supply details of each recording. You can add a title, subtitle, catagory and if so inclined a description (if I remember rightly.)

Good luck!

Can we safely assume that running that command will affect only the orphaned files in /myth/tv and won't affect the details of any non-orphaned recordings?

Prior to running this command, I suppose it's necessary to figure out what is in each file and have that written down? I'm assuming that the files in Mythtv's channel_datetime format don't have any metadata, so you have to play each file and write down what it is before running the script to enter data to populate the database?

Do I have it right?

Tophee - Thanks for the help. It could be a deeper rooted problem because my box has been acting exceptionally funny lately. I originally thought it was an accident but now I wonder....

chakobsa - Good question. Can anyone help us out here?

It only asks for details of the unknown/orphaned recordings So no worries about existing entries in the database (it will recognise them and move on).
Myth provides date and time of original recording but as you are doing it from a command line prior to seeing the recording you are doing it blind.
I searched the internet to get listings when the time/date info was given and tired to work out what I might have recorded.
I ended up with a few guesses and just called them unknown, unknown 1, unknown 2 etc.
Bit of a pain... but at least you can get the recordings back

The other options I was given when I stuffed up my database were these (and I don't know how relevent they are for you) but have a look here at the thread I started: http://mysettopbox.tv/phpBB2/viewtopic. ... highlight=

Might be something simple and not as drastic as the myth.rebuilddatabase.pl

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Hi digipsythe,

I was bit once by the auto expire tool, feels a little like hitting your thumb with a hammer

What happened to me was I had been doing the recordings not really paying attention to the auto expire check box. Once the drive filled up, it did what it was suppose to do, clean house and started removing those that were marked auto expire.

Also if you are using R5B7, check for /myth/tv/*.nuv files. They can be safely removed but will return unless you fix the mythlink.sh script.

Mike

you say the .nuv files can safely be removed, does that mean ALL of them?

Ie, can I delete *.nuv ?

I thought one nuv file was required for each .mpg?

Is there a script to remove the spare nuv files if you do need to keep some?

Only remove the .nuv files that are links to .mpg files. Any .nuv file that is larger then one block size is a real recording.

Hi,

If I recall corretly, you should be able to do a list, ls -al /myth/pretty and that will show which ones are still valid. Those are the ones you don't want to remove.

You can edit the /usr/local/bin/mythlink.sh script to disable the parts that generates those little files ( I posted it not long ago) as this only occurs in the B7 when it went to the .mpg.

The script is doing it's job of trying to keep things in sync with the db, just the rules it played by have changed.

Mike

nano -w /usr/local/bin/mythlink.sh
#print "Creating missing file $mythpath/$ofn\n";
#open ($dfile,">$mythpath/$ofn") || die("Could not open txt file. $!");
#print $dfile "Creating dummy file for $title $subtitle \l";
#close ($dfile);
# next;

There is a script included in R5C7 to clean orpahned NUV link fles. Look at the technique it uses...

NOOOOO.

It depends how old some of your recordings are. If you upgraded an earlier version of KnoppMyth, some of those old recordings may have the 1002_20051011193000_20051011203000.nuv format.

Check the size of the files.

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| Nigel Pearson, nigel.pearson.au@gmail.com
| "Things you own end up owning you" - Tyler, Fight Club