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Is the backup request already built-in?

Added by Sylvio Egal over 6 years ago

Hello.

As of today I am a proud user of tvheadend 4.2 (Ubuntu 18.04). Everything works and I am really happy.
BUT especially the channel mapping took a lot of time (DVB-S found about 1500 services).

What I dont understand is, why isnt there a simple way to export e.g. the channels? There was a request for this feature which I am not sure, if it is rejected or if its already built-in [[https://tvheadend.org/issues/2454]]

I think import and export of settings is extremely important. I dont want to do everything from scratch if something goes wrong :(
There is a folder in /usr/share/tvheadend and in /home/hts. Is there everything to restore the whole tvh installtion?


Replies (10)

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Robert Cameron over 6 years ago

When you stop/shutdown Tvheadend, its configuration is written to disk. (And when you start it, its configuration is read from disk ...)

By default, these settings are written to the .hts/tvheadend/ directory belonging to the user that Tvheadend runs as. Inside that directory you will find several subdirectories containing the settings:
  • accesscontrol – These are the user/access settings
  • backup – When you start a new version of Tvheadend, the old settings are saved into a compressed tar archive and placed into this directory
  • bouquet – This is where the bouquets are stored
  • channel – These are your channels (not to be confused with services)
  • dvr – These are the DVR settings and logs (including previously recorded programs)
  • epggrab – You EPG grabber settings
  • imagecache – If you are using the imagecache feature, the images are stored here
  • input – This holds the configuration for your networks, muxes and services; also, the settings for you hardware adapters are in there as well
  • passwd – This is the password information for users in the accesscontrol directory
  • profile – These are your profiles: that includes streaming, recording and individual stream profiles
  • timeshift – Timeshift settings

You can selectively copy out the directories with the information you want to backup, but I would recommend doing it while Tvheadend is not running: that way all of your settings and changes will be written to disk and be saved, waiting for you to archive them.

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Sylvio Egal over 6 years ago

That sounds good. But now I have to ask a dumb question : How do I stop tvheadend in Ubuntu?

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Robert Cameron over 6 years ago

The same way you started it: sudo systemctl stop tvheadend

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Sylvio Egal over 6 years ago

Thank you very much. But I think the most important folder is missing in .hts >the backup folder. It looks like this:

!!

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Robert Cameron over 6 years ago

Sylvio Egal wrote:

Thank you very much. But I think the most important folder is missing in .hts >the backup folder. It looks like this:

!!

If you haven't upgraded Tvheadend, there won't be a backup folder. Backups are only created when you start Tvheadend and it detects a configuration folder layout from an earlier version. If you haven't upgraded, then there's no need for a backup.

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Sylvio Egal over 6 years ago

OK.
And if I would install another distribution and copy the .hts folder to the same place, tvh would be the same as before, with all my settings and channels?

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Robert Cameron over 6 years ago

Sylvio Egal wrote:

OK.
And if I would install another distribution and copy the .hts folder to the same place, tvh would be the same as before, with all my settings and channels?

Essentially, yes. I have done this numerous times. However, you may want to remove the folders relating to some settings that are different. (For example, if your physical tuning hardware changes, you may want to remove the folder relating to that specific hardware from the input/ folder.)

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Martin Klayer over 2 years ago

is this really a feasible solution?
tvheadend development is not maintaining a stable version anymore.
So for up to date linux distributions e.g. Debian bullseye you can only use unstable which will often change.

So if you are using unstable repro to install tvheadend and then restore the files mentioned above, it is very likely that the files are not compatible because they have been created with a different tvheadend build.

Please correct me, if am wrong.

RE: Is the backup request already built-in? - Added by Hiro Protagonist over 2 years ago

Martin Klayer wrote:

is this really a feasible solution?

So if you are using unstable repro to install tvheadend and then restore the files mentioned above, it is very likely that the files are not compatible because they have been created with a different tvheadend build.

I have done this and it works. TVHeadend will read the older config files & update to the newer format when required.

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