[Server-devel] Moodle administration

[Tarun Pondicherry]

Hi Tony,

I think git pull merges in the files that have changed.  It is not 
usually used as a one time thing.  The changed files on the server 
(config etc.) will be newer on the server, so it should not clobber 
anything.  But, I am new to git, so it is safer to create a test 
directory.  I will also eventually need a place to reinstall Moodle a 
few times to make sure the install scripts work as well.  If we create a 
separate db for it the prefixes, etc. we should be safe.

For now, I will try git pulling into my home dir and copying and pasting 
things in.  I think we will have to do one more Moodle install before 
going for beta, since I have to make a change in the add user script.  
I'll try to preserve our list and reload it when done.  Aside from the 
users, is there anything else we would lose that I should back up?  Does 
the install go smoothly from a server point of view (only issues are 
with moodle scripts)?

I also need to change tables in the db for updates versions, if we don't 
do a fresh install.  Is there any db management software installed on 
the server?

Thanks,
Tarun

Tony Pearson wrote:
> Tarun,
> I already did the "git clone" and "git pull" for you.  I was in 
> "var/www/html" when I did it, and it created the EduBlog directory and 
> an EduBlog/.git subdirectory.  These are one-time operations.  I am 
> not familiar with git, but it would seem to me that to do another "git 
> pull" would mean have to erase the entire directory structure under 
> /var/www/html and do the installation all over.  Unless you want to 
> clobber the existing installation, I suggest that all updates now must 
> be made live on the EduBlog beta server.
>
> One alternative might be for you to perform a second "git clone" on 
> your local /home/tarun directory, do a git pull there, and then hand 
> selectively move files into the /var/www/html/EduBlog directories 
> where appropriate.  Remember to properly set all the ownerships to 
> 'apache:nobody' and the "read-only" settings on the various files.
>
> If you like, we can leave the current "EduBlog" directory as 
> "production" and create a new subdirectory 'test' for new work that is 
> used prior to merging into production.  This way you can try out your 
> changes with http://edublog.venango.org/test/moodle instead of 
> .../EduBlog/moodle.  We would also need to set up a new 
> /var/www/test/moodledata for test, as we would not want changes to the 
> test data impacting the production system.  We could also change 
> "mdl_" prefix to "test_" so that we can ensure the two databases do 
> not interact.