How to remove successfully installed mods?

Want to share what MODs you've gotten to work with EM? Happy about all the time your're saving? Want to say "thanks"? Here's the place.
Forum rules
DO NOT give out any FTP passwords to anyone! There is no reason to do so! If you need help badly enough, create a temporary FTP account that is restricted to only the files that you need help with and give the information for that. Giving out FTP information can be very dangerous!
Locked
~Sentinel~
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:02 am

How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by ~Sentinel~ »

I have EM and I love it and I used to install a few mods. Everything went well and you guys are the best. Everything is working perfectly.

My question is this. After successfully installing a few mods there are the old folders left over in the mods directory. Can I get rid of these? I have no intention of ever deleting or uninstalling these mods and they are working fine.

What is the best way to get rid of this clutter? These folders and backups that EM created?

niksa
Registered User
Posts: 88
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:32 pm

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by niksa »

I usually download them to my computer, for just-in-case backups. You know, if there's a bug somewhere that you need to trace, or if you have to uninstall those mods later due to security issues (it happens!) So download them first, then remove them. I do that if I start running low on space for my forums anyway.

~Sentinel~
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:02 am

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by ~Sentinel~ »

Oh. So then there is no process or button to hit? All I have to do is to download the folders containing the mods done to my PC and then just delete those folders on the server?

That sounds easy. I thought I would have to go in to the EM history and click "delete old back ups of old mods already done" or something like that.

niksa
Registered User
Posts: 88
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:32 pm

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by niksa »

No if you go to EM History & do "delete old backups" then it doesn't remove the WHOLE thing from the /mods/ folder, just the backups. And then it will show up as a possible mod to install in the future when you go to EM Install.

~Sentinel~
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:02 am

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by ~Sentinel~ »

I don't see anywhere where it says "delete old backups".

If you go in to the mod history section and click details for a mod that has been done, then there is a drop down box that says "delete mod record". I don't what that means.

I assume that what you are saying is that if you click on "delete mod record" it will delete the backup and leave the folder the way it was when you first uploaded it. It will not remove or uninstall the mod. Am I right? If so then that mod folder will show up as a new mod available to be installed, right?

So you are saying that they best way to do it is to simply copy those mod folders to your HD (or back up) and then it is safe to delete the entire folder. Am I right?

niksa
Registered User
Posts: 88
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:32 pm

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by niksa »

Right, it says "Delete MOD Record" - I didn't check the exact wording..

Say you install MOD X, and you "delete MOD record", it removes EM's "MOD X was installed on such and such date" from its database. So "MOD X" will no longer appear in the EM History. But it will NOT remove the actual files from your forum's /admin/mods/ directory.

It leaves the backups there, but you can select to install the file again in EM Install, because it doesn't recognize that MOD as being already installed (since it's no longer in the database.) It's not a big deal because you can just manually delete it with FTP.

When you delete MOD record, it gives you this result:
The selected MOD Record has been removed from the database.


WARNING: To fully remove this MOD from your system, you must delete the following directory:

../admin/mods/MOD X/
You don't HAVE to copy the files to your computer first, but if I were you, I would... just in case something horrible happens, you know you have those backups somewhere.

In any case, download the old MOD files ( /admin/mods/MOD X/ ) if you want to keep them as a backup, then just delete them.

You don't have to remove the MOD record, because it just records that "MOD X was installed on this time" in your database. That way it stays in your MOD History. It doesn't hurt anything to leave it, it's better for bookkeeping to leave it. But that's up to you. :)

User avatar
Nux
Registered User
Posts: 943
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2005 5:09 pm
Location: 3cities, Poland
Contact:

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by Nux »

I'll just say that to be sure you understand - you probably don't want to "delete the MOD record" because it will delete information about the MOD from the database and this information might be handy in some future for solving problems with your board - it's always a good idea to give a list of MODs to the support.

~Sentinel~
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:02 am

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by ~Sentinel~ »

Excellent info. I understand it fully now. Thanks guys!

~Sentinel~
Registered User
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Feb 28, 2006 1:02 am

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by ~Sentinel~ »

Nux wrote: I'll just say that to be sure you understand - you probably don't want to "delete the MOD record" because it will delete information about the MOD from the database and this information might be handy in some future for solving problems with your board - it's always a good idea to give a list of MODs to the support.
This statement made me think of a new question.

When you say "it will delete information about the MOD from the database" what exactly do you mean by that? Are you saying that it will make the MOD harder to remove if at some point in the future you want to remove the MOD by restoring a backup?

Or do you mean that EM keeps a database entry of all the mods that have been done so that when it installs another new mod it knows what files have already been altered so that if some line of code has been changed and the new mod is looking for it where it should be and EM knows it has been changed, then EM will find it where it is now? And if you remove this mod from the database then EM will not have any reference of what lines of code have already been altered?

Or am I reading in to this comment to much?

niksa
Registered User
Posts: 88
Joined: Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:32 pm

Re: How to remove successfully installed mods?

Post by niksa »

When EM installs a MOD, EM will record what files were altered, when they were changed, and what commands were executed on those files.

So say later on you find out that you have a weird bug in one file, for example, posting.php, and you're not sure where it could be. Currently, you can go to EM history and select "posting.php" from the drop-down to see which MODs changed that file. This is a major help when tracking bugs. If you remove the MOD record from the DB, then it won't show that MOD as having changed that file, and sometimes, even if that MOD works perfectly, it can affect how other MODs play together.

If you look in your mods/MOD X/backups files, you'll see stuff like: postings.php.txt- these are your actual backup files. If you want to manually restore, you just rename the files to .php and not .php.txt and then upload & overwrite. But that can alter modifications made between MOD X and MOD Y.

:arrow: Say you install MOD X first and it alters: postings.php and bbcode.php files.
:arrow: Next, say you install MOD Y second and it alters postings.phpbut NOTbbcode.php.
:arrow: Then lastly you install MOD Z and it alters noneof those files.

If you restore MOD X from EM History using the MOD DB record, it will automatically restore postings.php and bbcode.phpfrom MOD Y's backups (which you could upload before restoring, they don't have to sit on the server in the meantime). But since MOD Y altered postings.php also, any changes MOD Y made to postings.php would notbe included, and you'd have to go back and (usually) manually add those changes. MOD Z would be ok though, because none of its changed files are being restored.

So what I'm saying is, the hard copies of the backups - that is, the .php.txt files that are in your /mods/MOD X/backups folder, those can be downloaded & stored on your PC or elsewhere until or if you need them. Or you can delete them if you're ballsy. :lol: If you delete the DB entries then you can't automatically restore, you'd have to rename the .php.txt to .php and then upload & overwrite. It's not necessarily hard, just a hassle.

If in doubt, just leave the DB entry, but you can remove the actual files. The DB entries are small and don't take up a ton of space usually. :mrgreen:

Locked