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PMMail: 2.00.xx to 3.22 migration...what to do?

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Dariusz Piatkowski:
Alright, as the subject says, are there any known "problem spots" and/or preferred steps in attempting this?

My current 2.00.1500 install is ages old...about 1.8 Gig in total disk space, 3 accounts, the big one (mine) about 10k msgs in the SENT folder alone). Lots of different built-in filters (SPAM and various folder sorting), some stuff in the address books, etc, etc.

Sooo...I do not have 3.22 installed yet, but it will be done through the WarpIn package. The current version was a ZIP based install, so if I understood what I had read about this so far I should not try installing OVER the current install. Not sure yet what the migration process is like, is it done during the install, or is this a separate process altogether?

I would appreciate any & all hints and suggestions you can make. My intent is to migrate as much of my current emailstore as possible.

Doug Bissett:
First BACK UP what you have, just in case something goes wrong (and it could, simply because the version you are using is very old).

You may want to join the mail list. See http://www.os2voice.org/mailinglists.html. That is the best place to ask questions, and find answers to problems, but you need a working mail program to use it.

Next, be sure to READ the information that is presented by the installer, and it would probably be a good idea to look through the FAQ http://pmmail.os2voice.org/index.php?title=PMMail_FAQ. Setting up secure server support is explained in the FAQ, in a different way than it is in the Help. Some people find one, or the other, to be confusing, but they usually figure it out by using both.

I would suggest that you think about reducing the number of messages in the primary folders (Inbox, Sent, and any that you filter messages to). I usually put old messages into sub folders, by year, or month, depending on the amount of activity. Sub folders of the Sent folder take on the characteristics of the Sent folder. You will get much better performance by doing that, and migration will probably be better too.

Then, Re-Index the important folders, to be sure that they don't have surprises in them. The new PMMail can Re-Index whole accounts, but the old one can't (I assume that your version can do folders, but it may not).

Okay, now that you have done some preparation, try it. It will ask for a new location, and basically copy all of your mail etc. to the new location (it is a new directory structure, and some files are modified to match), so be sure that you have enough space. The old PMMail will remain operational, until you decide that the new one is working. Again, READ the instructions, and remember that any mail that you SEND with one, will not be in the other. The new accounts are set to NOT delete mail from the POP server, until you set it to do so, so Incoming mail can end up in both places, as long as you process it with the new program first. If something goes wrong, you can ask what to do about it, and, worst case, erase what was done, and start over.

Another thing, is that the "Migration Tool" is badly named. It does the migration, but it also does a couple of other things, like make PMMail the default mail program, and remove the old PMMail (it actually ZIPs it up), when you select those options. It should never try to do a new migration, when the source is the new PMMail, However, if you don't have a standard setup, odd things can happen. Please ASK what to do if something goes wrong.

Oh yeah, the new spell checker needs to have the appropriate files beside the main installer, when you do the install. Page down on the PMMail home page to get the ASpell packages that you need. They are used by the main installer.

Be especially careful with existing filters. Some fairly serious problems were fixed, and that means that some filters now actually do what they are supposed to do. A few people got caught using incorrect filter operation, which now doesn't do what it did before.

You mention SPAM. PMMail now uses the BogoFilter program, so you will probably want to use that, and get rid of your own SPAM filters. I guarantee that BogoFilter will do a better job, after you properly train it (usually takes a few days, but it is not difficult to do).

That should cover most of it, but I may have forgotten something. Try it, and see what happens.

Dariusz Piatkowski:
Hi Doug!

Wow man, Thank You, that is a massive write-up and I appreciate ever single part of it.

Alright, let me focus on some key points as I need a little clarification.


--- Quote from: Doug Bissett on October 13, 2017, 08:30:23 am ---...I would suggest that you think about reducing the number of messages in the primary folders (Inbox, Sent, and any that you filter messages to). I usually put old messages into sub folders, by year, or month, depending on the amount of activity. Sub folders of the Sent folder take on the characteristics of the Sent folder. You will get much better performance by doing that, and migration will probably be better too...

--- End quote ---

Are you suggesting that I put NEW child folders into the account specific default SENT parent folder? I thought of doing this before but I always assumed that it was a bad idea to mess with this folder. It certainly makes a lot of sense, and for starters I would be able to do a search in the SENT folders, which today causes my PMMail to simply crash.


--- Quote from: Doug Bissett on October 13, 2017, 08:30:23 am ---...Okay, now that you have done some preparation, try it. It will ask for a new location, and basically copy all of your mail etc. to the new location (it is a new directory structure, and some files are modified to match), so be sure that you have enough space....
--- End quote ---

OK, so a specific issue I have is that I only have about 1.5Gig left on my application drive (also happens to be my boot drive, but that's the legacy of the original install I did). So the option I have is to move my current pmmail directory structure to a different drive, where I have a bunch of space, wipe it off of my boot drive and then do the WarpIn based install. Will the installer itself attempt to migrate the old PMMail stuff during the install, or is this a separate process one does later once the NEW PMMail install is completed?

The 2nd question is: does the migration tool/process simply need to find a disk directory structure of the old PMMail, or is it looking for some application specific install/config data?

Basically I am wondering if my plan to move the current install to the spare drive has a chance of working?


--- Quote from: Doug Bissett on October 13, 2017, 08:30:23 am ---...Be especially careful with existing filters. Some fairly serious problems were fixed, and that means that some filters now actually do what they are supposed to do. A few people got caught using incorrect filter operation, which now doesn't do what it did before....
--- End quote ---

Alright, good point. The filters issue is that they are not complex, but rather I have a whole pile of them, so just a sheer volume. But OK, good to know, I had intended to review all of them one-by-one and possibly get rid of some of them to clean things up a tad.

Thanks again!

Dariusz Piatkowski:
Alright, so a quick update.

I did the following:

1) split up the contents of SENT folder into multiple child folders, that got me several with approx 1000-1500 msg each, a lot better than the single massive SENT folder

2) I re-indexed all the current folders, no errors found

3) I shut PMMail down, backed it up as both dir copy and ZIP

4) I installed the NEW application into a separate directory (so no overwrite over the old one) ...and....drumroll...here is where I ran into an issue...

During the install it appears that the new application process completed successfully. I do have the PMMail folder with all icons present. However, during the said install the Migrate tool was automatically kicked-off. I pointed it to the old PMMail install and told it to COPY stuff, do not delete the old one.

It is during this processing that I am getting an error message, see attachment for a screenshot of the error itself and some variable values in the inspection window.

Specifically, what I am wondering is whether the Migration tool crashes because it's attempting to copy a file which in the NEW install is currently 0 (zero) bytes. After all, it gave me an option to Migrate during the install, and as such I have not actually ran the new PMMail even once by this point in time.

The specific command that fails is: {"copy "'dst_dir'\Tools\group.db" "'dst_dir'\Tools\group.db.BAK" '}, where: dst_dir = G:\APPS\TCPIP\PMMail3\Accounts, and where the matching contents of that directory are:

Directory of G:\apps\tcpip\pmmail3\accounts\tools

10-13-17   2:10p     31118           0  addr.db
10-13-17   1:29p      3474           0  assoc.db
 3-26-17   5:35p       289           0  books.db
 2-08-11   8:19a        92           0  csetalii-default.db
10-13-17   1:36p         0         124  csetalii.db
10-05-98   2:00a       350           0  DirSvcs.db
 7-18-17   3:56p         0           0  GROUP.DB
        7 file(s)      35323 bytes used

Sooo....I have a half-baked install at the moment, and starting the NEW PMMail produces a good looking account structure, however, with zero messages. To be expected since the migration failed. I can certainly re-do all of this, however, one thought is troubling me: even in my old PMMail install that group.db file is 0 (zero) bytes as well.

Here are the matching entries for this directory in the old install:

Directory of G:\apps\tcpip\pmmail\tools

9-29-17   2:53p     31118           0  ADDR.DB
10-03-17  12:36p      1137           0  ASSOC.DB
 3-26-17   5:35p       289           0  BOOKS.DB
10-05-98   2:00a       350           0  DirSvcs.db
 7-18-17   3:56p         0           0  GROUP.DB
        5 file(s)      32894 bytes used

Given the date/time stamp of the group.db file present in the NEW directory it certianly appears that the Migration process successfully copies it over in the first place, but then fails later on as it attempts to create a backup???

What is stored in that file anyways???

EDIT
====
Also attached the migratePMM.log-20171013-14-58-17, which I believe is the Migration Tool log. Unfortunately I do not see the failure point in there, but that could be just due to a timing issue?

I will try to log a ticket for this issue...

guzzi:
Error 16 - Label not found

Explanation:

A SIGNAL instruction has been executed or an event for which a trap was set with SIGNAL ON has occurred, and the language processor could not find the label specified. You might have mistyped the label or forgotten to include it.

The associated subcodes are:

001

    Label "label_name" not found

Doesn't mean much to me.  The fact that the file is 0 bytes might be because you don't have any groups defined? Wouldn't effect a copy operation anyway. Something triggers an error condition in the rexx script. A bug report is a good idea, and drop it in the mailinglist too.

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