Upgrading to VLAB 4.0

Quick contents

This page is designated for users which are using older versions of VLAB and now wish to upgrade to VLAB 4.0. The upgrade process looks like this:

Install VLAB 4.0 in a new location

Choose a directory where you would like to install VLAB 4.0 and proceed with the installation instructions.  Make sure that the installation was successful and you can now run VLAB 4.0. One way to find out is to start browser and then invoke the Help -> About. You should get a window that looks something like this:
 
 

Upgrade your oofs database

 
NOTE:  if you already have hofs database (database of hyperobjects) and have been using hbrowser, you can skip this step.

Upgrading your database means creating a lookup table located in oofs/.dbase file. This is achieved by running builddbase command on your oofs. For example, suppose your oofs location is /home/users/john/vlab/oofs. Then you would invoke the following command:

    builddbase /home/users/john/vlab/oofs

The program will respond with a message of this format:

    Found <n> objects.

where <n> is the number of objects you have in your oofs database.

Move your oofs & hofs databases

By installing VLAB 4.0 you have also installed default oofs and hofs databases. In this step you will be replacing these default databases with your own. Moving will be accomplished in two steps:

Deleting the default oofs and hofs:

To delete the default oofs and hofs databases, type:     cd $VLABROOT
    /bin/rm -rf oofs

Now you can remove your hofs, but only if you have an hofs with which you can replace it:

    /bin/rm -rf hofs

NOTE: be careful when using  /bin/rm -r   as it removes directories recursively.

Copying the new databases:

Now you can copy your old oofs and hofs databases. Invoke the following commands:

    cd /home/users/john/vlab
    tar cf - oofs | ( cd $VLABROOT ; tar xf -)
    tar cf - hofs | ( cd $VLABROOT ; tar xf -)

Now you should be ready to start using VLAB 4.0 with your old databases.


Last updated September 29, 1999 by Pavol Federl