Sometime last week, my blog’s Berkely db files for comments became corrupt. The symptom was that visitors could not see the text of comments.
A quick flick through the Moveable Type support forums confirmed that Berkeley db corruption is a common problem, and that it often affects comments. I suspect this bug surfaces when two people attempt to modify a Berkeley db file concurrently, though it may also be something obscure inside Moveable Type too.
To cut a long story short, I decided to ditch Berkely db and use MySQL instead. The upgrade (instructions) was painless, taking 15 minutes in total. My web host already had MySQL installed, so the biggest trick was figuring out that the mt-db2sql.cgi script wasn’t in the 2.63-Full version of Moveable Type, and I had to download 2.64-Upgrade.
I managed to save just 26 of 122 comments. I am annoyed at losing thoughtful and humorous remarks from people that I know only online—Simon and Mats particularly come to mind.
In other news, the post that you are reading is this blog’s 100th. I was going to write a navel gazing piece about the wonders of blogging— how it has put me in touch with other technical folk around the world, educated me about new programming techniques, improved my writing skills and generally been a force for the greater common good. Instead, I offer my blog this thought:
“Happy 100, Cardboard Nu. Now don’t stuff up again, or I’m rebraining you with bloxsom.”
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