[mythtv-users] help using myth.find_orphans.pl

[Brad DerManouelian]

On Oct 10, 2008, at 9:13 PM, scram69 wrote:

> Following some nasty file system corruption, I ended up with a large
> number of recordings files missing from my recordings directory.
> Since they are still listed in the database, I can't delete the
> database records with either the front end or mythweb.

That's an old bug that has long since been fixed. The appropriate way  
to delete them is through the frontend.

> Trying to use myth.find_orphans.pl, I get "ERROR: no directory found
> or specified".  If I use the --dir= option to specify my directory,
> the script lists every recording as an "unknown file", and tells me I
> have "0 valid recordings".  Is there a way to use the script to
> identify and delete db records for which there is no corresponding
> file?

Looks like you're having a problem reading the correct info from the  
database - maybe an old version of myth.find_orphans.pl with a newer  
version of mythtv?

> Incidentally, I noted that if I had used the --dir= option together
> with the --dodelete option to remove "orphaned" files, I would have
> inadvertently deleted all my recordings!

That's why --dodelete needs to be explicitly called.
That's also why you should never used a script that directly makes  
changes to your database without first backing up your database.
That's also why all perl scripts should be updated to use the mythtv  
perl bindings, but I'm not volunteering to do the works. ;)

-Brad